Posts Tagged ‘ipa’
The Double IPA, Hmmm
Posted on: May 5, 2013
- In: Brewing
- 8 Comments
I’m a little confused over the matter of brewing Big IPA’s, in regard to getting bitterness and some dryness into these high strength Imperial or Double IPA.
Consider my AG#92 Klaatu Verata Nictu its an all malt DIPA but the residual sweetness after fermentation is far too high, time in bottle is s-l-o-w-l-y drying it out and its a nice beer, but much more of an American Barleywine than displaying the bitterness characteristics I was aiming for… It would seem that my predicted 200 IBU could have been doubled to 400 IBU to help cut through the sweetness.
This is theoretically where a Sugar addition comes into play to help dry the beer out…
Now consider this AG#85 HopZilla IPA which did have a sugar addition for the purpose of drying the beer out, yet I still got an annoyingly high level of residual sweetness after fermentation, this did eventually dry up and display its proper character in bottle but it took blooming ages! I think I have 1 bottle of this left which I assume will be the dogs bollocks by the time I crack into it.
There is nothing wrong with either of the above beers apart from me not getting what I was aiming for, for my next experiment I will be trying a 10% addition of Dextrose, and a long cool Mash with less malts that could be adding Dextrins to the wort.
The following questions arise:
- Mash Temp?
- Liquor to Malt Ratio?
- Mash Duration?
- Amount & Type of Copper Sugars?
- Malt selection?
- Liquor Treatment additions?
I feel a MASSIVE dry hop is needed on these higher gravity beers, done in two stages.. i.e. Once in the FV, then transfer to Conditioning/Secondary for a while before doing a Second or even Third Heavy dry hop.
We brewed Kala BIPA, 6.2% @SaltaireBrewery a short time ago, I know the ABV is considerably different but we used a sugar addition of almost 10% to great effect in this beer making an amazingly easy drinking beer that went down like a 4% session ale.
Its all fun 
I’d be really interested in how other homebrewers / brewers get their level of bitterness & Dryness in their DIPAs.
Cheers
A Brewday with Matt at Truefitt Brewing
It was last June during our wedding anniversary week in Whitby that me and Emma paid Matt a visit in his new Brewery, less than a year later Matt was coming up to his 100th brewed Gyle and had plans for brewing that beer the day I was there. He was not working full time last year, but now having stopped working for The Lions Den and taken on his first employee, he is out on his own.
Best laid plans! The day before our brewday a fused spur had blown and Matt had to cancel a brew doe to lack of hot liquor, so our brewday was Gyle #99 though I suppose in spirit it was still #100, it was to be a big 7%+ IPA hopped with recently released Mandarina Bavaria Hops from Germany.
I was on holiday, it felt wrong getting up this early but I got to Truefitt for 7.30am and found Matt had just started mashing in:
Run-off starts from the Mash Tun via the converted Keg Underback:
He said he was attaching the hop filter!:
The Copper Stand, this is where the last or late hops get to steep in the hot wort giving them time for the hop oils and flavours to infuse into the wort:
He aerates the wort via a sprayball while transferring to the fermenting vessel:
Matt is currently contract brewing for the one for the last breweries he worked at so was going some back-fills for us at Saltaire:
The Beer was named ‘Trembler’ after a previous and differently hopped brew of the same strength, its 7.4% and a Double IPA… I’m hoping to get my hands on some of this in bottle so I can add some tasting notes to the blog.
I had a good day with Matt and his new apprentice Jack, I hope to see Matt down at Saltaire sometime.
The last thing to note is that a Sausage & Tomato butty in Middlesbrough is at least 40p cheaper than in Shipley!!
You also can catch Matt on:
@TruefittBeers
Facebook/TruefittBeers
Some of his regular beers are:
All Bottle-Conditioned, Matt has chosen to hand bottle his beers to keep the full flavour, I’ve also got some other bottles from Truefitt Brewing to try soon
Click the Pics below to see what i thought of the beers 
AG#94 – Hooded Embarrassment
Posted on: February 3, 2013
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Hooded Embarrassment – Thought I’d try squeeze in a brew for the Revolutions Brewery ‘Competition’ so I’m going for something a bit different after reading something about a Mittlefruh IPA in Stan Hieronymus‘ new book ‘For the love of Hops‘. I could have sworn that I had a pack of Mittlefruh in the Hop-Freezer, sadly I didn’t but what I did have was a pack of Mount Hood hops which are an American grown relation of Mittlefruh.
Vienna malt for some added maltiness and lots of carapils to retain body and hopefully balance the bitterness.
I’ve had a nice bottle of Mallinsons Brewery ‘Aramis’ and I thought it had a good spicy bitterness to it so that is forming my bittering additions, I’ll dry hop with Mt. Hood as soon as its passed 1020-1015 in the fermenter, then try and get bottled in good time to allow for it to condition up and mature before it has to be judged.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 2880g – 60%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 720g – 15%
Vienna Malt – 720g – 15%
Wheat Malt – 480g – 10%
Hops:
Aramis – 8.9 % @ 60 mins – 32g (First Wort Hop)
Aramis – 8.9 % @ 30 mins – 32g
Mount Hood – 7.5 % @ 10 mins – 30g
Mount Hood – 7.5 % @ 0 mins – 30g (Flameout steep for 30mins)
Dry Hops:
Mount Hood – 40g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 31.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 58 EBU
Colour: 6 EBC
Mash: 68°c for 60mins
Boil: 60mins
Yeast: Safale us-05
The malts, a very pale blend:
Some liquor treatment and First wort Aramis hops in the copper:
Hops prep’d, the full tablet of Protafloc went in with the 10mins hops:
Steeping hops, Mt. Hood, just turned the chiller on for a few seconds to kill the boil before adding the hops:
Everything sanitised with Starsan:
Got a little over 1052, I liquored-back to 1047, I must make another Brewday Record Sheet that includes the liquoring back:
No mucking about today, the mash was on at 10.55 (68°c) and I’m all cleared up and typing this now at about 16.00, I could probably have been done quicker if I’d tried.
Turfed out last weeks brew from the fermentation fridge and put todays brew in there set to 20°c, I’ll increase the temperature after a day or two to 21-22°c and hope to have it finished fermenting by the weekend.
Check out Revolutions Brewing on @RevolutionsBrew
Hopefully my yeast is good and I will make better beer than my un-entered attempt last year!
*7th Feb ’13 – Dry Hopped at approx 20°c with 40g Mt.Hood, giving a good stir in through the yeast head, Gravity @ 1017.
*8th Feb ’13 – Gravity @ 1010.5 so gone a bit passed the 1012 predicted, again give the hops a good stir and squashed them against the side of the FV. Tastes rather good with a big woody/spicy flavour and spicy bitterness, I may well enjoy this
*Bottled 18th Feb ’13 – with 90g White Sugar.
*22nd Feb ’13 – Early taster, a little green and slightly grassy, has a really solid spicy bitterness.
*25th Feb ’13 – Taster tasting good, nice sessionable ale, no big brash hops just a balance of bitterness and spice with woody orange tones.
AG#92 – Klaatu Verata Nictu
Posted on: January 1, 2013
Klaatu Verata Nictu – The New Years Day BrewAthon 2013. It was a year ago that a few of us brewed an Imperial Stout on New Years Day, this year its a more free range of beer styles but people are pushing the boundaries a little with some funky yeast etc
The name for this beer comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Darkness quite the classic.
I’m making a big beer, 10% ABV with Amarillo & Delta Hops, I’d like to brew a beer that will evolve and change over a couple of years (hopefully it will last that long!) something with at least a hint of what my Imperial Amarillo Wheat had after 18 months.
Once I’ve fermented mine with US-05 I’ll be bottling half-ish and then using Brettanomyces Bruxellensis in a secondary fermenter.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt 2.5 EBC – 63.9%
Wheat Malt – 9.9%
Vienna Malt – 8.9%
Munich Type I (Weyermann) – 8.9%
Flaked Oats – 5%
Cara Vienna (Dingemans) – 3.5%
Hops:
Sticklebract Pellet – 11.7 % @ 60 mins – 90g
Chinook Pellet – 12.9 % @ 60 mins – 18g
Summit Pellet – 15.8 % @ 30 mins – 27g
Amarillo Whole – 10 % @ 15 mins – 50g
Delta Whole – 6.5 % @ 15 mins – 50g
Amarillo Whole – 10 % @ 0 mins – 50g – (80c steep for 20-30mins)
Delta Whole – 6.5 % @ 0 mins – 50g – (80c steep for 20-30mins)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.100
Final Gravity: 1.024
Alcohol Content: 10.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 37.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 25.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 70 % – Reduced a bit from normal
Bitterness: 200 EBU
Colour: 19 EBC
Mash: 65°c for 120mins
Yeast: Safale US-05 x 3 packs
Liquor: GW Calc ‘Dry Pale Ale’
A very full fermenter full of malts, about 12kg in all:
Hot liquor at 82°c to pre heat mash tun, let cool to 72°c before mashing in, Temp-Controller construction is here:
The overview of my three tier home brewery, gravity fed system with Hot water from the House feed to fill the HLT at 50-60°c:
These NZ Sticklebract smell great, big pungent citrus character, bit of a shame they are just the bittering:
New Year Resolution is to brew my way thru some of this lot!:
After 2 hour mash I’m recirculating the wort for clarity, tastes good:
About OG 1090 give or take, a temperature corrected Hydrometer test showed 1083 a more reasonable figure, the mash was actually pretty text-book and the recirculation must have helped:
Boiling down the wort in the kitchen too so as to speed things along, I did this with some of the first sparge and again with the second sparged wort:
Amarillo and Delta 80°c steep hops:
Almost 1110 off the scale, this is going to be a fun liquorback:
Finally after a mega dribble transfer I have pitched 3 packs of yeast!:
Everything was going sooo well until I got about 10 Litres transferred into the FV when it ground to a halt (Dribble) and I started to try and find a way to make it speed up so cleaned a Solar Pump and pipework and tried pumping it… sadly I just got the same dribble but through a pump, left it to it and came back about 9pm to find about 20 Litres in the FV. I was over my OG so I liquored back to just over my target and gained an extra couple of litres, there must have still been 4-5 Litres left in the soggy hops in the copper, If it had drained properly I’d got that extra out and would have split the batch into another FV and left the Brett to do a full primary ferment.
My Method for brewing this 10% beer:
This is how I have done my Barley Wine and Abyss Imperial Stout, Over-sparge by 10 Litres or so and boil it down in a few pans before adding all back to the copper and boiling down until I reach the theoretical pre-boil Volume, then add the 60min bittering hops and so on until the end of a boil. The Mash and Sparges were; Mash with hot liquor at 73°c for 120minutes (65c Mash); recirculate entire mash via solar pump for approx 20mins; drain Mash completely avoiding malt particles at the end; Sparge with 13.4L Hot Liquor at 78°c recirculate and Run-off; Boil down in pans; Second 10L Sparge Recirculated and Run off with a further boiling down.
As I was saying above I was actually finishing the boil with a good few litres more in the copper and was hoping for extra in the FV… oh well!
I may have to look at improving my Mesh Hop-Stopper for brewing these bigger beers that include some Pellet Hops.
Twitter HashTag #NYDBrewAthon
This years brewers were:
Here is Barney’s on JBK – Monks Slipper
Here is Macca’s on JBK – Cliffhanger Oatmeal Stout
Here is Lugsy’s on JBK – Pseudo-Lambic (Lugsy started early as he’d learned from last year!)
Here is Leedsbrew’s Prep Blog and later Update
Here is Quadrangularus’ – Raspberry Sour Brown Ale
More as and when the brewers post up their Brewdays
*12th Jan ’13 – Gravity at 1019 so 10.9% ABV, dry hopped with pellets:
Nelson Sauvin – 29g
Motueka – 29g
Cascade – 29g
I decided not to go down the Amarillo whole hop route as they would soak up too much beer and I’ll be splitting some of the beer off into a Demijohn or small FV bucket to Brett so don’t want to loose too much volume.
*Bottled 20th Jan ’13 – with 65g White Sugar, dropped the lot into a Bottling bucket with primings then bottled half-ish in 330ml bottles then put the rest in an Oxfam bucket and pitched the Brett.
Syphoned thru a Teaball to guard against getting pellet debris in the bottles, the chill down to 8°c in the fridge had made it pretty clear anyway:
Brettanomyces Bruxellensis added to about 8L in Oxfam bucket:
Got about 32 bottles, tasting pretty good with a fair amount of residual sweetness which should fade in bottle as it conditions and matures:
*2nd Feb ’13 – Brett’d beer has dropped 2 points to 1017 from 1019, very slight speckled surface, think it needs more brett! Tastes just slightly different to what I’d expect from un-brett’d.
*2nd Feb ’13 – Had a taster bottle with Dave last night, has loads of residual sweetness which I hope will diminish as it matures, could have done with maturing in bulk then Dry hopping and bottling some weeks/months later.
*9th Feb ’13 – Just added a fresh tube of Whitelabs WLP650 as I was expecting more to be happening and wondering if the OG / Alcohol content is screwing the Brett Brux over.
*25th Feb ’13 – Gravity @ 1017 which hasn’t budged in the last 23 days! Tastes just on the edge of bretty-sour but very subtle. I’m fairly sure the High Alcohol has killed the Brett.
*31st Mar ’13 – Gravity @ 1015 so its creeping slowly and is now showing a more Bretty sour, it could be some time before this is finished!
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Non Terrestrial Intelligence – I’m using stuff up and have no Pale or Lager malt so I bought some Oat Husks from TheMaltMiller and added 5% to the recipe to aid sparging with so much Wheat Malt. I’m hoping for a fairly big hit of American hops with a good amount of bitterness.
The name comes from the Abyss movie.
Fermentables:
Wheat Malt – 76%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 8%
Special B – 8%
Oat Husks – 5%
Black Malt – 3%
Hops:
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 60 mins – 25g (First Wort Hop)
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 30 mins – 25g
Summit – 17.2 % @ 0 mins – 70g
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 0 mins – 40g
Citra – 13 % @ 0 mins – 40g
Topaz – 16 % @ 0 mins – 10g (I just threw in a Sample I was given at work)
Nelson Sauvin – 12.1 % @ 0 mins – 11g (End of a bag)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 70 % – (Reduced from my regular 75%)
Bitterness: 62 EBU
Colour: 125 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05
Mash: 66°c for 2 hours, I did an iodine test at about 90mins which had a tiny bit of starch left.
Malts in the bucket, I added some gypsum to the mash and Calcium Chloride & Mag Sulphate to the boil:
Adding the Mash Liquor to the Mash Tun, added a few degrees higher than my strike temperature and allowed to cool / Pre-heat the tun before mashing in:
I was originally going to use Magnum for bittering but decided to go with the open packs of hops instead so it was Simcoe all the way:
The Oat Husks in the mash:
20min Steep of the Flameout hops:
Initial Gravity reading was 1061, liquored back 2.5L to 1054:
The usual go-to yeast, its easy and clean fermenting:
A good brewday, the Oat Husks / Sparge worked really well and the wort was pretty clear for such a high percentage of Wheat Malt. The wort was smelling great too, put to bed in the fermentation fridge set to 20°c.
*7th Dec ’12 – Gravity at 1014 @about 22°c think its done but will give it another day before chilling it down. The Hydrometer sample tasted very nice too
*10th Dec ’12 – Down to 1013.5-ish, put on to chill down before bottling, still tasting good
*Bottled 16th Dec ’12 – with 100g White Sugar into about 20L of beer, still tastes good, would probably have been epic if I’d dry hopped
AG#88 – Casapollocade IPA
Posted on: September 30, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
Casapollocade IPA – As the name sort of says, this beer uses Cascade & Apollo hops in abundance for the late steep though bittering comes from two very healthy doses of Willamette
This beer is not shy and promises to be brash on the bitterness with floral, “dank” and piney notes, the Apollo are pretty pungent and might be better suited rolled in some Rizlas than soaked in wort!
Its been a little while since I brewed so I decided to make this a bit of a Pancake-day, used up all my Pale, Lager, Weyermann Munich Type I, and Oat malts… out with the old and in with the new etc etc….:)
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 45.6%
Lager Malt – 18.1%
Oat Malt – 15.2%
Munich Type I (Weyermann) – 14.6%
Caramalt – 4.6%
Amber Malt – 1.8%
Hops:
Willamette – 6.4 % @ 60 mins – 75g – (First Wort Hop)
Willamette – 6.4 % @ 30 mins – 75g
Cascade – 7.9 % @ 0 mins – 100g – (20-30min Steep)
Apollo – 19.5 % @ 0 mins – 100g – (20-30min Steep)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 6.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 84 EBU
Colour: 18 EBC
Mash: over 90mins @67c
Boil: 60mins
Yeast: Safale US-05
Liquor Treatment: GW Calc Dry Pale Ale
The Malts:
The Mash Temp, aimed for and hit my temp:
Liquor Salts & 75g of Willamette FWH:
Lots and lots of Hops:
First Sparge of the two batches:
Do you think 350g for a 23L brew-length is too much?:
Flameout Steep hops, 200g of them:
Chilled, nothing has settled out ‘cos there is a shed load of hops in there! Thinking logically this is a heck of a reason to use pellet hops for big heavily hopped beers as the retained wort would be much less:
All done, busy day; brewing, Exam revision, and tiling the kitchen…!
*7th Oct ’12 – Down to 1012 @ 22°c think its done, should I or shouldn’t I dry hop, wasn’t going to… Tastes to have a similar pungency to Green Bullet / Bobek in the mix. If I do dry hop I may use Magnum to test out an idea.
*Bottled 13th Oct ’12 – with 80g White Sugar
*22nd Oct ’12 – Taster bottle, this isn’t bad, bags of flavour it will hopefully dry out a little in bottle and become more of the IPA its meant to be, I never bothered dry hopping btw.
*1st Nov ’12 – I’m actually really enjoying this beer, bags of flavour, plenty of body and a tingle of bitterness without being too harsh.
- In: Brewing
- 11 Comments
On Saturday 15th of September the UK’s National Homebrew Competition took place (Hashtag #uknhc for Twitter).
163 Homebrewers had entered 460 beers and Ali-Kocho and the guys from Bristol Homebrew did the amazing job of making it all come together, this was their second year running this National event which was held in St. Werburghs Community Center this year.
Here come the photos… I’d love some help in putting some names to photos (Real name or Forum / Twitter etc), leave me a comment or Tweet me. I’m generally crap with names and the few that have stuck in my head I’ve either met before or have talked to on Twitter, so I totally apologise in advance for not remembering.
Ali & @Quadrangularus1 in the background, @stevewright1976 inspecting his beer, Light blue shirt, 2nd in is Paul Henderson, Simon Ashdown is front corner.
Moustache and pinny is @_Michael_Palmer (top food! “Bastard Hot Wings”), Bed Fields @Alsothings middle front with white T-shirt.
@NeilRimmer1005 over the back in the Blue/grey top and next to him is Mr Lard from JBK/THBF in the stripy t-shirt, the guy in the purple shirt sitting and bent over bottles is Paul Spearman the LAB chairman.
@Des De Moor & @Marisotter then at the top right the middle beard wearer is Capn Ahab (JBK)/@zymurgeeza – also part of the food team!
@TheMaltMiller with the red striped sleeve
Steve Syson & SteveWright’s head, @BrettJEllis of forthcoming brewery Wild Beer
Tony Barnsley/Aleman (From JBK / THBF) in the dark blue top and cap, Chairman of the Craft Brewers Association don’t ya know
White haired judge with Glasses in bottom left is Mike Carter from LAB
@BrettJEllis with the funky facial hair opposite brown baseball cap is Pete Hughes @SwaziPete (pokerswazi from JBK) I’d spotted a crate with Swazi written on it and half made a connection with the accent, I should have said hi
White haired judge with Glasses in bottom left is Mike Carter from LAB
Just some of the entries Mmmm Beer
Steve & Tom
To the right is one of the Justin’s from @DrinkMoorBeer
Stephen Sykes standing and @GraemeCoates judging, Graeme is going to Norway for his Best in Show! @SamTait to Graeme’s right.
In the red top, the other Justin from @DrinkMoorBeer
Paul (Vacant on JBK) far left, Middle is Barney (JBK) Wayne then Stephen (Alix101 on JBK) on the right
Ali and Tom
Best in Show judging getting set up, standing behind Steve in grey shirt is Roger @trunky_bristol
Steve (in the red shirt) is doing his PHD on beer judging some proceedings were recorded on multiple media!
We arrived at the venue just after the Stewards briefing, slapped wrists, and I was sent to help with the Belgian Ales and I spent the morning being a bit of a spare part but got to try a fair few Belgian & Strong Ales. After a lunch of BBQ Sausage sandwiches it was back to work and Ali got me to steward for the German Bock category and English Brown Ales, this was interesting listening to Steve Syson & Steve Wright doing the judging, I got to try all the beers and some of those in the Smoked & Spice/Veg category too which were being judged on the same table.
The judging finally finished with the raffle and prize giving after 9pm, a long but enjoyable day.
In case I missed copy/pasting any of the code from Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets/72157631555793596/
Congratulations to everyone that won a prize and all the Honorable Mentions.
Results – UK National Homebrew Competition
Best of Show
Place Brewer(s) Entry Name Style Club
1st Graeme Coates Cauchy – Schwarz Inequality 4C: Schwarzbier Oxford Brewers
2nd Steve Syson Debaser 14C: Imperial IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Dave Halse Mystrawraspb 20A: Fruit Beer London Amateur Brewers
Categories:
Porter (26 entries)
1st Jacob Griffin Zombier Baltic Porter -
2nd Chris Lewis Rigor Porteris Robust Porter
3rd Steve Crawshaw Waggoner Porter Robust Porter Bristol Craft Brewers
Stout (43 entries)
1st Ben Hislop Big Black Imperial Stout Scottish Craft Brewers
2nd Tim Daly Oatmeal Sweet Stout Sweet Stout Oxford Brewers
3rd Bryan Spooner Sadako Imperial Stout Imperial Stout London Amature Brewers (lab)
HM David Budd Heacham Russian Imperial Stout Imperial Stout North Devon Craft Brewers
Specialty Beer (27 entries)
1st Ali Kocho-williams Indian Ink Specialty Beer Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
2nd Ben Hislop Long Black Cloud Specialty Beer Scottish Craft Brewers
3rd Jacob Griffin Black Tiger Rye Pa Specialty Beer -
Strong Ales (14 entries)
1st Ross Harper Backbreaker Barleywine American Barleywine Red Earth Brewers
2nd Dave Halse Mybarleywine English Barleywine London Amateur Brewers
3rd Andrew Jardine Cave Adsum American Barleywine Boohs
Belgian And French Ales (45 entries)
1st Matthew Barker Disconnecty Belgian Ipa Belgian Specialty Ale London Amateur Brewers
2nd Robert Petterson Robert Petterson Witbier
3rd Ali Kocho-williams Black Monk Belgian Specialty Ale Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
HM Matt Bunn Duckfight 2012 Belgian Specialty Ale
Belgian Strong Ales (28 entries)
1st Ken Winter Velvet Tankard Belgian Dark Strong Ale
2nd Steve Syson Tripel Trubbel Belgian Tripel Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Kiwi Dubbel Belgian Dubbel Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Daniel Van Der Zee 055 DSA Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Light Hybrids (16 entries)
1st Ali Kocho-williams Amarillo Wheat American Wheat or Rye Beer Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
2nd Stephen Sykes Stephen Sykes Kolsch Northern Craft Brewers
3rd Mark Grundy Eau De Cologne Kolsch Bristol Brewing Circle
HM Shane O’beirne Bruntsfield Blonde Blonde Ale
English Pale Ales (57 entries)
1st Steve Osborne English Pale Ale Special/Best/Premium Bitter Midland Craft Brewers
2nd Ron Allison Golden Bitter Standard/Ordinary Bitter Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Richard Pearce Strong Bitter Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) London Amateur Brewers
HM Rob Marchington Croft Hsb Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) Cambridge Craft Brewers
American Ales (37 entries)
1st David Barker Citra Amber Ale American Amber Ale None
2nd Matthew Barker Prodigal American Pale Ale American Pale Ale London Amateur Brewers
3rd Tom Greasley The Red Scare American Amber Ale London Amateur Brewers
IPA (58 entries)
1st Steve Syson Debaser Imperial IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
2nd Steve Syson Stoned IPA American IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Classic Pale Ale English IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Graeme Coates Emerald American IPA Oxford Brewers
Bock (5 entries)
1st Vladimir Kaznakov Bock Traditional Bock
2nd Rob Marchington Bob’s Your Dunkel Traditional Bock Cambridge Craft Brewers
3rd Richard Caller Bona Dea Maibock/Helles Bock Northern Craft Brewers
Scottish and Irish Ale (7 entries)
1st Karl Clark Claymore Strong Scotch Ale Northern Craft Brewers Association
2nd Aled Murphy Aittin 80/- Scottish Export 80/- Scottish Craft Brewers
3rd Steven Crump Start A War Strong Scotch Ale
German Wheat And Rye Beer (15 entries)
1st Graeme Coates Vital Signs Weizenbock Oxford Brewers
2nd Steve Wright KiWi-zen Weizen/Weissbier Northern Craft Brewer’s Assoication
3rd Ben Hislop Hefe Schwartz Dunkelweizen Scottish Craft Brewers
HM Richard Poole Druid Fluid Weizen/Weissbier Bristol Craft Brewers
Smoke And Wood Aged Beer (16 entries)
1st Paul Mills Butt-head Wood-Aged Beer Primary Fermenters Brewers And Vintners Of Minnesota (eastern League)
2nd Mike Tonks Saxon Smokey Porter Other Smoked Beer Bristol Brewing Circle
3rd Dave Halse Mysmokedporter Other Smoked Beer London Amateur Brewers
HM Bryan Spooner Sadako Imperial Stout – Oaked Wood-Aged Beer London Amature Brewers (lab)
New Zealand Pale Ale (11 entries)
1st Steve Syson Kiwi Pale Ale New Zealand Pale Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
2nd Mark Charlwood Summer Pale New Zealand Pale Ale London Amateur Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Kiwi Gold New Zealand Pale Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
Spice Herb And Vegetable Beer (17 entries)
1st Ken Bazley Kulao Porter Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer London Amateur Brewers
2nd Matt Bunn Snapdragon Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
3rd Andrew Jardine Bandit Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Boohs
HM Kieran Wall Thackrey Stout Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Amber Hybrids (8 entries)
1st Matthew Hicks Ardley Easter California Common Beer
2nd Tony Milner Alt Northern German Altbier Boohs
3rd Ken Bazley Altbier Northern German Altbier London Amateur Brewers
Sour Ale, Fruit Beer (10 entries)
1st Dave Halse Mystrawraspb Fruit Beer London Amateur Brewers
2nd Brett Ellis Lambic Straight (Unblended) Lambic
3rd Richard Caller Rode Koe With Raspberry Fruit Beer Northern Craft Brewers
HM Richard Caller White Walls Raspberry Fruit Beer Northern Craft Brewers
Light Lager, Pilsner, European Amber Lager, Dark Lager (15 entries)
1st Graeme Coates Cauchy – Schwarz Inequality Schwarzbier Oxford Brewers
2nd Graeme Coates Notfest Oktoberfest/Marzen Oxford Brewers
3rd Steve Syson Goodnight Vienna Vienna Lager Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Steve Syson Schwarze Engel Schwarzbier Midlands Craft Brewers
English Brown Ale (5 entries)
1st Christopher Eyett Andersons’ Brown Northern English Brown Ale
2nd Ian Ross-bain Three Rivers Northern English Brown Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Steve Crawshaw Ask Jon Mild Mild Bristol Craft Brewers
HM Paul Dodd Pd’s Nut Brown Ale Northern English Brown Ale
Here’s a brief breakdown of what was entered in the following categories and how they were boiled down:
IPA:
EIPA – 13
AIPA – 30
IIPA – 15
Stout:
Dry Stout – 16
Sweet Stout – 4
Oatmeal Stout – 5
Foreign Stout -2
American Stout -2
Imperial Stout – 14
American Ales:
Pale – 14
Amber – 16
Brown – 7
Bock:
Maibock – 2
Traditional Bock – 3
AG#85 – HopZilla IPA
Posted on: July 22, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 20 Comments
HopZilla IPA – Fingers crossed this is going to be a Double or Imperial IPA, 9.2% heavily bittered and mentally dry hopped, I’m quite happy it not being ready to drink for a while but I think the Dry Hopping might mean I’ll have to drink it pretty fresh so its at its height. Hopefully I’ll keep some to age too.
The bittering is mainly from German Perle hops with the late hops being a fairly classic mix of Amarillo & Cascade with Riwaka thrown in too to add some spiciness with it being of Saaz lineage. Its the dry hops that I’m not holding back on, I shall split the 200g (thats 11.1g of Hop Pellets per Litre of beer) of pellet hops in two and add to the fermenter at different times, close to or at Final Gravity in the cooling phase. For an excellent guide to Dry Hopping go to Gregs Blog.
This is the first time I’ve used Belgian Special B malt, I could smell it in the mash and while sparging, I’m hoping it might add something a little different with the Crystal Rye. Instead of just throwing a load of White Sugar in the boil I decided to make some Candy Syrup while the Mash was on.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 77.1%
Sugar,Belgian Candy Light – 9.3%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 5.4%
Wheat Malt – 4.5%
Special B – 1.8%
Crystal Rye Malt – 1.8%
Hops:
Perle Whole 8.2 % @ 60 mins – 50g
UK Cascade Whole 5.7 % @ 60 mins – 22g
Perle Whole 8.2 % @ 30 mins – 50g
Amarillo Whole 10 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Cascade Whole 7.9 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Riwaka (D Saaz) Whole 5.9 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Dry Hops:
Chinook Pellet – 50g
Summit Pellet – 50g
Nelson Sauvin Pellet – 50g
Motueka (B Saaz) Pellet – 50g
Final Volume: 18 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.084
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 9.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 28.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 13.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 125 EBU
Colour: 28 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05 x 2 packs
Mash: 60-90mins @ 66°c
Boil: 60mins
Liquor Treatment: Pale Ale thanks to THBF water treatment calculator
The usual malts shot:
Gypsum for the Mash being weighed out:
First Wort Hops and Salts for the Boil:
I cooked up some Cane sugar with a good pinch of Citric Acid to make Candy Sugar, I cooked it down until a light amber colour then added water back to it to keep it a syrup rather than going to the Hard Crack stage:
FWHs and Mash run-off, I did a decoction to take the mash upto Mashout temperatures before roughly fly-sparging with a jug at 80°c:
Rather steamy, the late hops go in:
Hefty looking break material in the copper as the wort cools, I used a 1/2 Protafloc tablet into approx 18 litres of wort in the last 5 mins of boil:
Aiming for 1084, I got 1088 @ 20°c, weighed the fermenter (subtracting the weight of the bucket) and calculated my liquor-back volume 820ml added from HLT, giving me a final volume of 18.15 litres in the FV:
Pretty smooth brewday, yeast pitched and FV in the fermentation fridge at 20°c
*28th Jul ’12 – Gravity at 1017, soon I’ll add the first dry hops, already tasting very good
*30th Jul ’12 – Dry hopped with 25g of each pellet hop at current 21.5°c temp.
*2nd Aug ’12 – Dry hopped again 25g of each pellet hop at current 21.9°c temp, will lower temp tomorrow to 17°c then 11°c and finally 4°c.
*Bottled 11th Aug ’12 – with 50g White sugar, tastes pretty full on, a couple of weeks in the bottle should see it smooth and mellow a little.
*17th Aug ’12 – Early taster bottle… the flavours in this are very much that which I’ve had in some bought beers and I’m very happy with the hopping flavour and maltiness, it has bags of body, some alcohol on the nose but only the warming in the throat after drinking, a fair amount of sweetness goes with the body. If I were to tweak the recipe I’d throw out the Carapils, Mash a little cooler, increase the bitterness by 10-20 IBU’s (the strength of the wort obviously makes its harder for the hops to be isomerised), I think with a little more carbonation it would lift the sweet body and present the hops better. Very close, deserves a re-brew.
*5th Sep ’12 – This has dried out, the carbonation is spot on, the bitterness is coming thru, the dry hops are still a touch on the raw side, a little more time and this will be there!
*10th Sep ’12 – Maybe a week or two more, I think with the mad amount of dry hops and the strength things are taking longer than I’d expected to settle down and meld with one-another. This leads me to believe that my 17th Aug comment was far too preemptive and all that was really needed was some time and maturation in bottle. More time will tell
