Beaumont IPA - Brewday 21.November.2010

[bosium]

I finally got to make my first 10-gallon batch of beer today
This is maybe just a little weak for an IPA, and a bit big and hoppy for a bitter. I was going to make it bigger, say 1.056, but at the end of the day I want something very drinkable so I dialed it down a bit. It was meant to be somewhat TTL-esque, but otherwise just a nice strong pale ale with mostly english hops.

I've had a 70L boiler from Rob the Malt Miller for a while now, but I'd yet to use it as my mash tun is a little small to do 10 gallons. However, I decided to give fly sparging a go to maximise the capacity so I mashed 10Kg of grain with 20L of water - it was completely to the brim though and really thick so I definitely need a bigger mash tun (and HLT). I had to make a bit of a ghetto arrangement with bits and pieces that I had lying around, using my old boiler as a small HLT and topping it up with water I heated on the stove-top in a big stock pot. Still, it worked much better than I expected - I got 82% efficiency and I definitely could have got higher if I'd sparged a bit more but I stopped it early to avoid any astringency.


OG 1.051
FG 1.010
ABV 5.4%
AA 80%
IBU 42.0
EBC 16

Recipe
51.2% Maris Otter pale
30% Golden Promise pale
7% Munich malt
5% Wheat malt
4.3% Pale crystal
2.5% Carabohemia
10g Gypsum

40g - 29.7 IBU - German Magnum 15.7% @ 110 min
60g - 7.1 IBU - Fuggles 4.5% @ 20 min
60g - 5.2 IBU - EKG 5.2% @ 10 min
60g - 0 IBU - Styrian Goldings (pellets) @ 0 min

Mash at 66.7C (152F).
Huge repitch of WLP002 slurry.

Will dry hop after primary fermentation, probably twice over two weeks with a blend of Styrian Goldings and Cascade pellets.

Ghetto fly-sparge setup

[WishboneBrewery]

long old boil there... Hope its a good one

[bosium]

long old boil there... Hope its a good one

Yeah, almost two hours! It was my first time using the malt miller's 70L boiler. The problem is that it's a bit of an anaemic boil with just one element going so the boiloff was much less than I guesstimated. It's a bit ferocious if I turn the second one on though so I was kinda switching it on for a few minutes and then off again in a kind of manual pulse-width modulation.

I need some sort of PWM controller with a long time constant, with some big solid state relays so I can dial it down a bit. Or maybe put it on the stovetop and supplement the one element going with a bit of gas?

Anyway, it's been fermenting like stink for the last few days, so I have high hopes. Looking forward to dry hopping the crap out of it in a few days

[WishboneBrewery]

The cheaper option might be to insulate it.

[mysterio]

I use a thermostat from an electrim mashing bin on my second element, so it just comes on periodically and keeps a nice rolling boil.

[bosium]

Both good ideas - cheers! I have the thermostat from my old bruheat bin lying around somewhere, and some insulation would be nice as the hot stainless steel is a burn waiting to happen..

[Kev888]

I used several layers of closed cell foam sleeping mat for insulation (but armaflex is similar too) and I was surprised how much difference it made to the boil in my case. I guess once it has reached temperature then if you more or less stop heat escaping from the walls the losses from the surface area of the liquid and evaoporation aren't so different to a smaller boiler. Though mine wasn't as shiny as yours so the sacrifice was less

Cheers
kev

[bosium]

Well it fermented down to 1.010, so 5.4% alcohol which is a fairly respectable, yet still drinkable IPA in terms of both dryness and alcohol content.

I dry hopped it with 40g of Styrian Goldings pellets and 40g of Cascade pellets at the weekend, and it's got a wonderful aroma already. The hyrometer sample was hoppy, bitter, tangy, etc and I've got high hopes for this one.

I'll probably have to fine this beer, I find the damn dry hops really contribute to haze but man is it ever worth it for that incredible hoppy nose

[mysterio]

Haze is totally acceptable and expected in hoppy IPAs I reckon. This sounds like an awesome beer.

[bosium]

Cheers M, although I hate haze even when it's technically allowed. I'm not convinced that a week or two of cold conditioning will actually get rid of it, so I'm thinking I may have to add polyclar before kegging.

Also, changed the name to Beaumont IPA, after my street name (lame, I know but can't think of a better name that isn't terribly droll). I didn't realise but there is already a beer called Nearly IPA.

[bosium]

Kegged this yesterday - got two full kegs and an extra gallon in my baby corny for early sampling. Initial tastes are promising, but I can't wait to try it with a bit of CO2 in it so I can get some of that aroma to lift.

I fined the two big kegs with polyclar and silica gel, and set them outside my back door to settle, this cold weather's got to be good for something!

[196osh]

Haze is totally acceptable and expected in hoppy IPAs I reckon. This sounds like an awesome beer.

Damn right it is.

Looks like a great beer. Might try that fly sparge out myself at some point. I have a hop strainer kicking about that looks just like that

[bosium]

Well I put the 6L or so that was in the baby corny on tap, and it's now crystal clear (!) even at 1C in my kegerator, with no finings. Haze really seems to be a strange issue; I really would have expected this beer to be hazey what with all the hops, and then dry hopping as well, but it defies logic and is almost as clear as if it had been filtered.

Anyway, the taste. Well it sure is hoppy, so much so in fact that it's hard to taste the malt at all under all the hop flavour but I'm sure that will mellow with some age - I love that aged hoppy beer flavour. The hop flavour itself is fantastic, the fuggles really stand out at the moment and the aroma is gorgeous. I think this will be a cracking pint when it ages some more as the hops will blend together a bit better and the caramel flavour will start to shine through in a few months time.

[bosium]

This is really starting to taste good now. I've put on one of the kegs that I fined, it's considerably less bitter than the contents of the baby keg which I didn't fine so the finings have definitely pulled quite a bit of bitterness out of the beer.

Anyway, the hops have settled down a bit and it's all starting to taste nice and polished. The dry hopped cascades really come through in the aroma and blend nicely with the styrians - it's almost menthol-like in a weird sort of way, but good. I'm going to squirrel the other keg away and age it for six months or so and see how the flavour changes.

[bosium]

I'd left this alone for some time but came back to it last night for a taster and it's turned to nectar! The hops have finally faded away enough that the sweet malty caramelly flavours are shining through and it's hard to stop drinking. Very pleased.

The keg is almost finished, but luckily I have another keg of it waiting to be tapped. Lets hope it's still in OK shape..