Analyzing and Visualizing the Benifits of Continuous Hopping?

[nefarious_1_]

Subscribed as well!

What he ^^^ said.

 

[Jsmith82]

Well I'm no beer genius but I would totally be in on the experiment. You could tone the trial samples down to 4 oz and have more people participate... do they make 4 oz containers???

I don't know maybe it would be better to have novice palates (atleast mine) than to have more mature analysis'. More like how the general populace would respond to your method.

My LHBS sells 6oz splits but I don't want to pay for them, they cost more that 12oz bottles! Can't figure that one out.. I'll just stick to 12s. I'll shoot you a PM soon.

Glad I used the tubes even though the amount of wort that went to the jugs was about 1/3 a gallon shy. The continuous hop krausen has climbed up the jug into the cork and barely started to become visible in the tube, I think though it's on the rebound and settling back down.

Lot's of action in both jugs, man do I love beer!

So I crunched out some numbers, really I should have just topped each jug off to the 1 gallon mark since the boil off ratio was incorrect, I honestly don't know why I didn't, I was pretty tired from the week and finding out the news, etc... Because I didn't top it off, the gravity was right at 1.095. Luckily with the lesser amount of liquid the IBUs have increased for both, the finished product is definitely going to be an imperial IPA, the ABV is going to be pretty high, I'm predicting around 9-9.5. Kind of a bummer because I wanted this to be lighter but oh well, the show must go on! It will be beer in the end, just anabolic beer :rockin:

Because of the higher alc content, I'm thinking I may take my last ounce of Amarillo and dry hop each with .5 ounces. Shouldn't cause any harm, just help with the aroma and profile of the beer, I'm afraid without it it's going to be to strong on the malt and warmth.

 

[bwomp313]

When it comes time to taste this experiment, I think it'll be extremely important to take really good notes and cleanse the pallet really well. All the hops and strength of this beer are going to make it tough to accurately taste each methinks.

 

[Brew_4iT]

wow with an abv that high how long you think your going to condition it for? Wouldn't want to condition for too long either though because the hop aroma and flavor will dissipate. I don't mind drinking strong beer but might be hard to figure out hop characteristics if it tastes like rocket fuel.

There will always be some variables I wouldn't sweat over the boil off too much. Good way to iron out some things if you were ever to try this experiment again you would have everything covered.

What temperature did you mash at? I forget if you mentioned it earlier in the thread. If the temp was around 140-150 most of the sugars will be fermentable and finish more dry having a lot less malt sweetness. A lot of people do 150-155 for a balance between the two.

 

[Jsmith82]

I generally aim between 149 & 151 for my mash temps though with this 2 gallon experiment I simply steeped the crystal and used dme.

Yeah guys, been thinking on this one. My local Worm's Way has a ton of Cascade in right now, I think I'm going to run up there on my lunch break today and pickup a couple ounces with another 3lbs of DME, pull a re-do, get that body and ABV lower. Meh, what's another week anyhow..

And in the end I still get a little over a 12pack worth of Amarillo IIPA; nothing wrong with that!

 

[Jsmith82]

Just got back from the shop, went ahead and picked up what I noted above, I'll brew it off either late tonight or tomorrow AM. Can't believe I didn't just top of the first go, I don't know what the hell was going through my head.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Hey man, rereading my post seemed a little harsh for all the work you did. Even if you had to condition a little longer your amarillo brews, the hop aromas would dissipate at the same rate and I'm sure enough hop characteristics would come through to judge.

Yeah I wouldn't worry too much of the mash temps then if you are only steeping the crystal, you wont get much fermentables out of specialty grains anyways. That is why they are used for flavoring and such.

 

[Jsmith82]

Nahh, wasn't harsh at all. We honestly need a normal base beer for judging and with the elevated levels on batch 1 it was just going to make everything harder to judge though fortunately since there is no added sugar, only extract, the infamous rocket fuel scent shouldn't be present but well hidden. However thinking on it though, it can bottle age just as well as age in the jug so after I brew off batch 2, I'll probably put both in the bottle the same weekend at the 4-5 week mark, both can still be tested just at different times. Just more data, we now have a normal beer that will heavily note the hops and an imperial beer which would more resemble the outrageous creations of DFH. It doesn't take much to convince me to brew.. It was nice to hit the LHBS anyways, needed some yeast food, caps, dextrose, carapils, etc; grocery supplies.

Sweet note: Off topic, but APPLE SEASON IS UPON US!! Got my first batch of Eckert's Apple Cider today, going to toss in some dextrose and montrachet yeast tonight. I have never used their cider before, a local St. Louis farm staple, but I've heard it works amazing for Apfelwein. They don't sell the cider online so if anyone is around Bel-Vegas (ville) IL, stop and get some while you can!

 

[Jsmith82]

Okay, 2 gallons of Cascade IPA done and done. Brew went awesome, clean and fast, 1 gallon a piece this time . I found these FANTASTIC pots yesterday while at the store with my wife. 2 gallon stainless steel pots with lids, $6.50 a piece. I couldn't believe the price, bought 2 of them for times like these when I'm brewing small batches. Here's some more eye candy:

Double boil in the brand new 2 gallon steel pots:

Hop shot and additions:

The "new" brew closet, with the little one on the way we transferred my brew room / second bedroom into the basement spare room, it's cooler down there anyways.. You can see the 2 newbies up front as well as the 2 from last weekend.

Last up, I pitched around 5pm yesterday, then this morning at roughly 7:00am it was going bananas with a full on krausen coaster in the blowoff tubes. I totally expect to find these lines filled when I get home tonight..

[ame]http://youtu.be/2lfJ5AMcecw[/ame]

**EDIT** Ugh, I give up... Check the link above if you want to see the video, I've tried youtube tags, object embedding, iframe embedding, I can't seem to get the video to show in the topic.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Wow $6.50 a piece! I paid triple that for a crappy stock pot..

Looks pretty heady man, nice work!

Can't help you with the video stuff, not quite that savvy. I'll check it out though.

Getting ready to do a late brew tonight, first time doing a porter. Not sure if I'm going to dryhop or not, porters seems to be more versatile than stouts but I don't want it to compete against the dark malty character. hmmmm

 

[Elweydoloco]

Getting ready to do a late brew tonight, first time doing a porter. Not sure if I'm going to dryhop or not, porters seems to be more versatile than stouts but I don't want it to compete against the dark malty character. hmmmm

Not to get off topic , may I suggest Fuggles for the Porter dry hop.

JSmith CONGRATS ON THE KID!!!

 

[Brew_4iT]

JSmith any update on the batches?

 

[tennesseean_87]

I think I read that DeathBrewer diluted after fermentation to save fermenter space. Might that be an option for erasing an I from your IIPA?

 

[Jsmith82]

Krausen has all dropped out, just letting them clear. Both are darker than I expected but smell great. I was debating a secondary which I never use but there is a lot of fall out in those jugs. I snapped a couple more photos but I'm on my phone right now, I'll post them later.

Thinking a cold crash in about 2 Weeks for 7 days then I'll bottle them up.

Edit- thanks Elway!

About thinning the iipa, I've actually grown fond of the idea we'll have a normal ipa and an imperial ipa to test. I am curious what DB did though, could you post a link?

 

[BBFCreatureFM]

Just read the whole thread. Fascinated. Subscribed for the eventual tasting notes. And BIG congrats to OP.

 

[tennesseean_87]

i put 1.5 gallons into each container and topped off with 1 gallon each. thats 2 x 2.5 = 5 gallons

CARBOYS MUST ALWAYS HAVE HEADSPACE. i didn't top off all the way.

i've also used this method another way. i would boil down to about 2.5 gallons and put that in one 3 gallon carboy. then i would let that ferment as a strong ale. at kegging time, i would add 2 gallons of distilled water and dilute it down to a regular beer. it worked really well with some of the dark beers, not so well with my kolsch. it was a space-saving experiment

hope this helps let me know if you have any more questions.

Post 276 in his Easy Partial Mash thread.

 

[Brew_4iT]

If you want I could start on a couple batch's of a pale ale to go along with the IPA and imperial IPA. I could do it with the same hops, or different depending on where you want to go with this experiment. It's up to you, I understand if you just want to tackle this yourself being your idea and all and using your methods.

Just looks like a lot of fun!

 

[Jsmith82]

Yeaaaah, brew it up! I'd say go for whatever hops you want to, it's all in fun anyway like you said and there is no rush at all, the beers will just get better with time; man I love this hobby. It would be cool when we trade to get a couple that I don't know which is which as well, though I plan on marking a couple of mine on the bottom of the bottle and having swmbo mix them up when I go to try so it's a blind test.

I was laughing earlier, I've got these 4 gallons of ipa - iipa going, 3 more gallons of ipa, 3 gallons of lager, 4 gallons of apfelwein, 1 gallon of scrumpy cider, and 7 24packs and a case of bombers of other homebrews already bottled.. I've got beer coming out of my freaking ears right now lol. Bring it, zombies apocolypse!

 

[JAStout]

......man I love this hobby.

Well said!

 

[Brew_4iT]

Bought some supplies today, haven't been around my comp for a few days (sending from my iPod PITA!). Since the other beers will be strong I was thinking this one will be a little over 4% abv. Sound good? I can up it if you guys think it should be. Hops will be cascade seems to make sense right?

Thank you again Jsmith for letting me be a part of this!

 

[user 70445]

I found these FANTASTIC pots yesterday while at the store with my wife. 2 gallon stainless steel pots with lids, $6.50 a piece. I couldn't believe the price, bought 2 of them for times like these when I'm brewing small batches.

Oh man, great deal that.

And congrats on the news!

(subscribing)

 

[Jsmith82]

Bought some supplies today, haven't been around my comp for a few days (sending from my iPod PITA!). Since the other beers will be strong I was thinking this one will be a little over 4% abv. Sound good? I can up it if you guys think it should be. Hops will be cascade seems to make sense right?

Thank you again Jsmith for letting me be a part of this!

No thanks needed man, all for fun ! You develop the recipe how you see fit. I've been sticking to 2 row, crystal, and hops. If you're going to do a 2 hop addition and a continuous addition, it may be tough to do gallon batches with such little hops (guessing off the top of my head for a pale you would probably only utilize a half ounce per gallon), perhaps instead of 20 additions for the continuous you do 10 and add once every 6 minutes? Meh, food for thought. Shoot me an IM if you want a hand with it.

Who knows if we'll even get some consistent taste data out of this but one thing we will do is drink some beers! Can't go wrong with that!!

- Thanks Bilirubin! We had our first ultrasound yesterday, 9 weeks along is what they said. Got to see the picture, hear the heartbeat.. It was an awesome experience. Is it bad I'm already planning a fun game called "help dad mill the grain"?? LOL

 

[Brew_4iT]

Ok, I'll message you for specifics.

So for other people interested I bought a can of golden light briess LME, with 2 pounds of Marris Otter 2-row, and a half pound of crystal 20 lovibond I believe.. maybe 40 lol, I'll check the receipt. I bought 2 ounces of cascade pellet, but may use less thinking probably 30 IBU's will be good? Not sure. I'm flexible, I'll see what works with my brew calculator maybe your right with 10 additions every 6 minutes.

That is a nice pipeline you got going very interesting batches to say the least, hows the double orange bavarian? might have to hit you up for that recipe. I want to get going on a barley wine, never done one before so should be interesting. Bought some french oak cubes for it.

Oh and congratulations! Surprised with all you got going on with the fam you have time to produce all these batches as well as experiment, hats off to ya! Must be a great counterpart you got.

 

[Jsmith82]

That is a nice pipeline you got going very interesting batches to say the least, hows the double orange bavarian? might have to hit you up for that recipe. I want to get going on a barley wine, never done one before so should be interesting. Bought some french oak cubes for it.

Oh and congratulations! Surprised with all you got going on with the fam you have time to produce all these batches as well as experiment, hats off to ya! Must be a great counterpart you got.

She is the greatest - great help as well when needed! Brewing works good a lot of time between us because she DVRs all those real housemonster shows and over my dead body will I sit through one therefore on a Saturday, I can tie up the kitchen for 6 hours, she could care less while she empties our DVR

My pipeline is definitely exploding right now - my best bud is engaged so he's gone most the time, other buddy has a daughter so he doesn't come through often, another buddy just moved to KC, SWMBO is prego, most other friends have kids, jobs, moved, families...

Took a step back the other day and said "Holy ****.. We grew up!"

I have to admit though tearing into beers a couple months after brewing them, they age nicely. I never thought I'd be at a point where I wasn't ripping into my 4 week old batch yet here I sit.


Good luck with the oak - I brewed an Oak IIPA with all Glacier around March I believe, I still have a couple bottles around - good cellar beer to pull out and sample with crowds.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Here's my idea for the pale ale, although it's still open for suggestions. I plan on doing this soon, should work out since the gravities will be lower than the others wouldn't need to condition as long.

Pale Ale
perc lbs. oz.
65% 3 5 Briess CBW Golden Light
20% 1 0 British Two-row Pale
10% 0 8 Sugar, Table (Sucrose)
5% 0 4 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L

Batch size: 4.0 gallons
American Ale 1056 Yeast

Original Gravity
1.043 / 10.7° Plato
(1.038 to 1.045)
Final Gravity
1.011 / 2.8° Plato
(1.009 to 1.011)
Color
4° SRM / 9° EBC
(Yellow)
Mash Efficiency
75%
IBU's
24.9

hops (Time is wrong increments, the brewing software I used only does 5 and 10 increments)

boil 60 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 50 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 45 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 35 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 25 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 20 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 10 mins 0.125 Cascade
boil 5 mins 0.125 Cascade

Still may do 6 minute intervals, subjectively may be seen more of a "continuous hopping" with the closer durations. Have to do the hop schedule for 64 min instead if I do eight as well so a little variable.
I may change the sugar addition as well. The reason being the more dry it finishes and the less malt the more the hops will be distinguishable.

For the other two gallon batch I'll do three equal additions @60, 30, and 5.

 

[user 70445]

- Thanks Bilirubin! We had our first ultrasound yesterday, 9 weeks along is what they said. Got to see the picture, hear the heartbeat.. It was an awesome experience. Is it bad I'm already planning a fun game called "help dad mill the grain"?? LOL

Hilarious!

Also, thanks for the unspoken tip for putting the blow off tubes into milk jugs of sterilizer. Clever way of keeping the right end down!

 

[Jsmith82]

I bottled all four beers today, I sampled and took notes on each, gooood stuff! Ended up with 6 & 6 of the IIPA, 9 & 9 of the IPA. The pic above is the Amarillo IIPA 20 addition, I really like the clarity and color, had to share it.

Favorite so far is the Cascade 20 addition - obviously they all were flat and room temp but I found that one exceptionally good. I've noted about scent, taste, and visual appeal for each beer (sampled all 4) so I've got some good notes going.

3 more weeks then they all should be good to go!

 

[bwomp313]

weeeeee....can't wait for my taste tester!! now, are you going to do something like label them A and B and only you know which is which so that it's like a blind tasting?

 

[Jsmith82]

What I did - Bottled and labeled each batch by their hop and description, kept them in their own pile on the counter so I knew which was which. The Imperial beers are labeled A-IIPA, the regulars are labeled C-IPA. I told SWMBO which was which (which piles were continuously hopped, which were regularly hopped), then I left the room and she labeled each pile with either a plus or minus sign, then wrote that down onto a piece of paper to create a key so at this point, we won't know whether "A-IIPA -" or "A-IIPA +" is the continuous, or regular hopped, same for the C batches. We can now compare regular against regular, Imperial against imperial, then compare notes down the road after all is said and done and break out the key to see if we have similarities per style.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Clever, kind of like a case study on yourself and each other. Can't really argue having a biased analysis with that method. You might also want to do a naturalistic observation on another individual who has no idea of your experiment. Let him or her try one of each without explaining anything about the experiment, just something general like you brewed two separate batches of double IPA's and wanted to know what they think... or something along those lines.