Tuesday, July 16, 2019

LeftOver IPA

Okay, time for another "left-over IPA", and this time, we have something of an interesting mix of hopped wort that contributes to this brew.  There's a wheat beer, two sours, and 3 IPAs.  Keep in mind, however, that this is all from wort after the fermenter has been filled and the yeast pitched for the contributing beer; this was the wort left over in the brew kettle, and there was still some hops that the wort was sitting on while it sat in the container, waiting for today's brew.

Prior brews that contributed to the wort for this brew:
Hefe #2 - wheat beer, some gentle hopping via German Perle, prior to yeast
Nordic IPA - Melon and Mosaic hops, prior to pitching the yeast
Nordic Sour IPA - same as above, but sour
Galaxy IPA - NE-style IPA using Galaxy hops (prior to pitching yeast and dry hop)
Julius IPA - NE-style IPA using Julius hops (ibid)
Watermelon Sour IPA - After the wort was soured and hopped, but before the yeast, dry hop and watermelon juice

Brew Day: 16 Jul 2019

Boil (20 min):
Everything's already in the kettle

Hops: See above

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 20 Jul: Transferred the beer to a clean fermenter, as it was sitting on a lot of left-over hop junk.  I'll let this sit for a bit more than a week, and then dry hop it.

Addendum, 28 Jul: Dry hopped on 14 g Huell Melon hops.

Addendum, 1 Aug: Bottled tonight; got 9 good bottles.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Watermelon Sour IPA

I enjoy a nice sour IPA with watermelon juice added to the beer.  What can I say?  Not long ago, I sanitized a storage container and saved off some fresh juice from some watermelon we had...the horses seem to enjoy it as much as we do.  I froze the juice to kill any bugs in it...

Brew Day: 12 Jul 2019

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil #1 (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar

Add the wort to a sanitized fermenter, racking it on to 2 Good Belly Straight Shots, then place the fermenter on a warming plate for ~72 hrs.  Preserve any additional wort in sanitized containers to be added back during the second boil.

Boil #2 (20 min): 15 Jul

Hops:
14 g Huell Melon (FWH)
1 oz Mosaic (@ 20 min, 10 min rest)
14 g Huell Melon (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 28 Jul: Dry hopped, and added 12 oz watermelon juice (frozen, raised to room temp via water bath)

Addendum, 1 Aug: Bottled tonight, got 7 good bottles and two re-purposed soda bottles.


Saturday, July 13, 2019

Julius IPA

I recently read about some hops out of Minnesota, from Mighty Axe, and really liked the flavor profile for the one called "Julius".  It turns out that I could get these from Northern Brewer, so I placed an order and it showed up yesterday afternoon.  So, during the high heat and humidity of central Virginia, brewing a fruit-forward NE-style IPA is a good way to spend an early afternoon.

Brew Day: 13 Jul 2019

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar

Hops:
14 g Julius hops (FWH)
1 oz Julius hops (10 min whirlpool @ flameout)
14 g Julius hops (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 14 Jul: These pellet hops create a great deal of "debris".  What I mean by that is that when I add the FWH addition, I just dump the hops into the kettle.  After transferring to the fermenter, flakes of the hops rose to the neck of the fermenter, and were pushed into the blow-off tube.  It looks like some pressure built up behind the debris, as it was pushed throughout the tube.

This is definitely something to keep in mind in the future.  The whirlpool addition is added in a hop bag, as is the dry hop.

Addendum, 24 Jul: Dry hopped today.

Addendum, 28 Jul: Bottled; got 8 good bottles and one re-purposed soda bottle.

Saturday, July 6, 2019

Galaxy IPA

I decided to pick up some Australian Galaxy hops recently, thanks to the flavor profile, and it seemed like a good time to brew an IPA.

Brew Day: 6 Jul 2019

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar

Hops:
14 g Australian Galaxy hops (FWH)
1 oz Australian Galaxy hops (@ 20 min, 10 min rest)
14 g Australian Galaxy hops (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 15 Jul: Dry hopped today.

Addendum, 20 Jul: Got 6 good bottles and two re-purposed soda bottles.