Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

It's that time! I bottled the New England 1020 IPA last night and it tasted delicious. The FG got down to 1.010 which is better than I expected. Overall it's a solid 5.8% ABV IPA. I had hoped for a lot higher but lack of attention to detail during mashing results in lower efficiency. I'll post tasting notes once it's done bottle conditioning! 

Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

I transferred The New England 1020 IPA last night and it tasted absolutely delicious. Still have a little ways to go on dropping that gravity down, but overall very impressed with the Yeast Bay Vermont Ale strain I used. It is sitting at 1.020 and would like to get it to at least 1.012 if I can. If not, oh well! As Charlie Papazian says, "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew". More updates to come later! Cheers!

Beer: Brewing The New England 1020 IPA

So I am a moron. Again, I forgot to take pictures of brew day. I get too caught up in the moment and enjoy it too much. I'm going to dedicate one of my friends solely to taking pictures next time. Anyways, we have fermentation! The picture is a bit deceiving because it is in an extremely dark place and I had to use the flash. The color is a lot lighter... A LOT lighter.

Again, we missed our OG. We were at about 1.043. I added a pound of table sugar that I know will dry it out a bit but I got it to 1.053. We also mashed in a little too high at around 160°F. Next time I am going to focus a lot more on detail so that this doesn't happen again. 

We used a little bit of a Campden tablet to kill unnecessary microbes and fluoride. I've been noticing my town has been adding a lot more recently and it was weirding me out. I pitched the Yeast Bay Vermont Ale Yeast 48 hours later to make sure the Campden tablet didn't kill that too! That would've been very unfortunate. 

We did a whirlpool which was extremely fun attaching this massive paddle to a drill and using it at 180°F. We need to re-do the paddle as it was too big and getting stuck when we would try to pull it out and causing it to come to a dead stop. Completely defeating the purposes of a whirlpool. 

I will update more when I transfer to secondary and dry hop! Below is the recipe we used. Feel free to have at it!

Original Gravity:

1.063

Final Gravity:

1.013

ABV (standard):

6.63%

IBU (tinseth):

141.25

SRM (morey):

5.2

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	72.7%
1 lb	Rice Hulls	0	0	7.3%
0.75 lb	Belgian - Munich	38	6	5.5%
0.75 lb	Flaked Oats	33	2.2	5.5%
0.5 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 10L	35	10	3.6%
0.5 lb	American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt)	33	1.8	3.6%
0.25 lb	German - Acidulated Malt	27	3.4	1.8%
13.75 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
5 mL	Hop Shot	Fresh	2.77	Boil	60 min	51.39
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Boil	10 min	16.28
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Boil	10 min	18.79
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Boil	5 min	8.95
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Boil	5 min	10.33
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min	16.48
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min	19.02
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Dry Hop	7 days
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
5.3 gal	175F to warm up mash tun, once at 160 dough in	Sparge	150 F	60 min
4.1 gal	Close to boil, then stir mash with water to distribute evenly	Sparge	175 F	15 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min
1 each	Whirfloc Tablet	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Default - - -

Attenuation (custom): 80% Flocculation: Med Optimum Temp: 66 - 72 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 68 °F Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 102 B cells required

Notes

Pale 2 Row must be RAHR
Vermont Ale Yeast
http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/vermont-ale

During second sparge mix up the grain in order to distribute the heat evenly. 

Beer: New Techniques During Brew Day

I have been on the journey to brew the best IPA I can ever since I started brewing. Which is actually not too long ago. Last year around this time I was brewing 1.5 gallon stove top brews and adding 3.5 gallons of tap water to make 5 gallons. In this short amount of time I have already jumped to all-grain brewing. Can you imagine what I will be doing next year? I can't.

This next brew we are calling The New England 1020. It's going to be a what I call them a "New England IPA". Not as bitter and more aromatic. I get to experiment with techniques I've never used before. I am going to be using a HopShot which is a hop extract to add some bittering elements without adding too much flavor of the hop. Next I am going to be whirlpooling at 180°F with the addition of hops. This is going to (hopefully) create a blast of aroma in the face. I also just picked up this yeast strain which is a Conan clone. 

I will definitely try to take a lot of pictures and update as soon as I can! I have trouble taking pictures because I am having too much fun the whole time. Yesterday I finished up the labels on the Apple Pie Ale and took a few nice pictures. Here they are! 

Beer: Northern Pale Ale

Last year my friends and I were at the brew store. I don't quite remember how it happened but Phil got a whiff of a specific hop called Northern Brewer and his face lit up like a little kid in a candy store. "We must brew a beer with this hop" he says. So, I came up with an extract recipe and we brewed, transferred, and bottled. It was a very drinkable pale ale that was almost an IPA. People that didn't like IPA's seemed to like it because of how light it was.

I entered it into a competition and got some great feedback on it's flaws and weaknesses. Surprisingly it got a 27 out of a 50 which I thought was very modest.

With these improvements, which included adding more hops to balance the overall malt heaviness, I tweaked the recipe. This time it was an all-grain recipe. We were very excited to rebrew this one. 

The new one definitely had way more flavor and was more well rounded than the extract recipe. Success! It is a really good mild West Coast IPA. There is a great grapefruit taste and overall citrusy. But for some reason, I just wasn't satisfied. We're not on the West Coast. I feel like being over here, I wanted to brew the what I call it "New England IPA". This great wave of IPA's coming through here is incredible. 3 notable mentions include: Tree House Brewing Co. - Julius, Hill Farmstead Brewery - Abner, and The Alchemist - Heady Topper. Recipe and brew day coming soon for that one!

So, overall... GREAT IPA. Below will be the recipe so you can give it a shot! It's a solid 6% as well. Cheers, and good luck! 

Original Gravity:

1.065

Final Gravity:

1.018

ABV (standard):

6.19%

IBU (tinseth):

68.03

SRM (morey):

6.81

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
11 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	80%
1 lb	American - Vienna	35	4	7.3%
0.5 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	3.6%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 20L	35	20	7.3%
4 oz	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	1.8%
13.75 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29.55
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	30 min	10.19
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	30 min	22.71
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	5 min	2.64
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	5 min	2.95
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
5.2 gal	To bring up to 152F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.6 gal	To bring up to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min
1 each	Whirfloc	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Attenuation (avg): 72% Flocculation: Medium Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 68 °F Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 105 B cells required

Notes

$35.20

Bring first mashing in to 175F and let sit in tun to warm it up. Wait 10 minutes or so until it is at 165F and dough in.

Once cooled down, whirlpool wort to seperate hop particles and trub. Let sit for at least an hour COVERED. Let cold break.