Making another British IPA

[Tony1951]

Just mashing my grains for another batch of my English IPA.

Since I started mashing without the grain bag I have been getting much more efficiency and the beers have been perhaps a bit too strong, ending up in the bottle at about 7.8% ABV. My typical grain bill was 6kg of Weyermanns Pale Ale, 150 Grammes of Crystal, mashed in 15 litres and then sparged with another 18 litres in two stages. Forst sparge was 10 litres at 75C and second was 7 litres at 75C. I stir the grains in the naked boiler when adding the sparge waters and then let them settle. 20 minutes for the first sparge and about 10 minutes for the second. This has been giving me about 27 litres of wort. After the boil I have been recovering about 23 litres of wort at OG of 1066. I've hit this figure the last four brews so I must be doing something consistent at last.

This time, I have reduced the Pale Ale malt by 1kg so I'm mashing 5KG right now plus the little 150gm Crystal addition. I'm thinking the IPA ought to come out a bit North of 6% which is probably plenty for me and my fellow home brew drinkers.

My Hop Schedule will be as follows:

22gm Magnum @60
37 gm EKG pellets @10
40 gm EKG pellets after turn off when the wort has been cooled to 80C. There will be a half hour steep before the cooler is turned back on to cool to 20C.

[Clibit]

I'll have to give this a go. Are you using Nottingham yeast?

[Tony1951]

Yes Clibit. Just got out 27 litres of wort from the mash at about 1059, but this is a rogh guide as yet because I am estimating the wort temperature as 50C. Yes to the Nottingham question. Hope you like it if you go for it. My reduced grain bill is based on my queer mashing method which involves no bag and stirring for each sparge and then letting it settle and rest before drawing off the wort.

Not a bad day for it up here in Newcastle. I brew outside and in January after a late start, I had some miserable cold steamy evenings in that shed. Fortunately, there was a plastic keg of some reasonable (though not excellent) ale to console me and to keep body and soul together. I even had the good lady come up and more or less chuck a plate of dinner in and say 'I might as well get used to eating on my own then' - daggers from the eyes.... LOL. Anyway - today it is quite warm. Pullover weather rather than big old dog walking coat.

[Clibit]

Top efficiency!

I'd love to have a brew shed to hang out in. And I don't even have anyone WMBO. I always forget to obey, and they bugger off. True story.

[Tony1951]

Top efficiency!

I'd love to have a brew shed to hang out in. And I don't even have anyone WMBO. I always forget to obey, and they bugger off. True story.

Don't quote me on that estimate of OG... It was hot wort and I have since had to add back some water so we will need to wait for it to cool down. I have found the mashing boiler thing without a bag to add 2% ABV to a previously 5.5% ABV grain bill though. I'll get back to you when the wort drops down to 20C - just went up there and it is still 40C. I'm glad I'm not on a water meter with this cooling coil lark though even though it is a month since I brewed a batch.

There is often a certain amount of friction when I am brewing here... I'm probably more messy and disruptive than I might suggest in my posts. LOL

EDIT:

I got 22 litres in the FV of 1059OG. I have about another litre of 'muck' in the boiler which I might rescue tomorrow when it has settled and it might come through the filter. At the moment it won't pass the fine mesh, but I've discovered that if I leave it alone it will settle and pass the liquor.

I've pitched a packet of Nottingham rehydrated in half a litre of luke warm water.

[Tony1951]

I'll have to give this a go. Are you using Nottingham yeast?

Fermenting like the clappers now 36 hours after pitching. Air lock is streaming continuous bubbles with no more gap than half a second. Brew temp is 22C - I am keeping the house cool at 18C, but the bugger has taken off on its own. If it stays at 22 I know I will be alright. I'd rather it was at 20. I've been resisting making a brew fridge, but maybe I should give in and make one.

[Clibit]

I'll have to give this a go. Are you using Nottingham yeast?

Fermenting like the clappers now 36 hours after pitching. Air lock is streaming continuous bubbles with no more gap than half a second. Brew temp is 22C - I am keeping the house cool at 18C, but the bugger has taken off on its own. If it stays at 22 I know I will be alright. I'd rather it was at 20. I've been resisting making a brew fridge, but maybe I should give in and make one.

You could do some very safe variations on this recipe. Use a liquid British yeast with a similar attenuation to Notty. Use hops similar to EKG like First Gold and Challenger. Maybe combine them with Northdown, which complements those three well in my experience. Vary the colour of crystal, or try caramalt or amber malt instead. There's a great English IPA guide here from Greg Hughes' Brewuk site...

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/blog/english-ipa/

[Tony1951]

I'll have to give this a go. Are you using Nottingham yeast?

Fermenting like the clappers now 36 hours after pitching. Air lock is streaming continuous bubbles with no more gap than half a second. Brew temp is 22C - I am keeping the house cool at 18C, but the bugger has taken off on its own. If it stays at 22 I know I will be alright. I'd rather it was at 20. I've been resisting making a brew fridge, but maybe I should give in and make one.

You could do some very safe variations on this recipe. Use a liquid British yeast with a similar attenuation to Notty. Use hops similar to EKG like First Gold and Challenger. Maybe combine them with Northdown, which complements those three well in my experience. Vary the colour of crystal, or try caramalt or amber malt instead. There's a great English IPA guide here from Greg Hughes' Brewuk site...

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/blog/english-ipa/

Thanks Clibit. You are a mine of information. I just read an article about Brewdog and was reminded that I am a big stick in the mud. When I first bought my boiler last summer, I made a bunch of 23 litre brews with different hops and different ingredients and pretty much hated them all. Then I made a variation of the Gregg Hughes English IPA recipe and I stuck close to that after, using the same malt bill more or less and slightly evolving two hop schedules, one with English hops and one with American. These suited me fine, and that is all I have brewed since. This mirrors my character - I find something I like and I stick to it, which is CERTAINLY not the Brewdog philosophy, but then, I'm no Punk and I'm not marketing my beer, and I'm especially not marketing my beer wrapped up in a dead hedgehog....

I'm going directly to that site you linked to there to have a read. Thanks for the advice and for your input.


EDIT:

Give or take a bit of fiddling that is pretty much what I brewed - at least within the style bounds. Like you say though there are some interesting experiments possible around the yeasts, the finessing of mash temperature and the malts used.

[Tony1951]

By the way Clibit, I am going to be using First Gold come what may. I planted three rhyzomes of it a couple of weeks ago and am waiting for them to break ground. Should be interesting. I hope they do well, but it might be 2017 before I get a decent amount of them...

[ManseMasher]

Fermenting like the clappers now 36 hours after pitching. Air lock is streaming continuous bubbles with no more gap than half a second. Brew temp is 22C - I am keeping the house cool at 18C, but the bugger has taken off on its own. If it stays at 22 I know I will be alright. I'd rather it was

Thanks Clibit. You are a mine of information. I just read an article about Brewdog and was reminded that I am a big stick in the mud. When I first bought my boiler last summer, I made a bunch of 23 litre brews with different hops and different ingredients and pretty much hated them all. Then I made a variation of the Gregg Hughes English IPA recipe and I stuck close to that after, using the same malt bill more or less and slightly evolving two hop schedules, one with English hops and one with American. These suited me fine, and that is all I have brewed since. This mirrors my character - I find something I like and I stick to it, which is CERTAINLY not the Brewdog philosophy, but then, I'm no Punk and I'm not marketing my beer, and I'm especially not marketing my beer wrapped up in a dead hedgehog....

I'm going directly to that site you linked to there to have a read. Thanks for the advice and for your input.[/quote]

Absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with what you like! Sometimes I brew and then think 'nowhere near as nice as such and such'. Every couple of brews I have to go back to what I can rely on just to reassure myself I can produce decent stuff!

[Tony1951]

Absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with what you like! Sometimes I brew and then think 'nowhere near as nice as such and such'. Every couple of brews I have to go back to what I can rely on just to reassure myself I can produce decent stuff!

So much more important that you 'like' what you brew, now that you are working on an industrial scale...

I'd REALLY hate to have one of your giant vats filled with some of the concoctions I made last June. I have one in the garage still in a plastic keg that I ought to chuck, but meanness forbids, which I keep checking on about every six weeks to see if I can bear to drink it. I managed a pint this week with a curry. Had it been a milder tasting dinner, I might have chucked it..... Naaa - you are right Mans - I was just feeling I was being overly conservative having read that Guardian Brewdog article.

[Clibit]

Tony: Good luck with the hop growing. I am blessed with a wide ranging taste in beer. But my preference is for strong flavours, bland beer seems like a waste of ingredients to me! So I made a mild a few months ago, but couldn't resist lifting the IBUs and adding a lot of flame out hops!

I've yet to find a hop I really don't like, though I like some a lot more than others. I don't dislike any malts I've tried. I have struggled with some yeasts though. I wasn't keen on the European yeasts that produce spice and banana, but I'm developing a taste for those now. I seem to like anything that isn't just dull. Simple balanced beers can be great though, like a nice blonde ale. I feel the yeast plays a key part in these kinds of beers. Actually a delicate beer needs quality ingredients and a quality fermentation if that makes sense, I think.

With your American IPA recipe, consider some other hop pairings. Citra and Amarillo is great. So is Centennial and Amarillo. Simcoe, a piney hop, is another I use regularly, and Mosaic has broken into my inner hop circle. I love Columbus, but it's quite a dank herby hop. I think Mosaic and Amarillo are ones you would be likely to enjoy in combination with Citra and Centennial. They are both fruity and really delicious. Small test batches perhaps?

[ManseMasher]

What do you think about Riwaka mate?

[Clibit]

What do you think about Riwaka mate?

I LOVE Riwaka. It's not for everyone though, it's pretty full on. I'm a person who eats grapefruit without sugar.

[ManseMasher]

I have 100g that I haven't got around to using yet. Was going to use it in a hefe but changed my mind - I reckon it might overpower the yeast flavours....