I have, at length, decided what to do with the Brooklyn hops I purchased a while back.
I'm going to use them for a Black IPA, which is a style I've not tried brewing before. I'm also going to use this brew to test drive my new yeast.
I'm hoping to brew later this week, but in the interim, here's the recipe I'm planning to use.
Grain bill:
3kg Gladfield Ale
1.5kg Vienna Malt
500g Munich Malt
300g Carafa III Special
250g Carapils
200g Black Patent (added during sparge)
Hops:
40g Pacific Jade (13% A.A.) First Wort Addition 57.4 IBU
100g Brooklyn (Whirlpool)
100g Brooklyn (Dry hop)
Yeast:
White Labs WLP#090
Other:
.5 tbs gypsum in mash
1 tbs 5.2 Stablizer in mash
1 tsp Irish moss 10 minutes before flameout
Target OG: 1.062
Target FG: 1.011
ABV: 6.72%
Method:
60 minute mash at 66 degrees Celsius
Mash out at 75C 10 minutes
90 minute boil
30 minute hop stand at 75C
5-day dry hop after one week's fermentation
I normally mash at 69C, but I read an article* by the brewer behind both Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger suggesting that hoppy beers benefit from a lighter body, so I'm going to try that out.
I'm going to grind the Black Patent very fine then add it to the top of the grain basket before sparging, so as to add colour without flavour. That's the plan anyway.
*Someone posted this article on Facebook and I cannot now find it. This is a shame as it was a good read.
13 March 2016
New (Super) Yeast!
I hear good things about WLP#090 San Diego Super Yeast. No-one locally sells it, but a bit of googling allowed me to get it a vial of it via mail order.
I'm going to try brewing some of my previous recipes and see if it's as good as I've heard. Assuming positive results, I'll use Brulosophy's method for harvesting from starters and keep this going as my go-to strain.
With a view to test driving this yeast on a black IPA, I made a starter today. Using Brewdad's calculator, I built this starter using 1.5l of water, 151g of dried malt extract and a half teaspoon of yeast nutrient. After cooling the wort in the laundry tub, I pitched the yeast. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that WLP#090 likes to ferment between 18 and 20C, rather than the 18 to 22C I'm more used to with ale yeasts. This combined with my underestimating the temperature in the house meant that I've had to make use of the aircon to keep the lounge cool enough. This narrow range may force me to get my other freezer fixed and do all my fermenting at more tightly controlled temperatures in future.
In three days, I'll divide this between two containers, one 1 litre and one 500ml theoretically containing 200 billion and 100 billion cells respectively. I'll cold crash them both in the fridge and use the larger of the two for my next brew and keep the smaller as the basis for the next starter.
I'm going to try brewing some of my previous recipes and see if it's as good as I've heard. Assuming positive results, I'll use Brulosophy's method for harvesting from starters and keep this going as my go-to strain.
With a view to test driving this yeast on a black IPA, I made a starter today. Using Brewdad's calculator, I built this starter using 1.5l of water, 151g of dried malt extract and a half teaspoon of yeast nutrient. After cooling the wort in the laundry tub, I pitched the yeast. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that WLP#090 likes to ferment between 18 and 20C, rather than the 18 to 22C I'm more used to with ale yeasts. This combined with my underestimating the temperature in the house meant that I've had to make use of the aircon to keep the lounge cool enough. This narrow range may force me to get my other freezer fixed and do all my fermenting at more tightly controlled temperatures in future.
In three days, I'll divide this between two containers, one 1 litre and one 500ml theoretically containing 200 billion and 100 billion cells respectively. I'll cold crash them both in the fridge and use the larger of the two for my next brew and keep the smaller as the basis for the next starter.
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| Boiling starter wort |
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| Highly sophisticated cooling method |
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| And now I just need to keep the lounge below 20C for a few days |
05 March 2016
Vienna Mosaic SMaSH recipe
In response to a couple of queries, I thought I'd post the recipe for the Vienna-Mosaic SMaSH I referred to in a previous post.
The recipe is:
4.5kg Vienna Malt
15g Mosaic (first wort addition)
1tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)
20g Mosaic whirlpool
1 pkt of Safale US-05
20g Mosaic dry hop
60-minute mash at 69 degrees
90-minute boil
20-minute whirlpool at 75 degrees
3-day dry hop after about 7 days' fermentation
This assumes a brew house efficiency of around 85%, so the target OG is 1.050.
If anyone tries this I'd love to hear how it goes for you.
This assumes a brew house efficiency of around 85%, so the target OG is 1.050.
If anyone tries this I'd love to hear how it goes for you.
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| The current batch, of which there's not a lot left :( |
Update on last weekend's brews
Both brews started showing active fermentation quickly. The Tripel yeast used in the Munich-El Dorado SMaSH kicked off by late evening on brew day, and the US-05 in the Goldings pale* was bubbling cheerfully when I checked it the following morning. I was pleased to see this as I've found US-05 a bit of a slow starter in the past.
Last night I dry-hopped both beers. 50g of El Dorado in the SMaSH and 20g of East Kent Goldings and 10g of Motueka in the Goldings pale.
I checked the gravity this morning and took the opportunity to sample both beers. The SMaSH brew has dropped from an OG of 1.068 to 1.014, suggesting it's pretty well done and has hit 6.99% abv. The Goldings pale has gone from 1.051 to 1.013, so probably also about done, and coming in at a more modest 4.75%.
Flavour wise, at this stage I'm more excited about the Munich-El Dorado SMaSH, but that I suspect is at least in part due to the fact that its stronger malt and hop flavours are more successfully masking the yeast. The SMaSH looks like it should finish up very full-flavoured with big hop notes, especially once the dry-hop takes effect. The Goldings pale, meanwhile, promises to be an easy-drinking, pleasant, fairly-sessionable drop, but without the punch of its (fraternal) twin.
*Goldings golden no longer seems like a strictly accurate appellation.
Last night I dry-hopped both beers. 50g of El Dorado in the SMaSH and 20g of East Kent Goldings and 10g of Motueka in the Goldings pale.
I checked the gravity this morning and took the opportunity to sample both beers. The SMaSH brew has dropped from an OG of 1.068 to 1.014, suggesting it's pretty well done and has hit 6.99% abv. The Goldings pale has gone from 1.051 to 1.013, so probably also about done, and coming in at a more modest 4.75%.
Flavour wise, at this stage I'm more excited about the Munich-El Dorado SMaSH, but that I suspect is at least in part due to the fact that its stronger malt and hop flavours are more successfully masking the yeast. The SMaSH looks like it should finish up very full-flavoured with big hop notes, especially once the dry-hop takes effect. The Goldings pale, meanwhile, promises to be an easy-drinking, pleasant, fairly-sessionable drop, but without the punch of its (fraternal) twin.
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| Munich-El Dorado SMaSH |
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| Goldings pale |
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