Well, My IPA went over pretty well. It was entered into the very informal IPA competition at the Southern California Homebrew Festival this year. Even though I didn't win, I got some good feedback from one of the judges, Peter Zien, the owner and brewmaster at Alesmith in San Diego. Basically I shouldn't have put the special roast in there, and I should have pitched more yeast. He said it was a good start, but it was underattenuated and a little on the dark side.
So, I'm going to use a similar hopping schedule, cut out most of the crystal malts, and brew up a double IPA version of the last IPA. Same types of hops but more of them and a higher starting gravity. I'm going to throw in some corn sugar to dry it out a bit too. This thing should be nuthin but hops.
Grain:
14.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
0.25 lbs. Crystal 40L
0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
0.60 lbs. Corn Sugar
Single Decoction Mash:
152 degrees for 45 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.
Boil:
6-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil
Hops:
90 min:
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
60 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
30 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
1.00 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
10 min:
1.50 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0 min:
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
Dry:
3.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
Yeast:
A 2 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs "California Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into a carboy with 5 gallons of wort.
Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.080
Notes:
I'll ferment this thing at 65 degrees.
Update: Well, I learned a valuable lesson today. I wish I had used a hop bag. We left about 1-1.5 gallons of wort in the kettle, and it pretty much clogged coming out of the kettle. Good thing I had a pump, but even still it was a little iffy filling the carboy. I thought we were going to get stuck at 2.5 gallons. That's the last time I brew a hoppy beer without a bag.

2 comments:
I learned that lesson after dry hopping with leaves. I got to about 1 gallon left in the carboy and my siphon started to clog like crazy. I've been looking for a good stout to brew and I may take a shot at Thesis.
Thanks for the comment, Paul.
Yep. Those whole leaf hops are a pain to deal with. I've since gone completely to pellets. I've used the whole leafs a couple times when I've had to, but I'll never do it again for a hoppy beer.
Take care, man. And, let me know how your stout turns out.
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