Some additional details can be found on my blog here.
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ABBA (aka an American Big Black Ale)
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 27.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 57.2 IBU
Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) 76.4 %
Munich I (Weyermann) 12.5 %
Caraaroma (Weyermann) 3.8 %
Crystal (Joe White) 3.8 %
Wheat Malt, Midnite (Briess) 2.5 %
Carafa Special II (Weyermann) 1.0 %
Columbus (HG 12) (60 min) 22.4 IBU
Cascade (11) (60 min) 20.9 IBU
Cascade 09 (15 min) (0.83g/L) 4.7 IBU
Amarillo (10) (15 min) (0.71g/L) 4.6 IBU
Amarillo (10) (5 min) (0.66g/L) 2.7 IBU
Cascade (HG 12) (5 min) (0.83g/L) 1.9 IBU
Amarillo (10) (0 min, hop-back) (0.66g/L)
Cascade (HG 12) (0 min, hop-back) (0.83g/L)
Whirlfloc (Boil 15.0) (0.04g/L)
Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) (0.04g/L)
Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) (0.16g/L)
Calcium Sulfate (Mash 60.0 min) (0.33g/L)
Mash In (3.33L/kg) 55.0 C 5 min
Maltase Rest 63.0 C 35 min
Dextrinization Rest 71.0 C 35 min
Mash Out 78.0 C 10 min
Wyeast Greenbelt (Starter) (10billion cells/L)
Ferment @ 18 C.
(Notes: Local water is very soft (almost the same as distilled/RO) hence the salt additions, 'HG' hops are 'home grown' and I suspect add a little of their own unique terroir.)
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The Midnight Wheat additions were added to the mash to give it a deep black colour, the first addition was added (100g) of Midnite Wheat added at Maltose Rest, so it would add a little bit of roasty-flavour, and the last 50g added at Mash Out since I was still not happy with how 'black' the wort was at that stage:
But both additions gave a nice nice black wort boiling in the kettle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGX9RPce3vU
It would appear that the Ebay-purchased little brown solar pump(s) have some sort of thermal-cut-off mechanism. After a 90min mash, when I turned off the pump - to transfer the wort return to the kettle and drain the mash tun, the pump would not turn back on again. In addition I forgot to put the kettle-filter in place so had to spend time connecting/wiring a second little brown pump, and then after the kettle was partly-full drain the wort back into the mash in order to set the kettle-filter in place. Unfortunately this resulted in a lower-than-expected efficiency (OG into fermentor was 1.052), so I couldn't really call the beer a "Black IPA" (or whatever the 'correct' name is, so it became ABBA: the American Big Black Ale.
The four hop additions each contained both whole hop flowers and pellets, so it was to be a test of how the new kettle and hop-back would work together as a filtering-system::
The home-grown Centennial were a bit brown by the time they were picked, but they still had a very pungent aroma, but the bittering addition was split between them and a much larger addition of Cascade pellets.
The Hop Back loaded with hops:
After the boil, and draining the kettle, most hop, break and other debris remain in the kettle:
(Keggle is drained from the bottom, via a perforated stainless filter)
But the Hop Back also provides (two layers of) additional filtering (before the wort is chilled via a plate chiller):
... and the second (fine) hop back filter:
When finished, it smelled and looked good going into the fermentor:
Not very exciting to look at but, here is the first batch of beer (in some time) fermenting in the fridge:
Rather ironically - because all you guys are complaining how hot it is over there - the yeast-starters also needed to go into the (temperature controlled) fridge (with heat-mat) because it was too cold for them to be happy sitting in the lounge-room!
After a few days the yeast was happy doing it's thing:
I found it very interesting to compare how the ABBA krausen looked so different to the Widbierkrausen (exactly the same yeast - even the same starter to the next to last step - same temperature, different recipe):
After fermenting for 10 days, another 5 days at 2degC 'cold conditioning', I force carbonated the first sample tonight, and it's tasting pretty good, a mix of mild-roasty malt and hoppyness, - I'll post a picture and more details soon.