For our first beer, we've decided to do an India Pale Ale. We recently moved to Oregon, in the heart of hop country, so an over hopped IPA seems like the natural choice. Plus, after consuming gallons of Bridgeport's Fresh Hop IPA last fall, I've set a goal of making an all-grain fresh hopped IPA of my own this fall. Oregon has plenty of fresh hops, so all I need to do is figure out how to use them before the harvest.
While my goal is to eventually brew all-grain, I've decided to go with a partial mash (extract plus steeped grains) recipe for my first batch. I picked up a basic IPA recipe and ingredients at Bader Brewing Supply in Vancouver. I'm going to use the recipe as a basic framework. Here are the ingredients.
While my goal is to eventually brew all-grain, I've decided to go with a partial mash (extract plus steeped grains) recipe for my first batch. I picked up a basic IPA recipe and ingredients at Bader Brewing Supply in Vancouver. I'm going to use the recipe as a basic framework. Here are the ingredients.
Goodbye Shotgun IPA
6.6 lbs Unhopped Light Malt Syrup (Coopers brand)
2 lbs Light Dry Malt Powder
1 lb 20L Crystal Malt
1/2 lb 40L Crystal Malt
1/2 lb Dextrin Malt
1 lb Victory Malt
4 oz Cascade Hops (6%)
2 oz Amarillo Hops (9.5%)
1/2 tsp Irish Moss
Steeping the whole grain
After sanitizing everything I could think of I fired up the stove and started heating up 3 gallons of water (filtered and ozonated). Once I hit 150 degrees, I started steeping the cracked grains in a grain bag.
The steeping grains smelled like a bowl of grape nuts. After steeping the grains for about 30 minutes at 150 deg, I removed the bag and brought the water up to a rolling boil. The water had a deep reddish brown color.
Boiling the wort and hopping
Once the water was boiling, we added one cup of Coopers Unhopped Light Malt Syrup. This stuff has the consistency of thick maple syrup and is incredibly messy.
Time for some hops. To begin, I opened a 2oz package of Cascades and a 2oz pacakge of Amarillos.
I only planned to add 1 oz of each but accidentally threw in all 4oz!! Josie had even asked me beforehand "Are you using all of those?" I think I said "no" at the same time I was dumping them all in the pot. I decided to have another beer and figure out how to remedy this situation.
My concern was not that the beer would be too hoppy, rather I was concerned that I didn't have enough hops left. My understanding is that hops added at the beginning of the boil will contribute to bitterness, while hops added at the end of the boil give beer flavor and aroma.
In order to get the perfect balance of bitterness and flavor, I planned to add 5 oz of hops over the course of 60 minutes in 15 minute intervals. I was going to use the last ounce to dry hop after fermentation.
Josie suggested removing some of the hops from the wort and setting them aside to add later. This seemed like a reasonable solution. About a minute after adding them to the boil, I removed about 2 cups of hops. I have no clue what this is going to do the beer, although I imagine its going to be impossible to replicate.
With three minutes to go in the one hour boil, I added 1 oz of dry cascade hops. Then I turned off the heat and added the remaining malt syrup and malt powder. This is where I may have screwed up. The malt powder didn't seem to dissolve completely - it was like stirring two pounds of flour into a bowl of maple syrup - not easy. There were big clumps of malt powder everywhere. Next time I think I will boil more water to begin with in order to make stirring easier. The books and recipe say to boil only 3 gallons in the pot (the other 3 gallons go into the fermenter cold) but I think is to aid in cooling the wort. Since I have a wort chiller, I don't need to worry about cooling the wort in the fermenter.
My concern was not that the beer would be too hoppy, rather I was concerned that I didn't have enough hops left. My understanding is that hops added at the beginning of the boil will contribute to bitterness, while hops added at the end of the boil give beer flavor and aroma.
In order to get the perfect balance of bitterness and flavor, I planned to add 5 oz of hops over the course of 60 minutes in 15 minute intervals. I was going to use the last ounce to dry hop after fermentation.
Josie suggested removing some of the hops from the wort and setting them aside to add later. This seemed like a reasonable solution. About a minute after adding them to the boil, I removed about 2 cups of hops. I have no clue what this is going to do the beer, although I imagine its going to be impossible to replicate.
After boiling for 15 minutes, I added a big scoop of the wet hops and 1/2 tsp of irish moss. The hop aroma coming off the pot at this point was incredible. After another 15 minutes (30 min total) I added another scoop of wet hops to the boil. Right about that time, it started hailing.
At the 45 minute mark, I added the remaining wet hops to the wort and put the wort chiller into the pot. Putting the chiller in at this point sanitizes the copper tubing, but also makes stirring the wort tricky.
At the 45 minute mark, I added the remaining wet hops to the wort and put the wort chiller into the pot. Putting the chiller in at this point sanitizes the copper tubing, but also makes stirring the wort tricky.
With three minutes to go in the one hour boil, I added 1 oz of dry cascade hops. Then I turned off the heat and added the remaining malt syrup and malt powder. This is where I may have screwed up. The malt powder didn't seem to dissolve completely - it was like stirring two pounds of flour into a bowl of maple syrup - not easy. There were big clumps of malt powder everywhere. Next time I think I will boil more water to begin with in order to make stirring easier. The books and recipe say to boil only 3 gallons in the pot (the other 3 gallons go into the fermenter cold) but I think is to aid in cooling the wort. Since I have a wort chiller, I don't need to worry about cooling the wort in the fermenter.
Chilling, pitching and fermenting
Once I got the wort mixed as good as possible, I turned on the hose and started chilling the wort using an immersion wort chiller. It cooled to 75 degrees in about 8 minutes. I poured 3 gallons of cold water into the fermenter (5 gallon glass carboy) and then poured the wort in through a strainer and funnel.
I used a beer thief to take a temperature and specific gravity reading (70 degrees, specific gravity 1.070). Not sure how accurate this reading was though because I didn't wait for the wort to settle first. Assuming it was accurate, the original gravity is pretty high. Based on my research, this is going to come in at around 7.5% abv.
Next I pitched in the yeast (California Ale Yeast - liquid), attached the blow off tube and moved the fermenter to the basement.
Now its time to wait.
I used a beer thief to take a temperature and specific gravity reading (70 degrees, specific gravity 1.070). Not sure how accurate this reading was though because I didn't wait for the wort to settle first. Assuming it was accurate, the original gravity is pretty high. Based on my research, this is going to come in at around 7.5% abv.
Next I pitched in the yeast (California Ale Yeast - liquid), attached the blow off tube and moved the fermenter to the basement.
Now its time to wait.
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