Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Staycation IPA


What do you do when you have the week off from work and not enough dough to fly home for the holidays? Brew! That's not all I've been up to, I've also been finding time to socialize, get out on some nice hikes, and clean up around the house. But on Christmas morning, it was all about throwing on some good tunes and brewing. After coffee of course.

This recipe is really the batch two of the "Wonton-amo Bay IPA" that I did in July. The first batch was one of the only beers I have ever made that had a diacetyl problem, and sadly I didn't recognize it in time to fix it. So this time around, I aim to make damn sure it's fully fermented before I crash it, but other than that it's fairly identical. Exact same malt bill, although it's lower O.G. due to slightly less efficiency an intentionally bigger final volume (I was aiming for 1.062ish so I was only a bit below target). Slightly higher mash temp. Very similar hop schedule, but some minor adjustments were made based on what I had in the freezer. I'm adding some Chinook and Citra to the dry hops in addition to what was added last time. Should be an all-out hop bomb, but also very clean, dry and drinkable. I've got high hopes that this one will redeem me from my last flawed attempt at IPA greatness.

Wonton-amo Bay IPA - Batch 2
Brewed on 12/25/10
Recipe is for 7 gallons pre-boil, 5.9 gallons post-boil, all grain
O.G. 1.060 F.G. 1.014 ABV 6.1% IBU's 87

10.5 lb. 2-row pale malt (Great Western Organic)
1 lb. wheat malt
.5 lb. Crystal 60
.5 lb. Carapils

19 gr. Warrior pellet 15.8%AA 60 min
20 gr. Summit whole 18%AA 30 min
36 gr. Amarillo whole 8.7%AA 10 min
14 gr. Citra whole 11%AA 10 min
6 gr. Chinook whole 14.2% 10 min
28 gr. Simcoe pellet 12.2% 0 min
28 gr. Centennial whole 7.8% 0 min
14 gr. Simcoe pellets dry hopped in the primary
14 gr. each: Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, whole hops, dry hopped in the keg in a "sock".

Mash: 4.5 gallons water plus 3 tsp. Burton Salts
Mash in to 153 for 60 minutes, fell to 150.
Sparge with 5 gallons at 170
Collect 7 gallons at 1.050 = 79% efficiency
Boil 60 minutes, with hop additions as noted.
Added 1 tsp. Burton salts to kettle.
Wyeast nutrient and whirlfloc at 10 minutes.
Whirlpool, rest 10 minutes while setting up plate chiller.
Chill/transfer thru plate chiller over 10 minutes
Collect 5.5 gallons at 68 degrees.
Oxygen 60 seconds
Pitched 2 packages Wyeast 1056 Cali Ale Yeast
Ferment at 69
1/6/10 Primary dry hops added
1/18/10 Kegged, 1.014. Tastes and smells so freakin' good, not sure if it needs any extra hops but they were already in the keg. 2nd dry hop.

15 comments:

Fritzeye said...

Like Sigmund Freud said, one in a while a good IPA.
I myself am brewing "Bong Juice IPA" on a semi day from The Northside Rag.

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Very nice blog!
The IPA of yours have a really mouthwatering recipe...
I mus confess I did not tryed an IPA yed. At this moment ì´m obssessed with the perfer Irish Red Ale (9-D), but this beer will surely be the base for the IPA that will succeed it.

Well... my purpose is congratulate you for the nice work on doing this blog, and invite you to visit mine, at http://kessbier.blogspot.com.

AS I live in Brazil, the main blog is in Portuguese, but the recent posts are bilingual, with english translation of each post.

Best regards, and great brews in 2011!!!

Marco

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Ops...
...continuing... I saw you made a Saison baptized after a Joao Gilberto´s song....
I´m trying to accomplish a Saison project, but in Brazil we lack liquid yeast, because it really degenerates pretty bad in the 30 days of travel / customs delay between dealer and the brewer´s hands... So, I´m thinking in using the Fermentis T-58 Ale Yeast... The thing is this yeast does not have an excelent attenuation needed by the saison style, so I´m thinking in doing two stages of fermentation: the first with de T-58, and the second with de US-05.

As a saison "authority", what do you think about this crazy idea???

Seanywonton said...

Hi Marco, nice to meet you. I spent a little time in Brazil, mainly in Bahia, so I can read a little of your blog but it helps to have "subtitles", so thanks for that!

I have to admit that I have never used T-58. My friend Paul has, you can check out his Blog here:http://thisbeerisapipebomb.blogspot.com/

I would ask him, he might have some good info, but here are my thoughts:

I don't know what kind of aromas and flavors the T-58 will give you, but here is what I think I would try: brew a saison with a really low mash temp, like 147 F, and also use about 15-20% sugar, and see how the T-58 does with that. It might dry it out enough on it's own. I wouldn't settle for a gravity of higher than 1.009 though. It should be nice and dry. If that doesn't get it all the way down there, then you could try the US-05. It might require making a small starter and pitching at high krausen.

If you feel comfortable using brett or lacto strains in your brewing, you might be able to use those in conjunction with the T-58 to get a very authentic funky saison. But those might be just as hard to get ahold of as liquid yeast, unless you can find some Orval or Jolly Pumpkin or something to culture the dregs out of.

Best of luck! Cheers.

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Maaannn, I guess I´ll call you YODA from now on....lol.

Great enlightment about Saison, but I still have some doubts, if you don´t bother to help me:

1 - When to add the cane sugar? During the mashing or during the boiling?
2 - If i need to pitch a second wave of yeast (the US-05 for example, or a champagne one), when is the right time to do so? After the finish of the T-58 primary fermentation, directly over the kraeusen?

Unfortunatelly, I cant ger orval around here... maybe "morebeer.com" can help me in the future, but for now I´ll have to use the resources I have in hand.

My afraid is: if I ferment T-58 at a temperature so high as 25/27ºC, I´ll get a great beer or a bunch of vinegar?

For your appreciation and in order to comprehend my thoughts, I´m copying my recipe below.

It would be great if we could exchenge some ideas!

Oh... by the way: Bahia has a beautiful shoreline and excelent beaches... So are the beaches of Alagoas, Recife and Paraiba... paradises on Earth.

I live at the countryside, an agricultural region at the Mato Grosso State, very close to amazon and closest to another paradise: the "Pantanal"... lowlands and swamps full of birds of every kind.... well... I´m a suspect for giving adjectives to this region...

Anyway... back to beer... If you could help it would be grat!

Thanks a lot Sean... hope to hear from you.

My email, by the way, is m_piacentini@uol.com.br

Regards!

The recipe follows below:

Marco

Recipe (sorry: metrical system)

4,5 kg Pilsner Malt
0,35 kg Vienna Malt
0,350 kg Wheat Malt Pale
0,10 kg White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0,05 kg Cara-amber®
18,0 g Amarillo (8,5%) - added during boil, boiled 70,0 min
18,0 g Cascade (5,5%) - added during boil, boiled 60,0 min
12,0 g Cascade (5,5%) - added during boil, boiled 5,0 min
11,0 g Fermentis T-58 SafBrew T-58
11,0g fermentis US-05 SafAle

mash at 64ºC for 90 min.

18 liters of water for mashing, plus 23 for sparging (continuous sparging)

Fermentation at 25 or 27ºC for 5 days.

Final estimated volume: 21L

Seanywonton said...

Hi Marco,
1 - boil
2-After the original yeast has stopped. so you can see how it did and decide if you should add more. (You will probably have to make a small starter and pitch it at high krausen, it might not eat any additional sugars if you add it straight in).

A lot of brewers advocate starting fermentation at more like 20 C and then letting it rise to 25-27 during primary fermentation. It won't make vinegar unless it was contaminated, so just practice good sanitation and you'll be fine.

Best of luck with the beer! The recipe looks pretty good from what I can see, but it looks low on sugar. I would use more sugar, at least .5 kg, and try to go for a O.G. of 1.055 or so.

Oh yeah, you should check out thebrewingnetwork .com and talk to people on the forum there. Lots of helpful info and experienced brewers.

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

First of all... Sorry for flooding your message box... LAs time I sended a messas, the internet exploreer simply freaked out and sended multiple messages.

Following ahead... thanks so much for the tips. You helped a lot!.

the only doubt that stays is about the best ferment: T-58 or S-33. Some would advocate that Fermentis S-33 is Belgian and more indicated, because T-58 should be used in high alcohol beers (which I personally doubt). Other (like the Mad Fermentationist) say the exact opposite: T-58 is good because is made from Belgian Strains (T-33 would have english roots).

After all the discussion, I´m seeing only one solution: brew two beers, one with T-58 and other with S-33.

Thanks for everything!

Let´s keep contact

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

After reviewing my calculations, I decided to change the recipe.

Added more sugar to try getting a dryer profile and getting more attenuation from yeast.

Changed the hops, in order to obtaining more citrus taste from Centennial.

Here´s it:

4,221 kg Pilsner Malt
0,394 kg Vienna Malt
0,362 kg Wheat Malt Pale 11,5 g
0,750 kg White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0,053 kg Cara-amber® 10,0 g

Centennial (9,7%) - added during boil, boiled 70,0 min 10,0 g

Magnum (12,5%) - added during boil, boiled 60,0 min 10,0 g

Centennial (9,7%) - added during boil, boiled 5,0 min 5,0 g

Magnum (12,5%) - added during boil, boiled 5,0 min

Fermentis T-58 SafBrew T-58

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Well... after all the talking I finally brewed the f...ing Saison...
The efficciency was lower than I planned.
I forgot to add the whirfloc during the boil (genius!!!).
Despite that, OG=1.061.
At least it is attenuating well... After 36 hours @ 21ºC, it was 1.015, but the beer is too damn cloudy.

I guess the solution will be rack the thing from the conical fermenter after the primary fermentation finishes and then let it rest for 3 to 6 weeks in a carboy, to see if the cloudiness settles.

What do you think?

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

OH.. by the way... I wonder if you have interest in writing sporadicly in my blog.
The idea is creating a space for friends from abroad, to exchange ideas about brewing.
what do you say?
If you are interested, email me at mappiacentini@gmail.com

Seanywonton said...

Hi Marco, wouldn't worry about forgetting the whirlfloc, as saisons can be hazy. No big deal. I'm going to have to pass on writing for your blog for now, because I don't really have a lot of extra time for this blog even. But feel free to link to anything you want on here.
Cheers, Sean

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Thaks Sean!

I was doing a little homework, and saw that Oregon semm to be a very good place for being a homebrewer. The state looks like the bigger homebrewer concentration I ever saw.

Tell me: Am I right or is it just an impression of mine?

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Finished Saison´s primary last friday. OG=1.061 / FG=1.010.

Good attenuation only with T-58.

Racked to ANOTHER FERMENTER TO the secondary.

Took a sample. It seemed a little bit of harsh (alcohol). Hope that 15 days conditioning at 35F fix this.

Unknown said...

Sean... This recipe sounds great! I'm going to add this one to my future brew list. Do you mind if I post this one on BrewItAgain?

Seanywonton said...

Hi Randy,
Sure, you can post it. It came out really well. I haven't done an official tasting yet but here are my only possible adjustments if I were to brew it again:
- Dial back IBU's by 5
- Possibly remove the Chinook, sub another "cleaner" hop like more Simcoe

But it's very tasty as-is, especially if you like a clean, dry, fairly aggressively hoppy IPA.