Chinook IPA

Brew Day: 1/27/15

1 gallon extract kit from Northern Brewer.

3/4 gal in the kettle

0.15 lb Belgian Carapils
0.05 lb Crystal 120L

Steeped grains at 160. Down to 152 after 20 mins. Added 1/2 gal to bring total pre-boil volume to 1.25 gals. Turned heat back on. 45 min boil. 

1.5 lb Light LME - 45 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 45 mins
1/4 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 10 mins
7 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 0 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Siphoned out of kettle (to leave hops behind) through the double-mesh strainer into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched half a packet of Safale US-05 at 69. Gonna shoot for a fermentation temp of 68 using ambient temp in the apartment. Under shot the gravity a bit, hoping for 1.057, ended up with 1.050. Maybe should've boiled off a bit more, though my volume was right at 1 gal in the fermentation bucket.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, then 2-4 weeks in secondary, then about 2 weeks to bottle condition.

OG: 1.050 (12.5 brix) 

est IBU: 40.58

est FG: 1.016
est SRM: 7.7

Racked to secondary: 2/11/15

Racked the beer into a 1 gal glass jug, and put in the fermentation chamber where it's 60. I've got a lot of bottles from previous batches in there. It's turning into more of a cellar than a fermentation chamber. It makes a good case to go to kegs, less space requirements, but I don't have a good place to keep the kegs cool once fermentation is complete. So bottles will have to continue for now.

It bottomed out at 1.015, so it should be about 4.59% abv. It still tastes/smells very sweet. This is my second attempt at this recipe, cause the first one was too sweet. I hurried the last batch for a party and didn't give it enough time, and that was my downfall. So I'm taking my time now. We'll have to wait and see.

Added gelatin: 2/25/15

Trying to get a nice clear beer. Added 1/8th of a tsp to 2/3 cup of cold water. Heated up the mixture in the microwave in 15 second bursts until it got to 150 deg. Stirred mixture and dumped it into the beer which had been in the fridge for a week at 38 deg. 

Packaged: 3/16/15

After over a month in the fridge clarifying, I ended up with 1 22oz bottle & 6 12oz bottles. This was my first gelatin experiment, so we'll see how clear it is after carbonating.