A buddy and myself made a Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA double batch today. We went way out of our comfort zone! Probably not that big of a deal for experienced brewers, but considering I made my first batch 2 months ago, I am excited about the next couple months and the brew we made today!
So my history so far has been 5 single batches (all Brewers Best Extracts) and a double batch of Christmas Brew from Jaspers. We started brewing the first week or so of September and so far have only drank two of our brews (I have read a lot here and decided the best bet was to ferment for 4 weeks, then bottle for 3 more....stayed pretty true to that). They both seemed pretty good to me.... no outside experienced taste testers...but I was very pleased.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I got my hands on a Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA at a party. I've never really had an IPA that I can remember, but I really liked the hoppy blast of this beer. Usually being a stout lover, I was looking forward to having another go to brew. I started looking for a clone and found a lot of options, but for whatever reason I settled on the Lancaster Home Brew recipe: http://lancasterhomebrew.com/sierra-nevada-torpedo-clone-recipe/
I searched around and bought the hops (typical pellet packs) and grains from my LHBS and the rest of the ingredients from morebeer.com. I went with them because I expected the malt to be fresher and it was also cheaper....which was a big deal because with a double batch I was looking at 18lbs of extract!
Well today we brewed it and I wanted to make a thread explaining what we did, our experiences, and to see if we did ok or if there are any tips that we could improve with. I've done a lot of reading on here so I wanted to wait until I'd made a few before I threw something out there. Hopefully I can learn from your input.
As of now.... the only problems I've experienced were a blow out fermentation (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/aggressive-fermentation-emergency-496525/) and the pumpkin spice we made smelled terrible when we cracked open the fermentor....smelled like medicine. I bottled it and have since learned that that BB kit has a lot of spice in, so I'm hoping that smell will mellow with age.
So here goes.....
The recipe:
.75 lb Crystal 60L
.25 lb Crystal 120L
7 lb Light LME
2 lb Light DME
1 oz Magnum (bittering 60 min boil, 14 HBU)
1 tsp Irish Moss ( last 10 min. optional )
1 oz Magnum (last 5 min)
1 oz Hallertau (last 5 min)
American Ale Yeast
Dry Hop with 1 oz Magnum and 1 oz Citra
We have a 10g Blichman Boilermaker. We made the batch with 7 gallons of water and steeped at the 155F the recipe called for (20 minutes). After that we pretty much followed the recipe, except we obviously doubled the ingredients. The only thing we did different was that we put half of the LME & DME in at about 180F, brought it to boil.... then put the other half of the extract in at 30 mins. I have seen a lot of people recommend putting much of the extract in at the end or the middle, so we thought we'd try it.
At the end we cool the wort down with a chiller. We got it to about 64F. Then we split the wort evenly between two buckets.
When we move the wort from the kettle to the fermentors, we use a typical double layer SS strainer AND a 5g paint strainer. We use starsan for everything and try to go out of our way to even double sanitize everything. The transfer is easy because of the spigot on the boilermaker. Once done, I topped off the buckets to about 5g each for 2 evenly split batches.
Next I took an OG reading. This is where it gets a little out of my league. I'm not gonna lie....I haven't explored the whole specific gravity science all that much. I know its a part of the process, I have the equipment, and I always take OG and FG. So far, I've been pretty close to where the instructions say I'm supposed to be and the beer has tasted good....so no worries on my end! This time though, the instructions were less clear. They just tell you what to do and bam.... you're done. There were no OG or FG specifications......so I just took one (and will obviously take one in a month when I crack the buckets open).
Anyway.... I was a bit floored when I got my readings. One bucket was 1.70 and the other was 1.068. I assume the discrepancy was due to maybe being a little off on the split or water addition. I also assumed that they're close enough not to worry?
Here's the carmelly goodness at OG reading time:
Finally..... we added the yeast (Safale S-04). We did not rehydrate, we just sprinkled it in and stirred. I know there are a lot of ways we could've done this, but most of the kits we've done said to just do it that way and its worked. I'm not saying I refuse to do it any other way, just that its worked and I'm still learning.
Then we finished sanitizing the lids, capped the buckets and prepared for the airlocks. Only this time, I'm trying to be prepared for the excitement. I have figured out how to make a blow off setup and got the equipment.... so I used a couple sections of tubing, put them into our airlocks... and dropped the ends into some starsan.
When everything was said and done, the thermometer on the side read 64F.
So there it is. I'll update this thread as we progress with the brew....but unless there is a situation, there they'll sit for at least 3 weeks until I put the final hops in for another week. (At least that's the plan..... leave it alone for 3 weeks, then dry hop for the final week).
I would love to hear any input or suggestions that will help me improve or help others with this process and/or recipe. Also... help me judge the beer when we're done. I know what I like.... but its becoming a little nerve racking when others try my beer.... I feel like they feel compelled to say it tastes good.
I know this has been long, but thanks for reading.
So my history so far has been 5 single batches (all Brewers Best Extracts) and a double batch of Christmas Brew from Jaspers. We started brewing the first week or so of September and so far have only drank two of our brews (I have read a lot here and decided the best bet was to ferment for 4 weeks, then bottle for 3 more....stayed pretty true to that). They both seemed pretty good to me.... no outside experienced taste testers...but I was very pleased.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I got my hands on a Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA at a party. I've never really had an IPA that I can remember, but I really liked the hoppy blast of this beer. Usually being a stout lover, I was looking forward to having another go to brew. I started looking for a clone and found a lot of options, but for whatever reason I settled on the Lancaster Home Brew recipe: http://lancasterhomebrew.com/sierra-nevada-torpedo-clone-recipe/
I searched around and bought the hops (typical pellet packs) and grains from my LHBS and the rest of the ingredients from morebeer.com. I went with them because I expected the malt to be fresher and it was also cheaper....which was a big deal because with a double batch I was looking at 18lbs of extract!
Well today we brewed it and I wanted to make a thread explaining what we did, our experiences, and to see if we did ok or if there are any tips that we could improve with. I've done a lot of reading on here so I wanted to wait until I'd made a few before I threw something out there. Hopefully I can learn from your input.
As of now.... the only problems I've experienced were a blow out fermentation (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/aggressive-fermentation-emergency-496525/) and the pumpkin spice we made smelled terrible when we cracked open the fermentor....smelled like medicine. I bottled it and have since learned that that BB kit has a lot of spice in, so I'm hoping that smell will mellow with age.
So here goes.....
The recipe:
.75 lb Crystal 60L
.25 lb Crystal 120L
7 lb Light LME
2 lb Light DME
1 oz Magnum (bittering 60 min boil, 14 HBU)
1 tsp Irish Moss ( last 10 min. optional )
1 oz Magnum (last 5 min)
1 oz Hallertau (last 5 min)
American Ale Yeast
Dry Hop with 1 oz Magnum and 1 oz Citra
We have a 10g Blichman Boilermaker. We made the batch with 7 gallons of water and steeped at the 155F the recipe called for (20 minutes). After that we pretty much followed the recipe, except we obviously doubled the ingredients. The only thing we did different was that we put half of the LME & DME in at about 180F, brought it to boil.... then put the other half of the extract in at 30 mins. I have seen a lot of people recommend putting much of the extract in at the end or the middle, so we thought we'd try it.
At the end we cool the wort down with a chiller. We got it to about 64F. Then we split the wort evenly between two buckets.
When we move the wort from the kettle to the fermentors, we use a typical double layer SS strainer AND a 5g paint strainer. We use starsan for everything and try to go out of our way to even double sanitize everything. The transfer is easy because of the spigot on the boilermaker. Once done, I topped off the buckets to about 5g each for 2 evenly split batches.
Next I took an OG reading. This is where it gets a little out of my league. I'm not gonna lie....I haven't explored the whole specific gravity science all that much. I know its a part of the process, I have the equipment, and I always take OG and FG. So far, I've been pretty close to where the instructions say I'm supposed to be and the beer has tasted good....so no worries on my end! This time though, the instructions were less clear. They just tell you what to do and bam.... you're done. There were no OG or FG specifications......so I just took one (and will obviously take one in a month when I crack the buckets open).
Anyway.... I was a bit floored when I got my readings. One bucket was 1.70 and the other was 1.068. I assume the discrepancy was due to maybe being a little off on the split or water addition. I also assumed that they're close enough not to worry?
Here's the carmelly goodness at OG reading time:
Finally..... we added the yeast (Safale S-04). We did not rehydrate, we just sprinkled it in and stirred. I know there are a lot of ways we could've done this, but most of the kits we've done said to just do it that way and its worked. I'm not saying I refuse to do it any other way, just that its worked and I'm still learning.
Then we finished sanitizing the lids, capped the buckets and prepared for the airlocks. Only this time, I'm trying to be prepared for the excitement. I have figured out how to make a blow off setup and got the equipment.... so I used a couple sections of tubing, put them into our airlocks... and dropped the ends into some starsan.
When everything was said and done, the thermometer on the side read 64F.
So there it is. I'll update this thread as we progress with the brew....but unless there is a situation, there they'll sit for at least 3 weeks until I put the final hops in for another week. (At least that's the plan..... leave it alone for 3 weeks, then dry hop for the final week).
I would love to hear any input or suggestions that will help me improve or help others with this process and/or recipe. Also... help me judge the beer when we're done. I know what I like.... but its becoming a little nerve racking when others try my beer.... I feel like they feel compelled to say it tastes good.
I know this has been long, but thanks for reading.
. I would say that chances are very good that I did stir in the topping water. I'm conscientious about stirring throughout the process and although I didn't know the term was stratification, it seemed to me that the water needed to be mixed to get the right reading. I just can't say for certain if I happened to forget that time. 
