New Chapter IPA

In my usual fashion of wanting to try new brewing processes every time I brew I came up with a way to modify my IPA process. Most breweries use what is called a “hopback” for hopping their IPAs. Sierra Nevada calls it their torpedo system. There are hopbacks available for homebrewers to purchase but their somewhat expensive. The basic idea behind a hopback is that you run the beer across fresh hops after you have chilled it so that the beer is not extracting bitterness. Breweries usually place their hopback after their heat exchanger. Even if I did have a hopback without a pump it would be hard to use unless my system was gravity fed, which it is not. I want to increase the aroma I get from my IPAs but my options are limited to dry hopping and flame out hops. 

After thinking about it I came up with a way to produce, what I hope is a similar effect of a hopback, without having a hopback. Since I have a rather unique way of chilling my wort (filling a corny keg and using CO2 to push it through a jockey box submerged in an ice bath) I thought, why not have the wort go through only one coil in an ice bath to chill it a little and run the wort into a second corny keg filled with hops instead of straight into a carboy? 

After preforming a 30 minute hop stand in the kettle at flame out I racked the beer into a corny and pushed it through one coil that was in an ice bath and the other that was sitting out in the air and into a corny keg which had a bag of hops in it. The wort was chilled to 105^oF. I sealed it and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then I pushed the wort back through my jockey box and chilled it the rest of the way into a carboy. Hopefully this extra step of hopping will increase my aroma or at least give it an extra layer of aroma/flavor. 

The only issue that in encountered while brewing was that my efficiency came way under what it normally does because my mash was too acidic. I definitely added too much acid malt. My calculation said it would end up around 5.2pH but I think once I broke through the buffering capacity of my water it dropped pretty rapidly. I’m hoping there will not be any acidity showing through.

Beer Stats

Batch size: 5.5 gallons

Boil time: 135 minutes

Estimated OG: 1.071

Measured OG: 1.064
Measured FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 54

SRM:7.1^o

Grain Bill

7lbs Pale Malt

5 lbs Pilsner Malt

1 lb Acid Malt

1.5 lbs Vienna Malt

0.5 lbs Table Sugar

Hop Schedule

40 min – Nugget – 1.75oz – Pellet

30 min - Whirlpool – Galaxy – 1oz – Pellet

30 min - Whirlpool – Citra – 0.5oz - Pellet

30 min - Whirlpool – Mosaic – 1.5oz - Pellet

30 min - Hopback – Galaxy – 1.5oz – Pellet

30 min - Hopback – Mosaic – 0.5oz – Pellet

30 min - Hopback – Citra – 1.5oz – Pellet

30 min - Hopback – Columbus – 0.5oz – Pellet

3 days – Dry Hop – Citra – 1oz – Pellet

3 days – Dry Hop – Mosaic – 1oz – Pellet

3 days – Dry Hop – Galaxy – 1oz – Pellet

3 days – Dry Hop – Columbus – 0.75oz – Pellet

Yeast

1.5L starter of Conan yeast

Mash Schedule

60 minute Saccrification rest at 150^oF, infused 2 gallons of boiling water to bring temperature to 167^oF

Notes:

6/15/14 – Brewed by myself. Mash pH reading was at 4.91, which is 0.3 below where I wanted it. Oddly the boil pH came in at 4.93 at the end, which is where I want it so I’m not really sure. I might need to recalibrate my pH meter. Added 6 grams of gypsum and 3 grams of CaCl to the mash. Ended up with 8.5 gallons of wort so I extended the boil to increase the gravity and lower the volume.

Chilled to 75^oF and placed in the chest freezer to bring it down a little bit more. Pitch yeast 6 hours later. Temperature set to 64^oF

6/16/14 – Signs of fermentation 18 hours after pitching. 

6/17/14 – Temperature increased to 66^oF

6/18/14 – Temperature increased to 68^oF

6/21/14 - Temperature increased to 73^oF

6/23/14 - Racked to a keg and dry hopped.

6/27/14 - Turns out the yeast had stalled and racking it brought the yeast back into suspension and it has continued fermenting. I will continue to blow off pressure from the keg as often as I can. Easily the biggest mess I've created inside doing brewing stuff.

7/4/14 - Placed back into the chest freezer to cold crash

7/10/14 - Racked to a keg and pressurized to 14psi

 

First Tasting: Hell Camino

I will admit that I first thought of the name for this beer before I even brewed it, normally it’s the other way around for me. As soon as I thought of the name I then had to brew the beer. I wanted to brew something for the warmer months and I’ve wanted to try my hand and brewing a lager for the first time.  I also thought that a Helles would be a good first lager since its maltier then a Pilsner, however; it’s not as malty as a Bock and on the lower end of the alcohol spectrum. 

I figured I would go all in on my first lager and do a double decoction, because why not? Did it make a difference I have no idea. If you ask a German they will say it matters but if you do a side by side with a single infusion you may not see a difference. The only problem that I discovered with lager brewing, and didn’t really consider, is that it takes my chest freezer out of commission. I can still have kegs in it but if they run out or get low I can’t brew another beer because I can’t raise the temperature for ale fermentation while its lagering. That means I can only brew Saions while lagering, until I can get a separate lagering refrigerator. Now on to the review

Appearance: Pours a slightly hazy orangish yellow with a thick fluffy white head that slowly lingers and fades to a thin lacing over the top of the beer and clings to the sides of the glass. I’m definitely disappointed on the clarity but if I really cared about it I could add some fining agents. 

Aroma: I don’t get any sulfur and maybe just a touch of diacetyl. Although I’m wondering if the diacetyl that I perceive is because I’m looking for it and expecting some to be there since it was my first lager. I need to bring this beer to homebrew club for some non-biased reviews. Other than that the aroma is slightly grainy with a touch of spicy hops on the nose. Malty and caramel sweetness are provided by the grains. 

Flavor: I feel like there is a touch of diacetyl in the flavor of the beer but it’s small if anything, but I do think I can detect it more in the flavor then in the aroma. I wouldn’t say it’s a negative, just there. The flavor is similar to the aroma, grainy and slightly sweet with very little bitterness.   

Mouthfeel: Light body with medium high carbonation and a dry finish with a touch of caramel on the back end. Very easy to drink and easy to enjoy a few pours in one sitting. 

Overall: I’m pleased with how this beer turned out, especially for being my first lager and first time I performed a decoction mash. I do wish that the beer would clear up with the need for finings but it could be because I didn’t lager it long enough. I enjoyed making a lager, it was a different experience then my normal brewing procedure, much more technical and controlled, but I enjoyed it and want to brew another lager. I just need to find a time that will work for me and allow me to ferment other beers as well.

First Tasting: Rustic Saison

It has taken me a while to get around to reviewing my Rustic Saison, partially due to my keggerator being incapacitated and partially due to life events which have caused me to be completely apathetic to anything. However, I now have my keggerator back and I have motivation again. This was my first attempt in using honey in a beer. I wanted the flavor and aroma of the honey to peak through so I added it in after cooling the wort in attempting to preserve it’s characteristics that would be boiled off. As I looked into it a little more I found out that you can actually add honey after fermentation as well since yeast fermentation can also drive off volatile aromas from honey. I never really considered that as an option but I think it would be the best option in the future. The concept is similar to either adding fruit or dry hopping. 

Appearance: Hazy opaque orange-yellow with a fluffy white head that fades a little faster than I would prefer. I’m not entirely sure why the head retention is so poor for the style. I don’t think I’ve ever brewed a saison where the head fades this quickly. My guess is it was my mash schedule, but it could be a dirty glass or dirty beer lines (I will admit in my apathy cleaning the lines was not something I was interested in doing). With enough time in the glass it does clear up surprisingly well, so any haze must just be chill haze.

Aroma: Spicy phenols with a touch of clove and citrus with a floral back ground. I’m pretty pleased with how the aroma came out. I might prefer it to be more floral and less spicy, but it’s hard to control saison fermentation.

Taste: Similar to the aroma, however, the spice from the yeast is much more apparent. Black pepper, clove, and cinnamon with a touch of citrus. I don’t get much of the honey in the flavor, but I assumed it would be that way since the honey is pretty much 100% fermentable, there shouldn’t be any residual sugars left for flavor. 

Mouthfeel: This is probably the aspect that I’m most disappointed with this beer. The body is creamier then I would like and fuller then I would want in a saison. I think that comes from the fact that the carbonation is too low, but without a duel gauge regulator I can’t have two different levels of carbonation. The finish is very dry though, which I do like form a saison, it might be the driest beer I’ve ever brewed. 

Overall: I’m pleased with how the beer came out. I would definitely say, after a few batches using my pH meter, that taking mash pH into account has definitely improved my beers. I think the lower acidity improved the fermentation, which dried out the beer and has caused some of the flavors to be brighter and cleaner. It also has probably helped with the clarity of my beer as well. Next time I brew this beer I’ll probably add the honey after fermentation and maybe try to minimize the yeast phenols by increasing my pitch count.