Citralaxy DIPA

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

autiger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Messages
115
Reaction score
5
Location
Chicago
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
2 packets Safale US-05
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.75
Original Gravity
1.092
Final Gravity
1.026
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
112
Color
10.23
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
3-4 weeks
Tasting Notes
No Clue Yet, but should be tasty
I figure for my first all-grain attempt I might as well go big. I took inspiration on the grain bill from a couple of places(BM's Tits Up and Pliny for example). I hope to be brewing this on Sunday. I used brewer's friend to calculate this batch and used a 68% efficiency. Being my first attempt I went low and expect that might be a little high even.

17lbs. of Maris Otter-85%
1lbs. of Crystal 40L-5%
1lbs. of Carapils-5%
1lbs. of Corn Sugar-5%

1oz. Columbus @ 60min
1oz. Columbus @ 45min
1oz. Simcoe @ 15
1oz. Citra @ 10
1oz. Galaxy @ 10

2oz. Citra First DH 5 days
1oz. Simcoe First DH 5 days

3oz. Citra Second DH 7 days
2oz. Galaxy Second DH 7 days

Mash will be 60-90 minutes depending on how the temp is holding. Batch sparge

pitch two packets of Safale US-05 and let sit 3-4 weeks


Let me know what you think. I may take an oz. of Citra and possibly an oz. of the Galaxy away from the second DH and add them to the flavoring at 10min. If you have any ideas on how to get my FG to drop lower and dry this out more, please let me know.
 
Brewed this today according to original recipe. Ending up hitting my batch volume and measured OG was 1.091. Efficiency was somewhere around 67%. That's exactly what I had expected for my first all-grain attempt. I did have one boil-over, but it happened right before I tossed in the first oz. of Columbus.

Brew day is considered a pending success, once fermentation takes off then I will officially label it successful.

Now it's the waiting game for 3-4 weeks and then dry hopping will begin:rockin:
 
Holy crap that is a lot of dry hops. I'm pretty happy with the aroma when I use 3 oz, especially using Citra. Stuff if potent. That's got to smell like you're walking through a hop field. And that sounds awesome.
 
Yeah, I'm shooting for a nasal-gasm. In hindsight, I probably should have added an ounce of citra and galaxy at flameout, but we shall see. There are still a few bubbles in the airlock after 11 days(I know, not always a fermentation indicator), but I'll take a hydrometer reading on day 15 and see where it's at. I suspect I probably won't start the dryhopping until day 21 like planned.
 
bad news, I took a hydrometer reading on day 8 and it was at 1.040, but didn't want to believe it because the cylinder I was using was crushed and it seemed to be stopping the hydrometer from dropping down correctly. I picked up a new hydrometer test tube today and took another reading. Seems that it is stuck at 1.040(6.7%ABV). I am going to take another reading on Monday and see if that is the case. If it truly is stuck then I will rack to secondary and make a starter with the yeast cake to try and pitch that or pick up another packet of yeast. I am thinking that I either re-hydrated the yeast in too warm of water or didn't get enough of it into the fermenter as it had clumped up and stuck to the stainless pot I was using to transfer.
 
well, I was about to take a 3rd reading today, but after trying to rouse the yeast the last couple of days, I decided to move the fermenter upstairs out of the basement and put it in the bathtub with warm/hot water as I am starting to think that I had it too cold for the US-05. I immediately started to see action in the airlock and I am not getting my hopes up that this worked(but fingers crossed), I am going to proceed with making a starter this weekend and will take a hydrometer reading when I gets time to pitch it.
 
this was a fail. I am going to skip the dryhop and possibly toss this out. No point in blowing several 5oz Citra, 2oz. Galaxy and 1oz of Simcoe. My thermometer seems to have been off, but if anything it was mashed at too low of a temp. I am going to toss some amylase enzyme tomorrow as a last ditch effort, but am not expecting much.
 
Did you hit your mash temps? Were your thermometers calibrated correctly? I'm wondering if you might have mashed too high.
 
i boiled some water last night and used two thermometers. Once it was boiling the one I used was only reading 200F while a different thermometer was at 212. They were both about the same as it was heating up, but after 160 the one I used started to lag behind. If it truly does lag behind or was off then I probably was mashing at 160+. It's time to buy a good thermometer.
 
Another way to check thermometers is to put a bunch of ice in some water and then stick it in there after a few minutes. It should be right around 32*.

I'd say don't concede and toss it just yet. There are ways you can attempt to fix this. I've read that this French Saison yeast is good for stuck fermentations because it has a crazy high attenuation. A starter of that at high krausen might be worth a shot.
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=199

There is also Amylase Enzyme (Beano) that I've heard can break down the complex sugars into more fermentatble ones.

Word of warning: I have never had to try either of these methods but from lurking on forums for a while I've read of each of these being successful in the past. I think your right in the fact that you should not add your dry hops if its really really stuck. No need to waste them but it's worth a shot to get it going.
 
I have a starter going of some washed us-05 and have added a small amount of amylase to the starter. Once it gets to full krausen I am going to pitch it and see what happens. If it actually goes down, I picked up 2oz. of centennial and will use that for dryhop. The citra, galaxy and simcoe will be used in a new batch.
 
Well, after two weeks the Amylase has just kept going, I dryhopped with centennial and have cold crashed it in the fridge for the last 24 hrs. I just took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1.020, but to compare I took some water that was in the fridge and that was reading 1.006. If that's the case then really the beer is at 1.014 and now at about 10.1% ABV. It was definitely bitter, but not bad. I'm just afraid of bottling in the next few days. I'm thinking I am going to rack it to my bottling bucket and keep it in the fridge for a day or two and then add the sugar to carb it. I will leave extra headspace in the bottles in hopes that I don't get too many bottle bombs and will check them twice daily and after the first week I will open one and determine if I need to open them all and relieve some pressure. This DIPA turned into a Triple IPA. I did use the last 1oz of Simcoe and a few ounces of the citra and galaxy in a new batch on the 4th and that will be DH on the 14th with 2oz of Citra and 1oz. of Galaxy.
 
Back
Top