My Double IPA

[Camride]

No reason for this post other than I'm excited and wanted to share. This is my second brew and it's turning out much better than the first.

I bought Midwest Supplies Hop Head Double IPA and proceeded to make a couple tweaks to it. The original bill is as follows:

9.3lbs Gold LME
4oz Aromatic, 12oz Caramel 60, 8oz Victory (pre-mixed specialty grains)
1oz Chinook
1oz Cascade
1oz Centennial
1oz Crystal
2oz Cascade whole hops (dry hop)

I started out with too much water on this one, stepping the grains in almost 4 gallons of water (I have a 5 gallon kettle). I forgot that nothing gets boiled off at this stage, so once I added the LME I was at the top of the kettle. I got it all stirred in and then siphoned about a gallon and a half to another pot. I boiled that pot for about 20 minutes, because I wasn't sure if the LME needed to be boiled or not (turns out it doesn't really need to be). The rest of the boil continued like normal and I used the following hop schedule:

1oz Chinook - 60 minutes
1/2oz Cascade - 45 minutes
1/2oz Centennial - 30 mnutes
1/2oz Cascade - 15 minutes
1/2oz Centennial - 5 minutes
1oz Crystal - Flame Out

I also added about a cup (~7oz) of table sugar at 15 minutes to bump the gravity a little. Once the boil was done I added the wort I had siphoned off back to the kettle and ended up with a little over 4 gallons of wort. Because I don't have a wort chiller this took a long time to cool (much longer than my first batch which only ended up with under 3 gallons at the end). Eventually I got it down to ~90*F by adding in the rest of the water needed to get it to 5 gallons. Took my gravity measurement and ended up at 1.076 OG. I was good and warmed the dry yeast up in some ~90*F water for about 30 minutes before I pitched. I tossed it all in and stuck it in my swamp cooler, getting it down to about 60*F before heading to bed.

I left it completely alone for 2 weeks, didn't even check the gravity (look, I'm learning patience!). After 2 weeks I finally popped it open and I'm greeted with a 1.013 gravity. Looks like that little bit of table sugar helped, that calculates out to 8.2% ABV. Tasted the gravity sample and it was good, a decent amount of bitterness and hop profile, but lacking aroma. Well I decided that I wanted to dry hop more than just the cascade, so I grabbed 2oz of Amarillo whole leaf and tossed it in with the cascade, for 4oz of dry hops. I didn't weigh it down, so yesterday I popped it open so I could submerge the hops down in the wort a bit and give it a taste. Wow! Taste is even better and now it's got a wonderful citrus flavor and aroma! It's not done yet though, I'm leaving it in 4 more days (8 days of dry hopping) before I bottle it.

Sunday I'll bottle it and wait 2 weeks before I crack one open. I am extremely optimistic about this one. I had a few problems with my first batch and it took it about 6 weeks in the bottle to get good. I have a feeling I'll get a better turnaround out of this one, considering I hit my fermentation temps correctly.

I'm really excited, carry on.

 

[akervin]

That sounds damn good. I have something very similar in primary right now and it tasted Ohhh so good after 2 weeks.

I don't have a chiller either so what I do to get the wort chilled really fast is I freeze a 85% full gallon jug of distilled water that I buy at the store. I put it in the freeze two days prior to brew day. I use a sanitized knife, spray the outside of jug with sanitizer, and cut the ice out of the jug and place it right into the wort and put the sanitized lid on, stirring ever min or so. I've had this take 3.5 gallons of wort at 190 F to 90 degrees in about 6-7 mins. This in combination of an ice bath in the kitchen sink and I can get it in the mid 60s in about 10-12 mins. Fastest cooling method I've been able to come up with for extract half boil volumes. I put another gallon of distilled water in the fridge, when i freeze the other, to finish the top of and cooling process.

 

[Camride]

That sounds damn good. I have something very similar in primary right now and it tasted Ohhh so good after 2 weeks.

I don't have a chiller either so what I do to get the wort chilled really fast is I freeze a 85% full gallon jug of distilled water that I buy at the store. I put it in the freeze two days prior to brew day. I use a sanitized knife, spray the outside of jug with sanitizer, and cut the ice out of the jug and place it right into the wort and put the sanitized lid on, stirring ever min or so. I've had this take 3.5 gallons of wort at 190 F to 90 degrees in about 6-7 mins. This in combination of an ice bath in the kitchen sink and I can get it in the mid 60s in about 10-12 mins. Fastest cooling method I've been able to come up with for extract half boil volumes. I put another gallon of distilled water in the fridge, when i freeze the other, to finish the top of and cooling process.

Excellent idea! I'm going to have to do that next time. Much cheaper than a wort cooler.

 

[Trail]

You should be fine steeping in "too much" water - more water means better extraction. And even if you meant to do a smaller batch, 9+ pounds of fermentables for a five-allon batch is just fine.

And re: no reason for this post, what better reason? Cheers!

 

[Camride]

You should be fine steeping in "too much" water - more water means better extraction. And even if you meant to do a smaller batch, 9+ pounds of fermentables for a five-allon batch is just fine.

And re: no reason for this post, what better reason? Cheers!

Yeah, I may actually continue to do "too much water" on purpose if this comes out as well as it seems like it will. I know more water is better, I said it was too much simply because I only have a 5gal kettle. Eventually I'll get a larger one so I can do full boils, but for now it might not be a bad idea to just steep in as much liquid as possible and split up the extract for the hop boil.

 

[Trail]

Yeah, I may actually continue to do "too much water" on purpose if this comes out as well as it seems like it will. I know more water is better, I said it was too much simply because I only have a 5gal kettle. Eventually I'll get a larger one so I can do full boils, but for now it might not be a bad idea to just steep in as much liquid as possible and split up the extract for the hop boil.

I boil about 4.5 gal at a time in my 5-gal kettle and it works super - then I cheat and add a half-gal of cold top-off water to jumpstart the chill.

 

[Camride]

I boil about 4.5 gal at a time in my 5-gal kettle and it works super - then I cheat and add a half-gal of cold top-off water to jumpstart the chill.

I'm guessing if you've been doing 4.5gal in a 5gal kettle you haven't had any issues with boilovers? I was a little nervous to have the water level that high. Then again I think I boil a bit too vigorously, as I have a gas stove and the burner I use has a "super" setting for bigger pots. I left it all the way up last time and it had a very vigorous boil going the entire hour.

How much do you end up boiling off in 60 minutes anyway for a 4.5gal batch?

 

[Trail]

TOO vigorously? I dunno if that's possible, I've always heard that more vigorouserer = more betterer. And I actually fill closer to 5 and not do top-offs until I boil a half-gal off. I think I'm adding at least a gallon to my kettle in a 90-minute boil, but I haven't measured.

 

[Jdm5209]

...
Sunday I'll bottle it and wait 2 weeks before I crack one open...
...

You surely meant 3 weeks right? You don't want Revvy coming up in here and laying the smack down. Especially after the "my beer tastes green" thread gets dropped.

Just kidding of course. I (and probably all of us) have to try all our beers from Day 0 and weekly thereafter, right? It's research after all.

 

[Camride]

You surely meant 3 weeks right? You don't want Revvy coming up in here and laying the smack down. Especially after the "my beer tastes green" thread gets dropped.

Just kidding of course. I (and probably all of us) have to try all our beers from Day 0 and weekly thereafter, right? It's research after all.

Haha, I won't make a green beer thread, I know better. I just want to taste it at two weeks to see how it's doing. I'm still working on that patience thing....