Two IPAs, Pliny style

Pliny The Elder Clone - 5 Gallons

May 15, 2011

An all grain kit from Morebeer. Biggest modifications I see from the Internet versions are the substitution of Cascade instead of Warrior hops and, Magnum for lesser alpha hops. Warrior is hard to get so I assume the Morebeer is selling what they got in stock. Since this is kegged I’m not using the priming dextrose that came with the kit. This recipe uses hops in five ways. Mash, bitter, aroma, flame out and dry hop.

Malted Grains

LBS   Name
13      GR304 Malt - Rahr 2-Row
0.5     Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
1.0     Carapils
1.0     Dextrose (Corn sugar)

Hops

Name Oz AA% Pellet / Whole

Cascade     2       7.5      W
Magnum     2      14.1      P
Simcoe       3      12.2      P
Columbus   4      14.4      P
Centennial   3      9.2        P

Yeast - WLP001 White Labs Yeast (California Ale)

Name    Oz      Time              Pellet / Whole
Cascade 2        60 (mash)      W
Magnum 2        90 (boil)         P
Simcoe   1        45                  P
Columbus 1      30                  P
Coil                  20
Dextrose           10
Tablet.               5
Centennial 2      Flame out       P
Simcoe 1           Flame out      P

Dry Hop (in secondary carboy)

Columbus 3        7 days           P
Centennial 1        7 days          P
Simcoe      1        7 days         P



Did not filter the water
Add Grains and Dextrose to initial H2O

Add Cascade hops

Description     Amount     Time Temp
H2O               5 gals         60   149F (kettle temp was 165F)
H2O                3 gals        10   170F
H2O                3 gals        10   170F


Creates a wort of about 9.5 gallons, creates 6 gallons


Note: Initial mash changes taste of beer (148-152F) less malty, (154-158F) more malty
Note: Recirculate wort using bucket until it is clear, did this only on last mash

Boil

• Bring wort to rolling boil for 20 mins 
• Start hop schedule (90 mins) 
• Cool and transfer to Carboy add yeast, poured from a height to aerate wort

OG 1.072-76 0.0 did not take (Based on 70% Mash Efficiency)
FG 1.15
IBU 198-202 0.0
ABV 8% Target
ABV (R) 8% 7% (May 30)
SRM 6

Comments

May 15 - Did this brew in the garage due to rain. There are a few new techniques used here. 1) mash hops, 2) flame out hops and 3) total boil time 110 mins. This allows me to mash out with a total of 11 gallons for a higher grain extract efficiency 4) original mash temp was 149F versus 156F. This should make for the drier beer. I think the combo of dry and hoppy should be excellent. Placed in fridge set to 67F. I plans to have it ferment for a total of 10 to 14 day. Dry hop will happen during last 7 days.

May 17 - Fermenting nice and slowly. Still has ¼ inch head (white)

May 16 - Nice White head about one quarter inch thick. 66F in fridge.

May 18 - Continued white (crusty) head 1 inch thick. Recommended fermentation is 68F but doing this at 66F slows things down a bit which I think is less messy (potential foam volcano) and yeast off flavours are avoided. This is my first ale fermented totally in the fridge. (Ditto May 19th)

May 21 - Added Dry hops

May 23 - Fermentation still active with ¾ inch foam on top. (8 days)

May 25 - Fermentation is slow (bubble every 24 secs)

May 30 - Move to to keg with sediment. Lowered fridge temp to 44F, added CO2 15 psi

June 1 - First drink. Highly aromatic with a nice light body. great mouth feel. Next time keep hop particulate out of the keg. This beer is a winner.

Pliny The Hoser

Inspired by Pliny the Elder - 2013

My Recipe            Original Recipe
NA Target             OG: 1.088
NA Target             FG: 1.012
Estimate 8%           Target ABV 10.5%
15lbs 2-Row         20 lbs 2-Row
1lb Carafoam        1 lb Carapils
12 oz Crystal 40    12 oz Crystal 40

Note: Use the first 6 gallons for this wort is collected for this recipe. I ran out of 2-Row so this is going to result in a lower ABV.

   Mash 148F                                                 Mash 148F

Boil

70 mins Magnum hops 2oz                          60 mins Magnum hops 2oz
20 Columbus hops 2oz, whilflox, coil           20 Columbus hops 2oz, whilflox, coil
FO Simcoe, Centenial, Amarillo 2 oz each   FO Simcoe, Centenial, Amarillo 2 oz each

Note: The only difference here is that I should get a slightly more bitter beer with the 70 minutes.


Clone Recipe (close to it)

• Dry Hop (65F+)
• Dry Hop 1: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial 
• Dry Hop 2: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial 2 days later
• Dry Hop 3: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus then 2 days later
• Dry Hop 4: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus then 3 days later, 7 days later keg

My Dry Hop Schedule

• Dry Hop (65F+)
• Dry Hop 2: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial 

This simplified dry hop schedule is based on what I consider the biggest bang for the buck. Not having a conical fermenter and also believing that loose hops (not in a bag) yield better results has me making this a one shot dry hop process.


Yeast: US-05

Fermented in primary for 14 days then transferred to dry hop for 1 week. Then transferred to keg.

Comments

This turned out to be a nice hoppy high ABV IPA. For all the hops I put into this I feel I could have done better. It lacked the crispness of an IPA. Bitterness was spot on. Loose hops made this a hazy beer during secondary. Aroma was a mellow hoppy bit citrusy smell. Taste was full body but to crisp. Next time think about 45, 30 and 10 mins addition of hops in boil and dry hopping per original recipe.

Tim's Irish Red Ale

Tim's Irish Red Ale

Saturday October 15th, 2011

My original recipe and also my beer that has been a huge hit. Lots of flavour but still very drinkable. Alterations of this recipe include mashing at 155F for more malt flavour and less ABV. Changing hops to balance with malt and adding more Black Roasted Barley to tilt this towards a stout.

ABV 5.7%, OG 1.057, FG 1.013

Ingredients

• 9 #s British Maris Otter Pale Malt
• 1 #s Cara-Red German
• 0.5#s Crystal 40
• 0.5#s Crystal 60
• 1 #s British Crytal 70/80
• 2 oz Black Roasted Barley Malt (British)

Total grains: 12 lbs and 2 oz

Yeast

WLP004 (65-68°F) 

Mash

• First Mash is 60 minutes @ 153F (Heated water to 167F), 4 gals, produces 3.25 gals
• Second Mash 10 minutes @ 157F (Heated water to 165F), 3 gals, produced 3.1 gals
• Sparge Mash 2 minutes @ 170F (heated water to 170F), 2 gals, produces, produces 2 gals

Or Mash at 153F for an hour and sparge to make 8 gallons.

Boil

Started with 8 gals, brought to boil

• 2 oz 60mins Cascade (sub Fruggles) -- HOME GROWN
• 2 oz 20mins Willamette (sub Kent Golding) -- HOME GROWN

Nov 2014 batch

- OG 1.039, FG 1.012

- added 2 cups of dextrose 

- boils for 60 mins by mistake. Should have done 90

- 3.7% plus dextrose making it 5%

Raspeatin on Nitro!

Old Rasputin clone on Nitro

Coal Black with a thick white head. Bliss!

Nov 3, 2013 - Old Rasputin is a beautiful thing. This beer leverages much of what makes it great and attempts to make a new great stout. Check my comments to see how this worked out. 

Recipe

Mash 152 F (60 Mins), Sparge 170 F

Batch Size: 5.00 gal

Boil Size: 8 gal

Final wort 5.7 gal

OG: 1.088

FG 1.017
ABV 9.5% 

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

288 calories per pint

Malts

18 lb 2 Row base 

1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 

0.50 lb Brown Malt 

0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L

0.50 lb Chocolate Malt

0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 

0.25 lb Black Barley

Hop Additions

60 Minutes

- 2 oz Magnum Hops alpha 14.7% beta 6.7%
20 Minutes

- 2 oz Chinook hops alpha 11%

- 1/2 oz Warrior

- 2 oz NZ Pacific Gem alpha 15.4%

- 1 oz Centennial alpha 11.8%

Misc

Added oxygen for 2 mins to froth wort. 

1 Whirflox tablet at 10 mins in the boil
1 WLP 005 British yeast

Day 2 of Fermentation. Kaboom!

My sculpture

Nov 15, 2013 - 1.017 FG, Tasted wow!

Nov 3, 2013 - When this cooled down it read OG 1.088

Initial pour of the wort

Comments

- Malts are the same as the close recipe. Changes to recipe are primarily the hops. Magnum was chosen for bittering based on a smooth bitterness.  The 20 minute addition hops were chosen based on the aroma profile and also what I had left in the fridge. Biggest contributions will come from the Chinook and Centennial based on smelling these hops. Warrior and NZ hops were getting old.
- 90 minute boil was done based on boiling down the 8 gallon wort. 8 Gallons was extracted based on getting more sugars with the sparge. Although this was only 1.088 OG it would have hit the mark of 1.092 if I produces 5 gallons instead of 5.7 gallons. I expect to loose the 0.7 gallons with trub.
- Day 2 of fermentation resulted in an explosion of the good kind. Trub pushed out the air lock and oozed trub all over the vessel and floor. Strong fermentation still continues on day 3 with my blow off system in place.
- Nov 9th tasting with gravity reading. Tastes as expected. Mmm-mmm good. A bit harsh that requires another week sitting on the trub to help smooth out this beer.
- Fermentation temperature was 63F to 68F

- Kegged on Nov 23. PSI set to 40 with micro stone infuser. Ready to pour in 48 hour. Improves with age for 3 wks.
- Finished keg on Jan 31, 2014. This beer was a big success. Easy to drink for a stout. Full of flavour. Nitro made this even smoother. Head was creamy and thick. This was a big step up from Guinness when looking for flavour.