Jarrylo IPA

I had some left-over malts in a bag that totaled about 40 oz, but I split it up into three separate bags, one 14 oz and two 13 oz.  Using that as a base, and upping the base malts a bit, will give me the basis for an IPA "blend", if you will.  This way, with the slight exception of some additional base malts (and yeast), I can have similar flavor and color for different IPAs.  I wanted to use some of the Jarrylo hops I'd received as promotion for the AHA membership in, and this seemed like a really good time to try it out.  Given that the alpha acids in this one are pretty high (the BSG packaging listed it as 14.2%, NorthernBrewer lists it at 16.3% for what they have available), I thought it would be a good idea to use the hops for both bittering and aromatic additions.

Brew Day: 13 Aug 2005

Partial Mash - total weight: 19 oz
3 oz FB CaraMunich 80L
3 oz Pale Malt 3L
3 oz Briess GoldPils Vienna Malt
3 oz Briess CaraPils
2 oz Weyerman Rye Malt
5 oz German Pale Ale Malt

Heat 2 qt water to 156 deg F, add to cooler, add grain bag.  After an hour, begin heating 4 qt water in brew kettle to 170 deg F.  Cycle wort through cooler manually several times, then remove grain bag and steep in kettle for 10 min.  After 10 min, remove the bag and let drain, add the wort and raise the temperature of the kettle.

A note about cycling the wort through the cooler...using a 1 qt container, most of the wort comes out of the cooler if you fill the container, due to the amount of water/wort retained in the grain.  Draining the cooler causes the wort to drain through the grain bag, and then adding the wort back to the cooler runs it through the grain bag again.

Boil - 60 min
1 lb Briess Golden Light DME (@ 60 min)
2 oz Belgian candy sugar (@ 60 min)
7 g Jarrylo (AA: 14.2%) (@ 60 min)
7 g Jarrylo (AA: 14.2%) (@ 30 min)
12 g Jarrylo (AA: 14.2%) (@ 10 min)

Yeast: Safbrew T-58

Once the kettle just starts to boil, add the DME, candy sugar and hops.  Continue with boil and hop additions.  Once the boil is complete, reduce the temperature of the kettle to approx. 80 deg F, via an ice bath.  Fill a sanitized fermenter half-way with wort, aerate vigorously.  Add wort to fill 1 gallon, pitch yeast (approx. half packet).

Speaking of boiling, Obsessed Brewing provides a good indicator of various levels of boiling wort.

Fermenter, 14 Aug

About 11 hrs after putting the fermenter in my fermentation location (downstairs bathtub), I checked in on it to find that the blow-off bottle was overrun with krausen.  Needless to say, the yeast appears to be doing just fine, and is very active.  I'll probably change out the blow-off bottle in a day or so, and then replace the blow-off tube with an airlock at about day 5 or 6.  In about 10 days, I'll transfer the beer to secondary and dry hop it, for at least 10 days.

That's my YAH hefeweizen in the background.  You obviously can't tell from the picture, but it's still bubbling away, albeit at a slower rate.  Looking closely at the fermenter, I can still see small bubbles rising in the fermenter.

Addendum, 24 Aug: Dry hopped today with 14 g of Jarrylo hops pellets.

Addendum, 3 Sep: Bottled, primed with 1.2 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  After prep'ing everything, I poured the priming sugar in the sanitized fermenter and then let this sit for about 15-20 min while I finished getting ready to bottle (i.e., put music on, etc.).  I got 8 bottles out of this batch, and had just a little bit left over, which I poured into a glass before cleaning the fermenter.  The color was a nice golden amber, and the beer had a warmth of alcohol on the palate.

Addendum, 17 Sep: Tasted one tonight, right at 2 weeks.  Dark golden amber pour, with a nice thick light golden head.  The head was bubbly and did not persist, dissipating slowly.  As soon as I had poured it, I got my nose in close to where the bubbles were dissipating, to try and discern anything in particular; I'll have to try again, as nothing specific jumped out in the aroma.  Nice flavor, clean, with a slight hint of malt, some sweetness, no real bitterness, and no after-taste.  Terri said that she liked the body of this beer, and I can definitely envision drinking it on a fall afternoon, but I don't see this one as a summer beer.

This is the second time I've tried using Jarrylo hops with what might be referred to as an "aggressive" hops schedule, and its come out more like a pale ale.  Terri really liked this one; her thoughts were good body, good flavor and no after-taste.  This is one of those beers that will really push my senses, in that I'll really need to focus on what it is I'm getting from the beer; this will really force me to discern and describe what it is I'm getting.