I made a trip to Atlanta for homebrew supplies as there are no supply shops here in Chattanooga. I hit up Hop City for some bulk grains, hops, and yeast. I tried to choose some things that would allow me to make a few different styles. I picked up:
American 2 Row (Briess) 50lb
Pale Chocolate 10lb
Crystal 60 10lb
Roasted Barley 10lb
CaraPils 10lb
Cascade pellet hops 6oz
Amarillo pellet hops 6oz
Centennial pellet hops 6oz
Safale US-05 (5 packs)
Safale S-04 (5 packs)
Danstar Nottingham (no recall) 2 packs
I’m sure I could have made some better choices, and I’m all ears to any suggestions.
As I wasn’t very happy with my last IPA (I made a Weizenbock and Amber Ale afterward that I enjoyed) I think I will make another one on Sunday. Here is the recipe I came up with from my inventory.
12 lbs.
2-Row Brewers Malt
0.50 lbs.
2-Row Caramel Malt 60L
0.25 lbs.
Cara-Pils® Malt
1 lbs.
Honey
1 oz.
Centennial (Pellets, 10 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz.
Amarillo (Pellets, 8.5 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz.
Cascade (Pellets, 5.5 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast :
Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
Original Gravity 1.071
Terminal Gravity 1.014
Color 10.75 °SRM
Bitterness 54.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 7.4 %
Going to mash @ 153*F for 60 minutes. I may dry hop this with Amarillo, still undecided.
While I’m still waiting on the delivery confirmation email from FedEx of my ingredients, I am planning on brewing an IPA tomorrow in search of the ever elusive “mega hop aroma/flavor” (see previous entry)… It’s not exactly the monster I envisioned during my fit of “Hops Madness”, but it should turn out to be a bitter and citrus kick in the jaw.
This will also be my 1st batch going into the new kegging system Angie bought me for Christmas (I know, she’s awesome). I’m a little nervous about it as I’m initially resistant to change, but it beats cleaning and sanitizing fifty or so 12 ounce bottles!! So, if you want some homebrew I can bottle on demand or ideally my friends will purchase 1/2 gallon growlers .
Not that many brewers read this blog, but I’m going to start posting my recipes and process information/adjustments here for my benefit at the very least. All recipes will be for 5 gallon batches unless otherwise stated.
Surly Furious IPA clone:
Grain
9.5 lbs. American 2 row
2.5 lbs. Munich
1 lbs. Belgian Cara 45
.5 lbsCaramel 60
.125 lbs.s Black Malt
Hops (times in parenthesis are amount of time left in the boil)
1 oz. Summit (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (60 min)
.5 oz. Ahtanum (20 min)
.5 oz. Amarillo (20 min)
.5 oz. Simcoe (20 min)
.5 oz. Ahtanum (10 min)
.5 oz. Amarillo (10 min)
.5 oz. Simcoe (10 min)
2 oz. Simcoe Hops (dry hop)
1 oz. Amarillo Hops (dry hop)
Yeast
Safale S-04 @ 63*F
The only change I made from the kits for this clone are in the yeast. Most call for Nottingham (Danstar), but I’m going to use Safale S-04. It’s another dry English ale yeast, but I’ve better luck in the past with it. It seems to attenuate a bit better and flocculate (drop out of suspension) more completely.
I plan on dry hopping for 4 days at 68*F at the end of primary fermentation and then cold crash the beer to 35*F for 24 hours and then straight into the keg. I like my IPA’s as fresh as possible, and the cold crash should help to clear the brew so no secondary here. I will try to remember to take some pics of my process and update this tomorrow afternoon.
Ok, no more conspiracy theories or forced organic farming hippyness. Time to get back to what’s important here, beer.
Brewing Recap:
1. I started brewing extract batches of 5 gallons in partial boils in September of 2008.
2. I “upgraded” to all grain brewing in June of 2009 with a failure of a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. (infection)
3. Since then I have brewed 10 all grain batches, of which 4 were IPA’s or IIPA’s.
I have late hopped, dry hopped, and dry humped my IPA’s into a living death, but cannot seem to achieve the slap in the face hop aroma I crave… The bitterness is there in spades. I’ve made them dry with US-O5; rich with Nottigham, and can adjust the feel no problem. The only other unwanted side effect is a haze that I can’t shake even with cold crashing and long secondary.
I’m not one to quit though, so my next batch will be (you guessed it) an IIPA. Imperial IPA and I’m going for broke! 100 + IBU’s and a starting gravity of 1.100 or more. All alpha acids, all the time. Bitterness hops. Flavor hops. Aroma hops. Hops hops. You get the idea.
When I decide on a recipe, I will post it here. Promise.
I know I’ve said it before, but if you have not seen this movie you should. Go rent it, or buy it, or whatever, but watch it. It will open your eyes and benefit not only you, but your family as well….
And it’s a really old episode of Donahue… It does show however, that this problem of ours has been in plain sight for 30 years. We just turned a blind eye to it
I’ve built a new server to host this site (and a few others) and I’m going to make an honest effort to blog more… This time, I will also try and focus on the thing/s that people seem to ask me about the most. Right now that seems to be beer. I’m pretty sure that’s because I give most of what I make away, and they want to know when to expect more!
