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. 

Black IPA

Brew Day: 1/12/15

1 gallon extract kit from Northern Brewer.

3/4 gal in the kettle

0.1 lb Briess Crystal 80L0.05 lb Weyermann Carafa III
0.05 lb Chocolate malt

Steeped grains at 160. Down to 132 after 30 mins. Added 3/4 gal to bring total pre-boil volume to 1.5 gals. Turned heat back on, it took 18 mins to bring to a boil. 45 min boil. 

1.5 lb Gold LME - 45 mins (waited to get past hot break before adding hops)
7 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 45 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 11.8% AA - 15 mins
1 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
3.5 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 10 mins
3.5 gram Cascade hops 6.5% AA - 5 mins
7 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 0 mins
7 gram Cascade hops 6.5% AA - 0 mins
5 oz Corn Sugar - 0 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Took 11 mins to cool down to 91. It's winter here in Minnesota so I took the opportunity to cool it the rest of the way out on the patio at 0 degrees, and that made me come up with a clever corny name for the beer. Black I(ce)PA.

I'm not lying. It was seriously 0 degrees.

Overshot the projected gravity of 1.071 and ended up at 1.077. I'm okay with it. Dumped the wort out of the kettle, through the double-mesh strainer, into a 1 gal jug to aerate. There were a lot of hops left over in the kettle too. 

Then cleaned the strainer and dumped out of the jug into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched yeast at 69. Safale US-05. Most of the Northern Brewer 1 gal kits call for only 1/2 of the dry yeast packet, but this is a pretty high OG so I used the whole thing. Once it's done it's job, it'll fall out anyway. Attached blowoff tube just in case the extra headroom on the bucket isn't enough. Fermenting at 67.

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

OG: 1.077 (18.8 brix) 

est IBU: 66

est FG: 1.020
est SRM: 23.64

Racked to secondary: 1/26/15

Two weeks and now time to rack the beer off the yeast. It smells great. Plenty of hops in the bottom of the bucket, even with straining the wort twice before pitching the yeast. I tasted the sample I pulled off and it was what a black IPA should taste like. I just used the ambient temp in the apartment to ferment this one. It swayed a bit between 64-72 so it didn't get the consistency it probably should've gotten, but we were gone for a bit down to St. Louis to visit family/friends. Which I think is probably ok since it fermented down further than I'd estimated. It got down to 1.014, instead of the 1.020 I was expecting. Guess that extra 1/2 packet of yeast did the trick on the high original gravity. So I should end up about 8.27% abv. 

I'll give it a few days in secondary then bottle. Don't want to wait too long to bottle, cause I want all those amazing hop aromas and oils to be super fresh. I'm debating using gelatin on this to clear it up, but it's so black it may not make a difference. Have you used gelatin to clear your beer? Let me know your process and results in the comments.\

Bottled: 2/10/15

Due to the hops, my wort loss was pretty dramatic. I only got four 22 oz bottles filled. Now to sit and condition.

Battle of the IPA kits

In an attempt to keep a variety of different beers around the house, I've decided to brew more small batch kits. It should also cut down on the amount of time it takes to brew and bottle as opposed to 5 gallon kits. So I picked up two IPA kits from Northern Brewer, and want your help to choose which one I should make first. Click the link below to cast your vote.

Chinook IPA

Black IPA

>>>>> go to my Instagram picture here to vote <<<<<