Today was the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew Day. Big Brew Day happens on the first Saturday of May each year to celebrate National Homebrew Day. My homebrew club was holding a big brew event at the local homebrew store, but because my system is all electric it is not exactly portable. I chose to celebrate at home and invited a friend over to teach him how to brew. My goal is to have this beer ready for Memorial Day weekend festivities.
We brewed a batch of my Guinea Pig IPA. This beer got the name because this was my first original recipe. I used my friends as test subjects, aka guinea pigs, to get feedback on how to improve the beer. This IPA initially featured Amarillo (a favorite hop of mine), but that hop became scarce locally. I now use Columbus, Nugget, and Simcoe to give a nice big hop punch.
Ingredients are not the only thing that has changed in this beer. I have also adjusted my process. A recent add to my brewing arsenal is the Blichmann Hop Rocket. The last couple times I brewed this beer I moved the 0 minute Simcoe addition to the Hop Rocket right before the chiller. This has made my aroma big and bold. I’ve been very happy with the Hop Rocket because the aroma was the not where I wanted it with this beer prior to using the Hop Rocket.
Our brew day today went pretty smoothly. Only a couple of hiccups that should not impact the beer negatively. First, after getting the Hop Rocket sanitized and loaded with hops I forgot to connect the hose to the chiller. So when the timer went off that the boil was done it took me an extra minute or so to get the hose set up and start chilling the beer. The other issue is something I am going to have to adjust in my recipe design. When I have beers with more hop matter I need to account for that in the recipe so I can have a bit more liquid at the end of the brew. We ended up about 0.5 gallon short in the fermenter.
Recipe: Guinea Pig IPA (1.3) Style: American IPA TYPE: All Grain Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 6.72 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal Estimated OG: 1.070 SG Estimated Color: 6.8 SRM Estimated IBU: 89.9 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 85.0 % Boil Time: 60 Minutes Mash: Single Infusion, 152 degrees F Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name %/IBU 10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 80.0 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 8.0 % 1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 8.0 % 8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 4.0 % 0.60 oz Columbus [17.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 45.4 IBUs 1.00 oz Nugget [13.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min 19.2 IBUs 1.00 oz Simcoe [13.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min 15.8 IBUs 1.00 oz Nugget [13.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min 9.5 IBUs 1.00 oz Simcoe [13.70 %] - Hop Rocket [0 min] 0.0 IBUs 1.50 oz Columbus [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 days 0.0 IBUs 1.50 oz Simcoe [13.70 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [1.25L Starter]