I made my IPA today. Though it was probably my smoothest brew day(thanks to my friend who came over to help) it was also the one with the craziest issues. I was going to brew Friday, but held off a day so I could have more time to prepare, which was smart since I ended up needing to get another hose for my chiller.
So this morning I ran out to get the hose, got home was started pouring water into my HLT, added my salts and went to add my lactic acid, when I couldn't it. So as soon as my friend shows up, off we go to the store 30 minutes away to get another bottle of acid.
After that the brew days goes as normal, got the water boiled and brought down to mash temp and started the mash, when I began prepping the next addition of water, i mixed in the salts and acid, then decided to check the PH which was around 4.6, so dump the water and start over, an it happened again. Calibrated the PH meter which was reading high, so i Imangined the water was actually way lower so i started over again, read low again, this time i said screw it and kept going, shortly i checked the mash ph and it read perfectly 5.3, so i rechecked the water and it was correct also so that worked out.
Collected my wort and started the boil with not issues until my burner stopped about 20 minutes from the end. Did some quick change outs and got the boil started again. Finished my boil and cooled the wort down to 170 for the whirlpool hops. When i was getting the hops ready I noticed rather than having the citra hops i wanted but actually had grabbed an ounce oh chinook, oh well not worried about that.
I finished the whirlpool and chilled it down to aparantly 79 before moving to my fementation keg, now I'm just waiting for it to drop the rest of the way before i add my yeast.
One thing I found odd was that i had like 3 or 4 different hot breaks throughout the boil, but only the first boiled over, also the hot break was very stringy, which is something that you hear about from the LODO group describing their hot breaks, which was interesting since the only thing i really did was pre-boil my water.
All in all it was a good day, with good company and good beer. And after all that, with no real way to gauge liquid volumes I still hit my OG perfectly which i have never done before. It was a great learning experiance and if anything I am even more motivated for the next batch (I want a Pale Lager, roommate wants an International Lager, I think I'm gonna win).
So this morning I ran out to get the hose, got home was started pouring water into my HLT, added my salts and went to add my lactic acid, when I couldn't it. So as soon as my friend shows up, off we go to the store 30 minutes away to get another bottle of acid.
After that the brew days goes as normal, got the water boiled and brought down to mash temp and started the mash, when I began prepping the next addition of water, i mixed in the salts and acid, then decided to check the PH which was around 4.6, so dump the water and start over, an it happened again. Calibrated the PH meter which was reading high, so i Imangined the water was actually way lower so i started over again, read low again, this time i said screw it and kept going, shortly i checked the mash ph and it read perfectly 5.3, so i rechecked the water and it was correct also so that worked out.
Collected my wort and started the boil with not issues until my burner stopped about 20 minutes from the end. Did some quick change outs and got the boil started again. Finished my boil and cooled the wort down to 170 for the whirlpool hops. When i was getting the hops ready I noticed rather than having the citra hops i wanted but actually had grabbed an ounce oh chinook, oh well not worried about that.
I finished the whirlpool and chilled it down to aparantly 79 before moving to my fementation keg, now I'm just waiting for it to drop the rest of the way before i add my yeast.
One thing I found odd was that i had like 3 or 4 different hot breaks throughout the boil, but only the first boiled over, also the hot break was very stringy, which is something that you hear about from the LODO group describing their hot breaks, which was interesting since the only thing i really did was pre-boil my water.
All in all it was a good day, with good company and good beer. And after all that, with no real way to gauge liquid volumes I still hit my OG perfectly which i have never done before. It was a great learning experiance and if anything I am even more motivated for the next batch (I want a Pale Lager, roommate wants an International Lager, I think I'm gonna win).
