Finally found time for another brew day at home! I have a nzIPA ready to bottle and need to recycle the yeast for today’s batch (more on that later). Continuing one of my experiment series, today I am brewing another full-flavor, light-bodied India Pale Ale. Today’s IPA is focused on earthy English IPA flavours.
The grain bill includes a majority of Maris Otter malt for full English flavour. There is a bit of domestic 2-Row too keep it from being too rich (remember I’m shooting for a light-bodied beer). A small portion of Crystal 60 to round out the flavours and scents while enhancing the viscosity and some White Wheat Malt to add a balancing tang and aid the head rounds out the grain bill. To ensure a drier, more complete fermentation, the entire grain bill is reduced slightly and replaced with a portion of post-boil dextrose.
The grains sat through a long lower-temp mash before a combined vorlauf/mashout. The tun was drained onto Fuggles first wort hops for 6 gallons of 1.038 first runnings. Another 4 gallons were added as a batch sparge and drained for 1.018 second runnings. Pre-boil collections came to nearly 11 gallons at 1.034. Roughly 8.5 gallons was left in my 10gal kettle (that spans 2 burners on my natural gas range) and the remainder of the second runnings was reserved in my 5gal side kettle. During the boil, all additions were made to the larger kettle, as the smaller one was left to caramelize a bit with only the FWH floating around (and later, a small bit of whirlfloc).
A fistful of Fuggles and Columbus went in at the start of the boil for bittering, followed up by some Hallertau Tradition (with the whirlfloc) at the 20 minute mark for some noble flavor. I inserted the immersion chiller some time between the 10 and 15 minute marks to sterilize in the boil. Yeast nutrients, dextrose, and more Fuggles dropped at the 5 minute aroma mark . . . followed by a bit more Fuggles right after flameout (just to be sure – LOL).
At flameout, both of my kettles had reduced in volume due to boiloff evaporation and I was able to combine them into the larger kettle, leaving me with slightly under 9 gallons of wort. Before combining, the larger kettle (with the sugar addition) was at 1.051, while the smaller caramelizing kettle (that is pure second-runnings) had concentrated to 1.032.
My 50′ immersion chiller is running now and a final OG reading will be taken after whirlpooling and separation to fermentors. Now, off to get some bottles filled and wash some yeast real quick! Have a good night, y’all!
Brews & Stews 