Today was brew day; here's what we did, how we did it, and where it landed us.
Instead of using the original recipe on the first page of the thread, we went with Bobbrews recipe and then followed one of his suggestions in post number
2956. Our goal was a 5g recipe and we achieved just over that with the following numbers using a no-sparge, BIAB process:
9g of Strike (total water volume)
11 lb. 11.7 oz.:
Pearl (86.9%)
9.9 oz.:
White Wheat Malt (4.6%)
8.5 oz.:
Caramalt (3.9%)
17 mL:
HopShot @ 75min
9.9 oz.: Turbinado Sugar @ Flame-out (4.6%)
2.5 oz.: Simcoe @ Whirlpool/Steep - 40min
1 oz.: Centennial @ Whirlpool/Steep - 40min
0.75 oz.: Columbus @ Whirlpool/Steep - 40min
0.75 oz.: Comet @ Whirlpool/Steep - 40min
1.5 packs:
GigaYeast Vermont Ale IPA
1.50 oz.: Simcoe @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.50 oz.: Centennial @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.50 oz.: Columbus @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.50 oz.: Comet @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
0.50 oz.: Apollo @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
We brought our strike temp to 155° and were able to achieve ~151° at mash for 60 minutes. We then upped our temp to ~169° where we mashed-out for ten minutes. Upon pulling the bag an initiating our squeeze, we collected approx. 8.1g of wort.
After hot break dissipated, we injected the 17mL of HopShot and let it boil for 75 minutes (based on a seemingly increased boil-off rate, we were forced to cut short of the full 90 due to perceived volume in the boil kettle (GREAT decision on our part!)). Per Bobbrew's
post, we elected to go the HopShot increase route to increase the bittering.
We dropped the chiller and brought the wort down to 170° to begin the whirlpool/steep and used the burner to create a balance between 162° and 170° (averaging at ~165°) for a 40 minute period. Each hop addition was placed into separate mesh bags and removed at the conclusion of the steep. I'd like to note that we tasted a small sample during this phase and will say that it was INCREDIBLY bitter!
Upon completing the cooling, we pitched into 1.5 packs of GigaYeast GY054. Due to calculated viability, we were at 181 billion cells in one pack (dated March 11th, 2015). Two packs would have dropped twice that (362 billion cells) so we dropped one pack straight and, using a 1-cup, Pyrex measure, measured slightly over half of the second pouch and added it in. This incredibly unscientific method 'should' equate to approximately 280 to 290 billion cells towards our calculcated target of 253.8 billion. Long story short, one pack wasn't going to be enough and two would have been too much. We opted out of creating a starter due to the small, starter volume we would have created and didn't want to add starter volume into what was likely going to be a tight fermenter as it was.
In the end, we collected just over 5 gallons of beer (approx 5.1 gallons) at an OG of 1.074 or 1.075 (depending on who was looking through the refractometer).
We're on the fence about fermentation times, however. We're reading mixed suggestions about letting it primary for four short days and then secondary-ing for ten. Traditionally, we've primary-ed for a week and then secondary-ed for another; any suggestions?
Our dry-hop routine will include the above listing, however we are considering increasing the Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus, and Comet additions by 0.125 oz. (1.625 oz. respectively). We've got a few days to decide on that, again, feedback on this idea would be helpful.
Well, that's about it.... If you hung in this long, thanks! We'd welcome any feedback if you've got any to offer, otherwise, we'll post back in once we get to the next step of the process. Thanks for all the help those of you in the thread have provided!
