4/24/2008 This is my second go-around at making this recipe from Midwest Homebrewing Supplies. The only difference between this batch and the first batch is that I am going to dry hop this batch. I bought a stainless steel mesh tube especially designed for dry hopping that fits through the top of a carboy. I didn't dry hop the last batch because I tried using a mesh bag with marbles in it (to help sink the hops to the bottom of the carboy), and that was too much of a pain. Dry hopping this time around should be much easier.
Ingredients:
- 9.3# Gold LME
- 4 oz Aromatic malt
- 12 oz Caramel malt 60L
- 8 oz Victory malt
- 1 oz Chinook alpha = 13% (boiling - 60")
- 1/2 oz Cascade alpha = 6.3% (boiling - 45")
- 1/2 oz Centennial hops alpha = 9.5% (flavor - 30")
- 1/2 oz Cascade hops alpha = 6.3% (flavor - 20")
- 1/2 oz Centennial hops alpha = 9.5% (flavor, aroma - 10")
- 1 oz Crystal hops alpha = 4% (aroma - 5")
- 2 oz Cascade hops alpha = 7.4% - whole leaf (dry hop)
- 1t Irish Moss
- White Labs California ale yeast (#WLP001)
- Culligan pure water (bought at the local HyVee)
- Priming sugar (3/4 corn sugar)
O.G. 1.088 - higher than before.
I heated 2 gallons of Culligan pure water to 160-162 degrees and added the cracked specialty grains, in a fine mesh bag, to the water. I added enough room-temperature Culligan water to cool the mash to 154 degrees. I turned the burner on my smooth-top range down to 2.5 and I held the mash at 154 degrees for 30 minutes.
During the mash, I heated approximately 2 gallons of sparge water to 170 degrees. Holding the dual burner on my smooth top range held the water at 170 degrees until I was ready to sparge.
After sparging, I took the wort from the burner and added the malt extract. I brought the wort to a boil, added 1 ounce of Chinook hops, and boiled for 15 minutes.
I added 1/2 oz Cascade at this time and boiled the wort for another 15".
I added 1/2 oz Centennial at this time and boiled the wort for another 10".
I added 1/2 Cascade at this time and boiled the wort for another 5".
I added the Irish Moss and placed the wort chiller in the boil to sanitize it. I boiled this for another 5".
I added 1/2 oz Centennial and boiled for another 5".
I added 1 oz Crystal and boiled for another 5".
I took the wort from the burner, placed the hop bag in a strainer and let it drip. I then ran cold tap water through my wort chiller to bring the wort to 75 degrees. I strained the wort through a strainer-funnel combination, added enough water to make 5 gallons, took a specific gravity measure, aerated the wort by shaking the carboy, pitched the yeast, wrapped my carboy in swaddling clothes, capped it, and placed it in my dining room.
Update: 4/29/2008 - A nice kraeusen formed by the 26th and there was obvious activity in the wort, but there were few bubbles in the airlock. I pushed down on the carboy cap and bubbles started coming out of the airlock, and that's when I realized I had a bad seal. I quickly sanitized a rubber carboy plug and another airlock and switched the cap for the plug. I will have to wait to see if the bad seal or the replacing of the seal negatively affected my brew.
Update: 5/02/2008 - I racked the brew to the secondary this morning. The Sp. Gr. measure was 1.012 and the brew tasted good. I put approximately 1/2 oz whole leaf Cascade hops in my brew infuser and 1/5 ounces in a sanitized hop bag before racking. I had hoped the infuser would hold all the hops, but this batch of brew is so hoppy that there wasn't nearly enough room for all the hops. So I had to put the rest in a nylon hop bag.
I had a difficult time fitting the hop bag through the top of the carboy but, with enough muscle and the use of a brewing thermometer, I was able to stuff it in. The rest of the racking went well.
Update 5/08/2008: I bottled the brew this morning. I added 3/4 cup corn sugar to 1 cup Culligan drinking water, mixed, and brought the mixture to a boil. I boiled it for 5 minutes and cooled the mixture with an ice bath. I added the mixture to the bottling bucket and siphoned the beer to the bucket.
Sp. Gr 1.012
The beer had a very hoppy aroma and tasted snappy, although my mom made a face when she drank some of the sample I took for the hydrometer reading. I made a face, too, when I sampled the brew
I netted 40 12 oz bottles and 3 22 oz Bombers.
Dry hopping posed no problem. My brew infuser slipped right out of the carboy and the remaining hops, in a hop bag, came out with a little elbow grease.