Transferring the wort into the fermenter

Today’s American IPAs are awesome–I love hops like Mosaic and Citra, to the point where I have been starting to hit fruity hop fatigue. The antidote? Make a beer with the most piney, resiny, harshest old school hops I could find.

Warrior’s IPA

• 12 lb. 2-row malt (Rahr)
• 1.5 lb. rye malt (Viking)
• 0.5 lb. crystal 60 malt
• 4.4 oz. crystal 80 malt
• 4 oz. rice hulls
• 1 oz. Warrior hop pellets (15.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
• 2 oz. East Kent Goldings hop pellets (6.0% alpha), 5 minute boil
• 1.5 oz. Cascade whole hops (~3.5% alpha), 5 minute whirlpool
• 2 pkg. Safeale American Ale yeast (US-05)
• 3 oz. Columbus hop pellets (14.0% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

• 60 minute infusion mash, 154°, no sparge
• 1.065 o.g., 1.016 f.g., 6.5% abv, 61 IBU, 9 SRM
• Claremont tap water, augmented with 1 tsp. gypsum

Procedure

• I mashed in with 7.75 gallons of water at 162°, to hit a mash temperature of 151.7°. After 60 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected 5.75 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.055. This equated to a fairly miserable measured mash efficiency of 60%. (After this, I re-aligned my mill, in case that was the problem–I also figure the percentage of rye might be partly to blame, too).
• I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat, added the whirlpool hops, let sit for 5 minutes, and then chilled.
• I transferred the beer to the fermenter, and fermented at 66°.
• I brewed the beer on 16 February 2019, and kegged on 9 March 2019.
• Starting gravity was 1.065, and final gravity was 1.011, for 7.2% abv.

Overall Impressions

I served this beer for a party, and it kicked before I could really get a good tasting. I didn’t even get a good picture! It was really popular with the hopheads, definitely delivering on the hop flavors and aromas that I wanted–rich, resiny, and piney. I felt like it needed a bit more time to mature, because the malt flavors weren’t quite there yet. Another few weeks might have helped. Oh well…I guess that means I have to brew this again!