I knocked up a quick recipe that I hope will give me a nice dry, strong "New World" IPA:
Nelson's Gem
Grain:
5.5kg Maris Otter
250g Vienna Malt
150g Wheat Malt
Hops
(Of course, if I were a CAMRA member, I could just use any old hops as they don't really matter
)I chose Nelson Sauvin at 11.5% AA for their gooseberryish almost wine like aroma and taste, coupled with Pacific Gem at 13.7% AA for the blackberry fruitiness. This should give a nice fruity taste and arome with a good citrussy bitterness and some woody notes. But who really cares about hops anyway? If I'd had some dusty old hops lying around, I should probably have used them and stuck an aquarium heater in the mash too.....
Anyway. I went with the following hop schedule (all whole flowers):
12g Nelson Sauvin FWH
12g Pacific Gem FWH
15g Nelson Sauvin at 15 mins
15g Pacific Gem at 15 mins
10g Nelson Sauvin at 5 mins
13g Nelson Sauvin in the hopback.
Yeast is US-05
Water treatment to "Dry Pale Ale" on GW's water calculator
Target 23l at 1052 OG, 50.2 IBU
(That's an almost 1:1 BU/GU ratio, although the hops don't really matter, so who cares eh - certainly not CAMRA)
I aimed for a low mash temp of 64.5C to give a highly fermentable wort to get a light body and dry finish.
Here's the pics:
Today's grain bill
Temp was a little low, and I didn't have time to fix it as I had to go out. Should be fine anyway. It had got to 63 by the time I got back two and a half hours later.
First runnings going in
Running off....no problems here....
Hop soup about to boil
I had a bit of a kit reconfiguration....connected the hopback directly to the chiller to save a couple of fittings and a bit of tubing
Difficult to see, but I also made a standoff under the mesh screen to keep the screen off the end of the cylinder and give more drain area
And today, I put the pump before the hopback....
Here's the postboil setup. I stuck the chiller in a bucket as I didn't want to jubilee clip it all together yet and the chill water leaks a bit.
Cloudy weather....nice break.
Loadsa shite left over. This hop strainer works really well! It also drains down much better than my H&G hop blocker, it sucks almost all the wort straight out
Today, the whole setup worked properly. It still took a while to pump through the hopback though. When it was finished, I took it all apart and found this at the bottom (there was a lot more, but it all fell apart. Even though I used less hops than yesterday, they were still pretty well compacted at the end of the hopback. I think next time I use it I will set it up so the pump pumps upwards through the hopback - at least that way gravity might stop some of the compaction. Anyway.....it worked, so I'm pleased with that!
Here's my cunning stand off mod. The (food grade) plastic prevents the screen touching the end wall of the cylinder
Here's the detail of the end plug assembly (for Hogarth). This is a right bastard to fit when it's all cold. I should get some keg lube to make life easier. Still, at least it seals perfectly.
And the end result. Crystal clear wort (although there is a lot of cold break material settled out in the bottom of the trial jar), and it smells fantastic - definitely more intense than normal. The hopback is doing it's job alright, but it does slow down the run off as the hops make a solid filter bed.
(EDIT: Forgot to say, I ended up with a bit over 24L of wort at 1052. OG smack on, but more wort than expected. I had thought I'd get less due to the leftovers in the pump, tubing and hopback, but it obviously drains better from the kettle and compensates....)
The chiller is a monster. I had it going as little as I could and it still chilled the wort down to 14C on the way through! The hopback restricts the flow though, so I'm not surprised. I'll have to test it without the hopback at some point, but I'm pretty impressed. It's a pain in the arse to clean compared to my IC though. I backflush it with cold water, then give it a soak with Bruclean, then flush it again, then stick it in the oven for an hour to dry out thoroughly.
Phew! Another one done - and much easier than yesterday. A few more brews and some more fettling should see this kit all integrated properly. Then it's on the the HERMS heater and a recirculated mash....
Onwards and Upwards !
