Thursday, September 2, 2010, 9:52 p.m. I made a starter with two quarts of water, six ounces (by weight) of Briess Pilsner dry malt extract, a quarter teaspoon of Brewer’s Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend, and two Wyeast 1028 London Ale Activator Packs (one dated 08JUN10 lot 0815147, the other 26JUL10 lot 0816196). Shook vigorously and covered with foil.
According to The Secret to Healthy Yeast: Making a Starter, by Jamil Zainasheff:
You do not want to make a high gravity starter to grow yeast. As a ballpark measurement, use about 6 ounces (by weight) of DME to 2 quarts of water… Add ¼ teaspoon of yeast nutrient, boil 15 minutes, cool and add yeast.
Mr Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator™, based on one pack of the newer yeast, said to use a 2.57 L (2.72 qt.) starter and estimated 70% viability.
It estimated a 36% viability for the older pack.
If I combine them I get one pack with 106% viability — it’s cool it actually lets me enter that — and I need a 1.49 L (1.57 qt.) starter.
I went with 2 quarts anyway.
Update: I shook the starter back up occasionally to knock the CO₂ out and introduce some new O₂. At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 4, 2010, I put it in the fridge to drop the yeast out of suspension.
This is my take on Jamil Zainasheff’s “Bière de L’Inde” from Brewing Classic Styles. He gives the recipe on the English IPA episode of The Jamil Show. The name is French for The Beer of India, and seems like a play on the French Bière de Garde, or beer for keeping, style.
This recipe produces 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 leaves 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 gallons (26.5 L) at the start of a 60-minute full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions.
Recipe: BVB English IPA
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70% Pre-Boil Volume: 7.0 gallons (26.5 L) BG: 1.053 (13.2 °P) OG: 1.062 (15.2 °P) FG: 1.016 (4 °P) ADF: 75% IBU (Rager): 49.4 BU:GU ratio: 0.79 Balance value: 1.65 ABV: 6.4% Color (Morey): 12 SRM (23 EBC) — Deep amber / light copper Boil: 60 minutes
| Grains | Weight | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Crisp Maris Otter (4 °L) | 12.25 lb. (5.55 kg) | 86.7 |
| Rahr White Wheat Malt (2.8 °L) | 0.5 lb. (227 g) | 3.5 |
| Castle Malting Belgian Biscuit (25 °L) | 0.5 lb. (227 g) | 3.5 |
| Briess Caramel 40L (40 °L) | 0.5 lb. (227 g) | 3.5 |
| Briess Caramel 120L (120 °L) | 6.0 oz. (170 g) | 2.7 |
| Hops | IBU | |
| Challenger 7% AA, 60 min. | 1.7 oz (48 g) | 44.5 |
| Fuggles 4% AA, 10 min. | 1.5 oz (43 g) | 4.9 |
| Kent Goldings 4.8% AA, 0 min. | 1.5 oz (43 g) | 0 |
| Yeast | ||
| Wyeast 1028 London Ale | 238B Cells | |
| Brewer’s Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend, 15 min. | ½ teaspoon (2.2 g) |
Step by Step
A few days ahead of time, make an appropriate starter. Shake intermittently. Cold crash and decant before pitching time.
The water should have at least 50 ppm of Calcium, a residual alkalinity between 14 and 73, and a Chloride to Sulfate ratio between 0.5 and 0.77. For my starting water profile, I add 2.3 g Gypsum and 1.5 g Calcium Chloride to the mash and 1.6 g Gypsum and 1.1 g Calcium Chloride to the boil. My resulting water profile is:
| Calcium: | 102 ppm |
| Magnesium: | 3 ppm |
| Sodium: | 1 ppm |
| Chloride: | 43 ppm |
| Sulfate: | 78 ppm |
| Residual Alkalinity: | 44 — Best for 9–14 SRM |
| Chloride to Sulfate Ratio: | 0.55 — Best for bitter styles |
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This is a single step infusion mash at 1.36 quarts/pound with a batch sparge. It will need a total of 8.3 gallons (31.5 L) of water.
Preheat the mash tun by bringing the 3.5 gallons (13.2 L) of sparge water to 170°F (77°C) and placing it in the closed mash tun while you heat the strike water.
Heat 4.81 gallons (18.2 L) of strike water to 164 °F (73.3 °C). Drain the sparge water from the preheated mash tun into the boil kettle. Add all but about a gallon of the heated strike water to the mash tun.
Mix in the crushed grain and the mash salts, making sure to break up any dough balls. Cover the mash tun and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The mash should stabilize at 152 °F (66.7 °C). Take a few readings and use the remaining strike water, boiling water, or ice water to adjust the temperature. The volume should be about 5.9 gallons (22.5 L). Cover the mash tun and let it rest. Transfer the sparge water back to the hot liquor tank.
After 60 minutes, vorlauf, and lauter. Sparge with 3.5 gallons (13.2 L) of water to bring the collected volume to about 7 gallons (26.5 L) at 1.053 SG (13.2 °P).
Add the boil salts and boil for 60 minutes. While boiling, add the remaining ingredients according to the schedule in the ingredient list.
After the boil, cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). The volume should be about 6.0 gallons (22.7 L) at 1.062 SG (15.2 °P). Transfer about 5.5 gallons (20.8 L) to a sanitized fermenter. Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast.
Hold at 68 °F (20 °C) until fermentation is complete. The final gravity should be about 1.016 SG (4 °P).
Transfer about 5 gallons (18.9 L) to a priming bucket and prime using 3.72 oz (105.5 g) of sugar for about 2.25 volumes of carbonation. Package in 53 12-ounce bottles.
Last Night — Crushed grains and measured out hop additions.
8:15 — Setting up brewery. Heating mash water to preheat mash tun. Heating strike water.
9:00 — Preheating mash tun.
9:23 — Strike water is hot. Draining sparge water from mash tun to hot liquor tank.
9:50 — Adjusted mash temperature to 152 °F. 50 minutes to go. Added mash salts.
Took a sample to cool for mash pH measurement. 
I’m calling it 5.2. (Woo hoo!)
10:40 — Starting to vorlauf and lauter the first runnings.
10:50 — Sparging. Tried to measure the first runnings gravity with my refractometer, but the screen was entirely blue. Tried it with tap water and it read 0 Brix (as expected). Don’t know what the problem is. Resorted to the hydrometer. Waiting for the sample to cool. 1.072 SG @ 92 °F. I believe my hydrometer is calibrated for 60 °F, so BeerAlchemy says the corrected gravity is 1.076.
Second runnings read 1.022 @ 113 °F which is 1.031 corrected to 60°F.
The combined wort is 1.046 @ 112°F which is 1.055 corrected to 60°F.
The expected boil gravity is 1.053. I’ve got 6.4 gallons. According to Drew Beechum’s Dilution Calculator I need to add a quart to make the adjustment.
I just broke my lab thermometer!
11:26 — Heating to boil. Added boil salts.
12:05 — Boiling.
12:07 — Added bittering hops.
12:50 — Placed wort chiller in kettle. Added yeast nutrient.
12:57 — Added flavor hops.
1:07 — Flame out. Added aroma hops. Chilling.
1:26 — Chilled to 68 °F. Removed hop bag (draining into pot) and chiller. Stirred to create whirlpool and put lid on while the trub settles.
2:03 — Draining wort into the carboy. Original gravity is 1.062. Spot on!
2:25 — Drained. Aerating.
2:39 — Wort is in the cellar.
2:50 — Decanted starter beer and pitched yeast. Cleaning up.
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p>Update: Saturday, September 25, 2010. Kegged the beer today. Refractometer read 7.8 Brix. With an OG of 1.062, that would make the FG 1.011. Hydrometer read 1.007 at 70 °F, calibrated for 60 °F. That would make the corrected FG 1.008. That would correspond to 7.2 Brix. I think I need to calibrate these. Since went with the hydrometer to start, I’ll finish with it’s reading, too. 7.2 % ABV. 201 calories per 12 ounce serving. The keg is in the refrigerator at 45 °F under 11 PSI of CO₂. That should give me about 2.2 volumes when it reaches equilibrium.