Triple Red IPA

Dec 26, 2014

1 lb 6 oz. Carared

30 lb 2-row

1 lb carafoam

5 oz Biscuit

Made 16 gallons

3.5 hr boil plus 1 hr boil with hops reduced wort to 10 gallons. 

OG 1.091, 21.8 Brix

FG  1.012 est. 

ABV 10% est. 

60 min 3 1/4 oz pellet magnum, loose

40 min 1 oz pellet Simcoe

30 min 3 oz

20 min 4 oz

10 min 2 oz

Removed bag at with 5 mins left. 

Added 2 Whitlock tablets with 5 mins. 

Cool to 100F

Poured into vessel with spray spout

Add red ale yeast

Fermenting in house at 70F

Oxygen for 30 seconds on day 2 of fermentation. 

Dry hop schedule. 

Jan 11 - Simcoe 1 oz added to each 4 gal batch 

Jan 16 - large bucket 8 oz of citra and 8 oz of simcoe. 

Jan 16 In small bucket 8 oz citra only 

Jan 21- moved beer to 5 and 3.5 gallon kegs. Note that due to the large amount of hops this made a total 6.5 gallons(4 &2 .5 respectively)

- beer retained flavour and feel however after Feb aroma starts to fade. 

- This DIPA is similar to the darker one on the market I reviewed how ever mine is smother  and less heavy. Aroma was anazing for about 40 days. 

Nitro: Smoky Red Velvet (AKA stinky cheese)

10 lbs  2 row
2 lbs    Flaked Barley
2 lbs    Carared
1 lb     Peated Malt

Mash

60 mins   Carared and Peet Malt 155F
60 mins   2 Row 151F (leave above malts in mash for a total of 120 mins)

Hops

60 mins  Magnum 1 oz
20 mins  E. Kent Golding 2 oz

Irish Wyeast  Yeast

Serve on nitro

OG 1,056. 6 gallons

FG  1.010  5 gals 2 pints

6% ABV

Nov. 8 - Mar 28 - very successful and interesting nitro beer. I replaced the black roasted barley with carared and peat malt. Aroma and flavour changed from stinky french cheese to smoky peat. Mouth feel and body was perfect. Very creamy. Peat took a bit of time to mature and come through. 

Next time I would replace the black roasted barley with a mixture of black and biscuit malts and aim for a complex flavour. 

Beer tasting - Double IPA only

Propeller IIPA- From Halifax, a heavier and darker IIPA than all the rest I've tasted. It's loaded with malts. Small sips are very nice however the mouthfeel and the hop flavour place this in the category of a good try but further refinement of the malt selection and late addition hops is required for my taste. Even drinking a single pint seemed a bit of a challenge. A good IIPA but I expect more.

From the left: Propeller and Boxing Rock 

Flavour      - 2

Aroma        - 3

Mouthfeel    - 3

Drinkability - 2

Total        10/25

Mission Brewery's Shipwrecked Double IPA - Coming in a can from San Diego this was my favorite of all the beers I tried at the Mission Brewery. Crisp, hoppy and smooth. This is a bit lighter than I expected which made this very drinkable with a pleasant mouth feel. It competes toe to toe with Pliny the Elder. I also found this beer at Costco for $6. Amazing.

Flavour      - 4

Aroma        - 4

Mouthfeel    - 5

Drinkability - 4

Total        22/25

Russian River Brewery's Pliny the Elder IIPA - This beer is very distinct. A low mash temperature (148F I'm guessing) and a very low flavour malt bill (less than 5% I'm guessing) along with the abundance of Simcoe hops making this piney aroma and flavour like no other. Very light in colour. It is always a pleasure to drink but does not deserve the attention it has gotten over recent years. There are other better IIPAs on the market that are not talked about.

Flavour      - 5

Aroma        - 4

Mouthfeel    - 5

Drinkability - 4

Total        23/25

Wormtown Be Hoppy IPA - A wonder of citrus hops and red malts. Smooth and refreshing. This beer is all about the hops. The bitterness is well balanced.

Flavour      - 4

Aroma        - 5

Mouthfeel    - 4

Drinkability - 4

Total        22/25

Moylan's Hopsickle IIPA - Wow. The hops are so over the top. I would place it in the category of an IIPA that should be enjoyed on rare occasions. I'm surprised my lips did not have lupulin residue from drinking this. Interestingly the hops are not abundant with citrusy or piney falvours. A must try  beer. All other IIPAs have less hops in them. 

A Must try Beer!!!

Flavour      - 5

Aroma        - 5

Mouthfeel    - 4

Drinkability - 4

Total        23/25

Ready Topper from The Alchemist - This beer seems to be revered on the east coast much the way Pliny is on the West coast. This beer has a lot of things going for it. The hops selection is distinctively different from Pliny. Pliny is all about Simcoe's piney hops aroma and taste. This beer is about striking the right chord of hops to deliver a well balanced IIPA.

no picture

Flavour      - 5

Aroma        - 5

Mouthfeel    - 4

Drinkability - 4

Total        23/25

Boxing Rock's The Vicar's Cross from Shelburne, Nova Scotia.  I would have to say this is my favorite IIPA. The complexity of this beer seemed more refined and enjoyable than most IIPAs. The malt notes were there but not over the top and the hops balanced out the beer leaving you with a nice mouth feel. Well done. From looking at their web site they look small. They only produce two beers.

A Must try Beer!!!

Flavour      - 5

Aroma        - 5

Mouthfeel    - 5

Drinkability - 4

Total        24/25

Trinidad Scorpion & Ghost Pepper Dry Hopping

Having grown the hottest peppers in the world I was looking forward to adding some flavour and heat to my beer.  The small pepper is the Trinidad Scorpion (1.5M scovilles)  and the other is the Ghost pepper (Bhut Jolokia, 1M scovilles). To put this in perspective a Habonero is about 0.3M scovilles and a Jalapeño only has 8k scovilles.

Not wanting to ruin 5 gallons of beer  I waded into the heat with first pouring the beer over a whole pepper and then swirled the pepper in the beer. This brought out a distinct pepper flavour more on the back of my mouth.  No heat detected. We wanting to get some heat so we cut them open and repeated the swirl test for about 10 seconds and then finally with 20 seconds. Each time the heat started to come through. The 10 second swirl gave us what we described as a warm fuzzy heat. The beer flavour was all there but they the heat of the pepper cam though through. Very pleasant. The 20 second swirl brought he heat of the beer to what I would describe as a very hot curry. Still not rushing for yogurt but this was more like a prickly heat. 

I did this experiment with a hoppy IPA and a Maple Oak Stout. I would recommend doing this with a beer with a lot of malt flavour.  The heat and the malts go together well. 

Next time I plan to push the envelop and dry hop a few liters with these peppers. There are a lot of complex flavours happening which are going to be a challenge to extract without setting the beer on fire.

Pliny the Hoser v2

Style of beer is similar to Pliny the Younger but with a different spectrum of hops. 6oz of dry hops.

Malts

• 15 lbs. 2 Row
• 1/2 lb 20L
• 1/2 lb Carapil
• 1 lb Destrose/Corn sugar

Mash

• 148F for 90 mins
• Sparges  with 170F h20 to make 9 gallons

Boil

70 min boil

Minutes.    Hop. (Oz)  Amt. 

70            Magnum      1

60            Magnum      1

30            HBC 342.    1 

25            Centennial   1

20            Citra.            1

15            Columbus     1

10            Centennial    1

5              Citra             1

Flameout Magnum      1

Burton Brewers salts 1/2 tsp

Fermentation nutrients 1/4 tsp

All ingredients except for dry hops. Cups contain dextrose.

• Brix 14.2 @90F, 1.058OG, Measured with hydrometer after it cooled OG 1.059
• Brix 7 @ 67F.  ABV 6.7%
• OG seems low. I don't think Morebeer milled this well. 
• Made 6 gals
• Fermented for 2 weeks in my fridge at the lower end of the range for clean crisp beer. 

Sep 20 - Full of hop flavours with smooth bitterness. Light malt tones. 

Oct 04 - Dry hopped at 65F 1 oz each of simcoe Columbus and Citra.
Oct 08 - Moved beer to need vessel and dry hopped with 2 oz of Magnum and 2 oz of Simcoe

Oct 10 - chilled to 36F
Oct 11 - Moved to kegged,  cooled to 46F for 3 weeks.
Oct 30 - Bitter, expected aroma, correct body. Excellent beer. Will get better over next 2 weeks.

2014 Hop Harvest

2014 hop harvest was low this year due to moles digging up my roots. The two cascades in the foreground still did well however I got moderate harvest from two Zeus and nothing else from the Chinook, Willamette and Magnum. One hop died to the right of the irrigation box due to massive tunneling from mr mole. Harvest was late, Sept 13, due to travel. The cones were dry on the vine and Cascade had mites. The lady bugs love it.

A total of 4 trays of cascade are drying at 95F for 48 hours and will be saved for a late of dry hopping.

Some Zeus (huge cones) will be used for the same. They will be dried next.

Water schedule this year was 4 minutes in the morning and afternoon. Each plant had a small sprayer.

Irish Nitro Stout (Guinness style)

Guinness Style Stout

This is my 6th Nitro Stout. I consider this an easy beer to make. This is easy due to a simple malt ingredients, minimal hops and mashing is single stage. Mashing at 156F creates harsh malt flavours and mashes at 148 makes this too thin. People have commented that they actually prefer my Guinness' done at the higher mash temperatures. I would attribute this to people generally enjoying malt flavour. IMO, Guinness is more about the mouth feel and less about the taste. This brings me to the Flaked Barley. 2 lbs is very important to create the expected mouth feel.

This will be kegged and tapped with Nitrogen. 

2 lb Flaked Barley
1 lb Black Roasted Barley
8 lb 2-Row Malt

Magnum 1oz 60 mins
Fuggle 2oz 20 mins

Mash 152F

OG 1.051

FG 1.021

ABV 4%

FG 1.019

Aug 3- bitterness is nice and mild. Fuggle hops coming through. Smooth how ever a bit thin. ABV targeting with the OG is 5%. Next time up the malt to make 6 gals. This batch made less that 5 gallons due to hop sludge.

Aug 20 - Poured into keg. Made only 4.5 gallons.

Aug 31 - Nice nitro head.  Tastes and feel like a Guinness but with more black malt flavour. Very drinkable. Winner!

Oct 26 - Pours nicely and has a deep black malty flavour. Great beer.