Autumn Red IPA

[AnthonyD]

Hi,

Any thoughts on the recipe below?

Planning on doing it this weekend, with a 3L Brett Trois starter. It's a 4.5G brew length, and I'm planning on adding the acid malt in 20 mins before the end of the mash. After reading The Mad Fermentationist's blog and book extensively - it looks like this might add some extra dimension. The ferulic acid rest at 50C is there for the same reason. You can read about it here: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/se ... -results=6

Hope it's a fruity bomb! The Amber Malt is the Crisp Maltings version, which I'm told is very different and heaps more subtle than normal Amber malt.

3.00 kg Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 47.6 %
1.00 kg Amber Malt (25.4 SRM) Grain 2 15.9 %
1.00 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 15.9 %
1.00 kg Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 4 15.9 %
0.15 kg Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
0.15 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (178.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.4 %

Protein Rest Add 12.90 l of water at 57.0 C 50.0 C 35 min
Saccharification Add 20.18 l of water at 79.6 C 66.0 C 60 min

10.00 g Bravo [17.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 19.7 IBUs
10.00 g Bravo [17.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 10.9 IBUs
30.00 g HBC 366 (Experimental) [15.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 18.9 IBUs
40.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 5.9 IBUs
30.00 g HBC 366 (Experimental) [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 9.5 IBUs

1.0 pkg Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois (White Labs #WLP644)

60.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
40.00 g HBC 366 (Experimental) [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

Vital Stats:
Boil Size: 5.55 Imp gal
Post Boil Volume: 4.80 Imp gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 4.50 Imp gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 Imp gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 15.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 64.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

[seymour]

Sure looks good to me! Happy brewing. Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

[AnthonyD]

I'm thinking of dropping the amber a fair few % maybe to 8% and throwing a few 100g of biscuit malt in instead. Is a kg of Amber too much for this type of beer?

[seymour]

I'm thinking of dropping the amber a fair few % maybe to 8% and throwing a few 100g of biscuit malt in instead. Is a kg of Amber too much for this type of beer?

That much Thomas Fawcett Amber Malt would be really dominant, but I'm intrigued by your comment that Crisp is subtler. Some breweries claim to use high percentages of Amber Malt, so this helps me understand how that's possible. It's entirely your judgment call.

[AnthonyD]

I think I'll wait for the ingredients to arrive tomorrow maybe make a mini mash/grain tea to test before deciding. I don't want to ruin this one, thinking of entering it into a comp, (not bcjp rules) in January.

[AnthonyD]

So I did this today, and found that I was 90g short of cara-aroma, so topped up with Cara-gold and 60g of carafa 3 for colour.

I hit all my targets (first time ever!!), and was even slightly more efficient than I had hoped for. Apart from it being more brown than red, I have high hopes for this one. It smells hoppy and the sample from the trial jar had just the right amount of toasty/biscuit balance.

Lets see how MR. BRETTANOMYCES turns this one out!

[AnthonyD]

So 24hrs after pitching and it seems there is a lovely soft white krausen on top of the beer. I was worried I hadn't pitched enough brett, after reading it takes a good long while to reach a good cell density.

The 2.5L starter was only made 24hrs before brewing too, not the best timing but I placed my order really late for a Saturday brewday!

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Anyone had any experience re-pitching onto a 100% Brett yeast cake? Does it cause any off issues?

[AnthonyD]

This seems to be fermenting down slowly now, was 1.020 on Thursday, down to 1.014 now. Think it's going to be stable soon, so have dry hopped it with 100g of Falconer's Flight. My thought being that it should marry nicely with the tropical fruit that i'm getting from the sample, and add more aroma, acting as a counterpoint to the slight toast at the end of the palate.

[seymour]

...down to 1.014 now. Think it's going to be stable soon...

I hate to break it to you, but Brett is nowhere near done at 1014. It'll continue fermenting, slowly but surely, almost to the gravity of water. Beware any bottles you don't drink right away, they could build-up some explosive pressure over time.

[AnthonyD]

Even 100% Brett Trois? I was led to believe it acts like sacch. when used as a primary strain, and would conk out way before getting to dangerous bottle bomb levels?

[Thorbz]

I've used WLP644 in an IPA and a pale ale, and found it behaved pretty much like a regular yeast. The last bottle or two of the IPA were a little gassy, but a long way from bottle bomb territory. I've still about half of the pale left, and I haven't noticed any increase in carbonation so far. For the record, the IPA went from 1.072 to 1.010, and the pale 1.050 to 1.010 ( with sugar at just over 5% of the grain-bill in the pale ).

The IPA I brewed was pretty much the Tonsmeire recipe, and it was one of the best beers I've made. The BBT makes a great flavour contribution. I fermented 20L of the pale wort with BBT and 20L with BRY97, and the BBT beer is night and day better.

Fingers crossed this turns out well for you.

[AnthonyD]

That's what I thought Thorbz. I'm going to give it until Monday and then take gravity readings to ensure it's stable. I won't bottle until stable but I was hoping it would be over this weekend or Monday.. i.e 14 to 16 days in primary.

[AnthonyD]

I bottled this yesterday, 5 days steady reading of 1.011 on the hydrometer and zero airlock action (not a good indicator I know).

Smells of pineapple and mango, a lovely balanced bitterness and then it finishes with a slight toastiness from the amber and munich malts. It's definetly brown and not red, but I've got a plan for a proper red IPA for my next brew using, Pale, Malted Rye, Dark Crystal, Melanoiden malt, Cara-red, Crystal Rye and Chocolate Rye in that one!! Thinking Galaxy and Summer for that one, leaving the a 100g at least of the Summer for dry hopping - supposedly it really smells of apricot.

I got 28 x 568ml bottles and 5 x 330ml out of 18 litres in the bottling bucket so really pleased with that. Used 69g of white suger in 18L so about 2 vols of CO2 per bottle.

Just got to wait for it to carb up now! Ya!

[seymour]

Sounds delicious, nice work!