Brewed Slowly Update: American IPA
big beers are better than regular beers (especially when they're homebrewed and bottled in tallboy RedStripes)
I know I've slacked a little on updating the progress of the first Brewed Slowly entry and how the beer has turned out. I started trying them about a week and a half ago to see how far the carbonation was coming. I know you're dying to know.
belated pic of the beer going into the secondary with 0.5 oz of Chinook hops
Well, now they're carbonated to my liking, a little softer than your Budweiser or High Life, but sharper than, say, a Guiness. I'll admit that I'm pretty pleased with the taste. This was the first beer I've dry-hopped, and the process really does make a difference. My wife says it reminds her of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, which I'd say is a good thing, although I think it tastes a little less citrusy than Sierra Nevada. While the alcohol and hop content isn't exactly comparable to this example, the beer reminds me a little of Dogfishhead's 90 minute IPA. (I don't think I am, but I may be projecting what I want it to taste like onto the beer itself. If you've tried the 90 min. IPA, you'll understand, I think. If you haven't tried this beer, holy shit, do. You can't get it in Mississippi (it comes in around 8-9% alcohol) but when you're next in a state with reasonable alcohol laws, pick up a four-pack.) The considerable hop taste is still balanced with the slightly sweet malt taste. Next time, I'm thinking of dry-hopping it again in the bottling bucket on its way to the bottles. We'll see. All in all, success--it's beer.
p.s. For those of you interested in beer and/or the process of making it, check out Starkville Homebrew, put together by another local fighter for the cause. If our fine state of Mississippi won't let us buy all the beers we should be able to, we'll just have to make it our own damn selves.
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Brewed Slowly: American IPA
Brewed Slowly will be a continuing feature/series here on Typed Slowly in which I'll document my experiences as a relatively new homebrewer figuring out what's good about beer and how to consistently make it (the beer).
cooperative brewing
So yesterday, my friend and brewing partner, Steve, and I made an American-style IPA (India Pale Ale). If you're not familiar with this type of beer, it's traditionally known for its higher alcohol content and high hop content. IPAs are one of my favorite types of beer because of the high hop content, which gives the beer its bitterness and flowery/citrus kind of smell.
The software:
7 lbs Extra Pale Malt Extract (Liquid)
1 lb 2 row Pale Malt Grain
0.5 lb Vienna Malt Grain
1.4 oz. Magnum hops (14.2 AA)
2 oz. Chinook hops (14 AA)
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II
We started by steeping the 2 row and Vienna grains at 150 Fahrenheit in 2.5 gallons of water for 45 minutes. It actually stayed closer to 168 because I'm not so good at keeping the electric stove at a consistent temp. Then we took out the grains, brought the temp. to boiling, and added the 7 lbs of extract and the 1.4 oz. of Magnum hops. This boiled for an hour, at which time we cut the heat, added 0.9 oz. of the Chinook hops and put the pot in a sink full of ice water to cool it down. After it cooled down to about 125 F, we poured it into the fermentor, straining out the second addtion of hops, and added enough water to bring it to 5 gallons. This second addtion of water brought the temp. down to about 80 F, which is still a little high to pitch the yeast at, but we went ahead and pitched the yeast anyway (mavericks, I know).
hops that did their thing
The starting gravity was 1.050, and as of this morning(10/3), fermetation hasn't started.
I'll be updating as the fermentation starts happening.
This morning 10/5, when I got up, the airlock was bubbling. The SG is 1.045. It's going a little slow because we haven't turned on the heat and the windows are open. The temp. on the fermentor is between 66 and 68 F.
Update: (10/7) SG: 1.040
(10/13) Transferred to secondary fermentor. Dry-hopped with about 0.5oz. Chinook hops. It's tasting pretty hoppy so far. SG: 1.012
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