Month: April 2010

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Stone Age IPA

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I based this recipe on the Stone IPA clone in the December, 2008 Issue of Brew Your Own Magazine. The differences are mostly from ingredient substitutions and process differences.

As Jamil and John do in Brewing Classic Styles, I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That will leave six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I need 7.5 gallons (28.4 L) at the start of the boil for a 90-minute full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions.

Recipe: Stone Age IPA

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Pre-Boil Volume: 7.5 gallons (28.4 L)
BG: 1.050 (12.39 °P)
OG: 1.063 (15.44 °P)
FG: 1.019 (4.83 °P)
ADF: 69%
IBU (Rager): 60
ABV: 5.9%
Color (Morey): 4.7 SRM (9.3 EBC) – Gold
Boil: 90 minutes

Grains Weight Percent
Rahr 2-Row Malt (1.7 °L) 12.75 lb. (5.78 kg) 93.6
Briess Caramel (10 °L) 14 oz. (397 g) 6.4
 
Hops IBU
Perle 7.8% AA, 90 min. 0.56 oz (16 g) 17.4
Magnum 14.4% AA, 90 min. 0.42 oz (12 g) 24.1
Centennial 9.2% AA, 15 min. 2.0 oz (57 g) 18.9
Centennial 9.2% AA, dry 1.0 oz (28 g) 0
Chinook 11.4% AA, dry 0.5 oz (14 g) 0
 
Yeast
Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Step by Step

This is a single step infusion mash at 1.56 qt./lb. with a batch sparge. Mix the crushed grain with 5.3 gallons (20 L) of 160 °F (71 °C) water to stabilize at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf and lauter to collect 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of wort.

Sparge with 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water to bring the collected volume to about 7.5 gallons (28.4 L). Boil for 90 minutes. While boiling, add the hops as per the hopping schedule. Cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Transfer to a sanitized 6.5 gallon (24.6 L) glass carboy fermenter.

Pitch yeast and aerate the wort. Hold at 66 °F (19 °C) until fermentation is complete. Add dry hops. Let the beer condition for one week and then bottle. Carbonate to 2.0 volumes using 3.0 ounces (85 g) corn sugar. Bottle condition for two more weeks. Enjoy your Stone Age IPA.

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(17) Sunday, April 11, 2010 Brew Day

It’s another great day to brew. Today (4/11) I’m doing the BYO Stone IPA clone.

9:38 Finished mash/lauter/sparge calculations.

9:42 Yeast smacked.

10:30 Brewery set up. Heating strike water. Weighing grains.

10:49 Grains crushed.

10:56 Filling MLT with 160 °F strike water.

10:59 Mashing at 152 °F.

Note: Beiss Caramel 10L is very hard (crunchy) with a grainy flavor and very slight sweetness. Rahr 2-row has a much earthier flavor and is not as hard.

11:36 There’s a mocking bird running through her repertoire in a nearby oak tree. Sunny skies with a temperature of 61 °F.

11:44 Heating sparge water.

12:00 Vorlauff.

12:05 First runnings 19 Brix/1.076 SG.

Note: First runnings are DELICIOUS! Very sweet. Nice light color. The yeasties should be very happy.

12:10 Adding sparge water

12:15 Vorlauff.

12:18 Sparging. Gravity of second runnings 9 Brix/1.035 SG.

Note: Second runnings not as sweet as first. Subtle earthy flavor.

12:22 Combined wort 12.4 Brix/1.049 SG (BG). Expected 1.050. Sight glass says about 7⅜ gallons, but the kettle is leaning back a bit because the ground under the camp stove is uneven so I’m going to call it 7½ gallons, which was the target.

Note: About the level of sweetness of hot cocao.

12:26 Heating to boil.

12:34 Dumped spent grain on compost pile.

12:54 Measured out boil hops.

Note: Drinking a Stone IPA while brewing a Stone IPA clone. How fitting. Thank you, Gretchen, for thinking of it and joining me.

1:02 Boiling. I can see the hot break this time. It does look like egg drop soup. I still have no idea why I could not see it last time. Adding bittering hops.

2:14 Placed chiller in kettle to sanitize.

2:19 Adding flavor/aroma hops and whirlfloc tablet.

2:28 Sanitize fermenter.

2:34 Flame out. Chilling.

2:56 Chilled to 68 °F. Removing chiller, whirlpooling, and cover.

3:06 15.2 Brix/1.060 SG (OG). Expected 1.063 (1.065).

3:12 Draining to fermenter.

3:38 Aerating.

3:41 Pitched. Fermenting at 66 °F.

4:25 Everything put away.

Update: It is Monday (4/12) and when I went to see how my beer was doing, I noticed the thermostat for the fermentation chamber heater was on. It was set for 66 °F, but it was reading 60°F, so I investigated further. Turns out I did remember to put the temperature probe into the thermowell in the carboy, but I forgot to wrap the fermwrap heater around it. It was desperately trying to heat the carboy, but it did not have much of a chance since it was a few feet away. Easy enough to fix, but my streak of messing something up every batch is still unbroken. They say that colder fermentation can be cleaner, so I do not think this will be a problem.

Update: It is the next Monday (4/19) and I just added the dry hops.

Update: It is the next Sunday (4/25) and I’m bottling. The gravity measures 7.6 Brix/1.011 FG. Expected 1.019. Wow. 80.9% ADF. 6.5% ABV. I have to assume that my mash lost temperature (or my thermometer reads high) and my wort was much more fermentable than I expected. The beer had been fermenting at 64 °F. I got 51½ bottles (618 oz or 4.8 gallons). I used 3 oz of corn sugar. I should end up with about 2.2 volumes of CO₂.

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Commemoration Ale

I based this recipe on Mike “Tasty” McDole’s award-winning American IPA (a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale clone).

As Jamil and John do in Brewing Classic Styles, I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That will leave six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I need 7.5 gallons (28.4 L) at the start of the boil for a 90-minute full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions.

Recipe: Brush Valley Brewing Commemoration Ale

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Pre-Boil Volume: 7.5 gallons (28.4 L)
BG: 1.054 (13.33 °P)
OG: 1.068 (16.59 °P)
FG: 1.016 (4.08 °P)
ADF: 75%
IBU (Rager): 84
ABV: 6.9%
Color (Morey): 13.7 SRM (35.2 EBC) – Light Copper
Boil: 90 minutes

Grains Weight Percent
Rahr 2-Row Malt (1.7 °L) 13.0 lb. (5.9 kg) 81.3
Briess Carapils (1.5 °L) 1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) 6.3
Briess Caramel (60 °L) 1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) 6.3
Briess Caramel (120 °L) 0.5 lb. (0.227 g) 3.1
German Munich Malt (8.3 °L) 0.5 lb. (0.227 g) 3.1
 
Hops IBU
Chinook 11.4% AA, 60 min. 1.0 oz (28 g) 42.9
Centennial 9.9% AA, 15 min. 2.0 oz (57 g) 19.9
Cascade 7.8% AA, 5 min. 2.0 oz (57 g) 10.9
Cascade 7.8% AA, 1 min. 2.0 oz (57 g) 9.9
Cascade 7.8% AA, dry 1.0 oz (28 g) 0
Centennial 9.2% AA, dry 1.0 oz (28 g) 0
Chinook 11.4% AA, dry 1.0 oz (28 g) 0
 
Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Step by Step

This is a single step infusion mash at 1.375 qt./lb. with a batch sparge. Preheat the mash tun. Mix the crushed grain with 5.5 gallons (21 L) of 164 °F (73 °C) water to stabilize at 151 °F (66 °C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf and lauter to collect 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of wort.

Sparge with 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water to bring the collected volume to approximately 7.5 gallons (28.4 L). Boil for 90 minutes. While boiling, add the hops as per the hopping schedule. Cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Transfer to a sanitized 6.5 gallon (24.6 L) glass carboy fermenter.

Pitch yeast and aerate the wort. Hold at 68 °F (20 °C) until fermentation is complete. Add dry hops. Let the beer condition for one week and then bottle. Carbonate to 2.0 volumes using 3.0 ounces (85 g) corn sugar. Bottle condition for an two additional weeks. Enjoy your Commemoration Ale.