This one has been on my to brew list for awhile, and this Sunday I'm planning to finally brew it. I've got a recipe file that I've been tossing bits of info I've gleaned off Vinnie from various interviews and posts. After making a DIPA I was really happy with last winter: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/02/big-ipa-recipe-1-lb-of-hops.html I think I'm finally ready.
Pliny the Younger (5 gallons):
I'll cut my water 50/50 with distilled just to knock down the carbonate to ~50 ppm and add enough gypsum to get to ~150 PPM Sulfate. I’ll have acid ready if the calcium from the gypsum isn’t enough to get the mash pH down to where it needs to be.
22 lbs Great Western 2-row
1 lb Carapils
Mashed @ 150 for 1 hour
To get such a high gravity wort without having to boil for a long time I’m planning on really low efficiency (~50%) another hit to efficiency is all the wort that is lost to hop absorption. I'm hoping I have time/gravity to do some sort of hopped up American Pale Ale off of the second runnings, but we'll see.
Collect about 8 gallons of (hopefully) 1.065 wort.
90 minute boil.
Bitter with 20 ml of hop extract (Hopshots from Northern Brewer) @ 60 min (Anyone used this stuff?: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/hopshot.pdf - this is the big question mark for me, I’ve heard its “smoother” than you’d expect so I went with more than 100 IBUs worth)
(I like pellet hops in the boil)
1.00 oz. Simcoe @ 30 min.
2.00 oz. Centennial @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Amarillo @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Simcoe @ 0 min.
(I’ll add the flameout hops in a couple steps, a few minutes apart so they get different lengths of exposure to the heat as the wort starts to cool, luckily my ground water is down to ~50 F so the chill should be pretty quick.)
Whirlfloc and yeast nutrient added around 15 minutes.
Hopefully the OG is about 1.086
Ferment ~65 (high 50s ambient) with a big (3 qrt) starter of WLP001 (making it tonight), loads of aeration.
1.5 lbs table sugar added to fermenter after primary fermentation starts to slow down (this will bring the effective gravity up to ~1.100), maybe over two additions a day apart.
I’ll let the temp creep up towards 70 F near the end to ensure it finishes out dry.
After fermentation is complete I’ll drop the temp close to freezing for ~5 days to get as much yeast out of suspension as possible. I'm considering fining with gelatin, but I'll give the yeast a chance to drop naturally.
The original gets four dry hop additions, but I think I’m going to simplify and do two. I like whole hops for dry hopping, more for ease of removal than anything else.
1st Dry Hop (Room temp for 10 days in the keg after most of the yeast is removed)
1.0 oz each Amarillo/Simcoe/Centennial
2nd Keg Hop (Cold in Keg during force carbing and serving)
1.0 oz each Amarillo/Simcoe/Centennial
I’ve found that keeping oxygen away from my hoppy beers is a key to having them last, so I’ll try to flush everything it touches with CO2 after the start of fermentation.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions etc…?
Pliny the Younger (5 gallons):
I'll cut my water 50/50 with distilled just to knock down the carbonate to ~50 ppm and add enough gypsum to get to ~150 PPM Sulfate. I’ll have acid ready if the calcium from the gypsum isn’t enough to get the mash pH down to where it needs to be.
22 lbs Great Western 2-row
1 lb Carapils
Mashed @ 150 for 1 hour
To get such a high gravity wort without having to boil for a long time I’m planning on really low efficiency (~50%) another hit to efficiency is all the wort that is lost to hop absorption. I'm hoping I have time/gravity to do some sort of hopped up American Pale Ale off of the second runnings, but we'll see.
Collect about 8 gallons of (hopefully) 1.065 wort.
90 minute boil.
Bitter with 20 ml of hop extract (Hopshots from Northern Brewer) @ 60 min (Anyone used this stuff?: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/hopshot.pdf - this is the big question mark for me, I’ve heard its “smoother” than you’d expect so I went with more than 100 IBUs worth)
(I like pellet hops in the boil)
1.00 oz. Simcoe @ 30 min.
2.00 oz. Centennial @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Amarillo @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Simcoe @ 0 min.
(I’ll add the flameout hops in a couple steps, a few minutes apart so they get different lengths of exposure to the heat as the wort starts to cool, luckily my ground water is down to ~50 F so the chill should be pretty quick.)
Whirlfloc and yeast nutrient added around 15 minutes.
Hopefully the OG is about 1.086
Ferment ~65 (high 50s ambient) with a big (3 qrt) starter of WLP001 (making it tonight), loads of aeration.
1.5 lbs table sugar added to fermenter after primary fermentation starts to slow down (this will bring the effective gravity up to ~1.100), maybe over two additions a day apart.
I’ll let the temp creep up towards 70 F near the end to ensure it finishes out dry.
After fermentation is complete I’ll drop the temp close to freezing for ~5 days to get as much yeast out of suspension as possible. I'm considering fining with gelatin, but I'll give the yeast a chance to drop naturally.
The original gets four dry hop additions, but I think I’m going to simplify and do two. I like whole hops for dry hopping, more for ease of removal than anything else.
1st Dry Hop (Room temp for 10 days in the keg after most of the yeast is removed)
1.0 oz each Amarillo/Simcoe/Centennial
2nd Keg Hop (Cold in Keg during force carbing and serving)
1.0 oz each Amarillo/Simcoe/Centennial
I’ve found that keeping oxygen away from my hoppy beers is a key to having them last, so I’ll try to flush everything it touches with CO2 after the start of fermentation.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions etc…?
