Category Archives: IPA

Beer Tasting: Rodinia IPA

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Tonight, I wanted to document my Rodinia IPA, brewed way back in April. I have only a few bottles left, so it’s time to formally taste-test the beer.

Rodinia IPA

  • I brewed this on April 12, and bottled it on June 5, 2014.
  • Basics
    • Original gravity = 1.076; final gravity = 1.013; abv = 8.3%.
  • Appearance
    • Quite clear and dark straw color for the beer itself. The head has excellent retention; moderately fine bubbles, white color; thick and as desired for an IPA.
  • Aroma
    • Crisp and slightly sweet, with definite notes of white wine (as promised for the Nelson Sauvin hops used to dry-hopping!) and perhaps even kiwi.
  • Taste
    • Slowly developing bitterness, with lasting edge. Moderate body, but the hops character is much stronger than the malty character.
  • Would I brew this again? 
    • Maybe? It was an interesting to try the Nelson Sauvin hops for dry-hopping, and they behaved pretty much as described; in fact, surprisingly so. The actual white wine aroma was a nice novelty; I was somewhat surprised by the lack of piney or citrusy aroma on this, at least to my nose. That said, I think my overall personal tastes run more towards the citrus/pine end of hops, so although this is a decent enough beer on its own, I probably wouldn’t brew it with this variety of hops again. Maybe as a blend with other dry hops, to add more complex character?
  • Overall rating
    • 6.5/10

Gondwana IPA

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After my first experimental all-grain batch, I decided to refine my technique further and attempt an IPA this time. The previous batch had issues with temperature control and poor mash efficiency. The former was resolved by insulating the cooler lid with spray-foam and preheating the cooler/tun with hot water, as well as waterproofing my thermometer leads with silicone tape. I attempted to resolve the second issue by double-milling the grain at the local homebrew store as well as by improving temperature control as noted. Temperature control was much improved, although my efficiency still isn’t where I want it to be (~57% mash efficiency). In any case, brewing science marches on.

Gondwana IPA

  • 9.5 lbs. pale malt (2 row US)
  • 1 lb. Vienna malt
  • 0.5 lb. cara-pils malt
  • 0.5 lb. 40° crystal malt
  • 0.5 lb. 20° crystal malt
  • 3 oz. Cascade whole hops (bittering)
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (late addition aroma, 5 minutes before flame-out)
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss (last 15 minutes of boil)
  • 1 package of Safale American Yeast (US-05)
  • 2 oz. Citra hops pellets (dry hop)
Steps
  • Mash-in with 15.4 quarts of water at 173°. I stirred once, after 30 minutes. The mash temperature ended at 154° after 60 minutes. The mash ended up at about 75 minutes, due to the time required to heat the sparge water.
  • I sparged with 0.62 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, and let it sit for 10 minutes. I collected 2.78 gallons before the tun ran out of liquid. I then sparged with 3.22 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, let it sit for 15 minutes, and decanted. This round collected 3.34 gallons.
  • In total, I collected 6.12 gallons of wort, with a gravity of 1.040 at 60°. This equals a mash efficiency of 56.7% as calculated by BeerSmith.
  • I heated the wort to boiling and added the 3 oz. of whole Cascade hops. At the 45 minute mark, I added the Irish moss. At the 55 minute mark, I tossed in the final Cascade addition.
  • It took about 25 minutes to get the wort down to 70°, using the wort chiller. I then whirlpooled the wort and let it sit for 20 minutes before transferring to the fermenter.
  • In the end, I had 4.75 gallons of wort with a starting gravity of 1.047 at 60° This is a bit lower than conventional style for an IPA, but I figure that is just par for the course as I figure out this new mode of brewing.
  • I pitched the yeast, and left the beer to ferment at an ambient temperature of ~62°.


Notes

  • Mash efficiency is still lower than I like; next time I might aim for hotter sparge water to mobilize more of the sugars, and I will probably adjust my grain bill to compensate for a lower efficiency. I’ll give it another try or two, but I am wondering if the crack I’m getting from the mill at the local homebrew supply is too coarse.

Laurasia IPA Updates

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On February 16, I transferred the Laurasia IPA over to the secondary fermenter. At that time, the gravity was 1.029; the taste was clean, a faint fruity aroma before CO2 outgases, and a very mellow hoppiness. I was surprised at the relatively high gravity and the apparently slow fermentation–perhaps due to underoxygenation? Or maybe due to the yeast strain?

I sampled the beer again on February 25, to find the gravity at 1.020. This calculates out to 6.5% abv. In a few days, I will add the Simcoe hops for a few days of dry-hopping.

Laurasia IPA

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The new burner and kettle

The brewery has been radically reformed over the past few weeks. First was the move into a new (and expanded) brewing space. With that move pretty much completed, I decided it was time to up my brewing game and go full volume boil. Being off the kitchen stove certainly helped in this! I just acquired a new Blichmann floor standing burner–it’s one of the low pressure propane burners, with a maximum output of 72,000 BTUs. Assembly was minimal and simple–perhaps 15 minutes with a wrench. To accompany that, I purchased a 10 gallon stainless steel kettle. As sold at my local homebrew shop, it didn’t have any outlets. But, I was able to have them weld in a threaded coupler. I bought a ball valve and a hose barb, and the setup was complete!

As an inaugural brew, I decided to put together a fairly simple IPA recipe. This is a departure from my previous favorite, the Rainy Day IPA, particularly in having fewer steeping grains. According to some reading, I may have been using more crystal malt than is healthy for an IPA. So, I cut back on that quite a bit (only a half pound now!), and we’ll see what happens.

Laurasia IPA

  • 8 oz. 40° crystal malt
  • 4 lbs. extra light liquid malt extract
  • 5 lbs. light dry malt extract
  • 3 oz. whole Cascade hops (bittering)
  • 1 oz. whole Cascade hops (aroma)
  • 2 oz. Simcoe hope pellets (dry hop)
  • 0.5 tsp. Irish moss
  • 1 pkg. BRY-97 American West Coast dry yeast (Danstar)

Boiling the Laurasia IPA

Steps

  • Steep crystal malt for 30 minutes in 1 gallon of water at 152° to 156°; sparge with 0.5 gallon of water. Top up to 6 gallons volume total.
  • Bring to a boil, turn off heat. Add malt extract and bring back to a boil. Once the wort is boiling, add 3 oz. of Cascade hops.
  • After 45 minutes, add Irish moss.
  • Boil for a total of 1 hour. At flame-out, add 1 oz. whole Cascade hops (aroma).
  • Chill using wort chiller; this took approximately 45 minutes, during which time the aroma hops were steeping. The end temperature was approximately 70°.
  • Whirlpool, let sit for 15 minutes, and transfer to the primary fermenter. Pitch the rehydrated yeast, and seal up the fermenter.
  • After evaporation loss and trub loss, the recipe resulted in nearly precisely 5 gallons. Gravity was 1.068 at 66°, which translates to 1.069 at 60°. This is nearly a perfect match for the calculations from BeerSmith (1.070)!
  • After fermenting for a week, I plan to transfer this over to the secondary fermenter. There it will sit for another week, and I’ll add the Simcoe hops for a week of dry hopping prior to bottling.
Venturi pump in action
Miscellaneous Comments
Back when I was doing partial volume boils, I oxygenated my wort by splashing in the water direct from the tap, usually with a spray nozzle. That’s no longer an option (because I no longer need to top up), so I needed to try something different. I wasn’t quite ready to spring for a pump and/or oxygen tank, and fortunately some looking online highlighted a much cheaper (and anecdotally just as effective) solution. It gets the fancy name of a “Venturi pump“, but in practice it’s simply a little nylon plastic t-junction in the middle of the tubing that the cooled wort runs through. This piece cost under $3 at the hardware store. It operates on a simple physical principle…because the junction is of smaller diameter than the rest of the tubing, the pressure in the wort drops as it passes through. Air is sucked in via the protruding side of the “t”, and into the wort.
Contamination was a concern, but the reports online suggest this is only a very minor consideration. I presume that because the yeast is pitched immediately, any potential problems are outcompeted. The other minor quirk is that you want to hold your finger over the opening on the “t” while starting the flow of wort. Once there is a good flow, air is sucked in; if you release too soon, you will lose a bit of wort.
All in all, I was happy with this inaugural brew day for the new equipment. The burner heated the wort to boiling quite quickly–under 20 minutes! The kettle was easy to clean, and it was nice not having to mess with adding water and the like. I am curious to see how the beer tastes!