Screwy's Recipe 64 - Burstin' Out Pale Ale

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have the house to myself long enough to brew two all grain IPA recipes back to back. I picked up the ingredients Friday afternoon at Princeton Homebrew and started preheating my mash tun by 11:00am on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Having this much uninterrupted brewing time allowed me to focus on some of the finer details of my brewing process and to try out a few new ideas. I was even lucky enough to take home two 125ml bottles of East Coast Yeast's ECY-12 which really made my day.

2-Row /Crystal 10L Malt With Cascades, Centennial And Columbus Hops

My goal was to brew an American IPA style beer using mostly 2-Row as the base malt with just a bit of Crystal 10L to add some sweetness. The idea was to let the hops come through loud and clear so I used a hop schedule that added more than half of the IBUs in the form of flavor and aroma hopping. While I was at it why not include first wort hopping in the process too, and so I did. The ECY-12 would be the perfect yeast choice to ferment this beer too because it's such a clean fermenter at 58F, it's a lager like yeast but not really a true lager yeast.

The bittering levels for an American IPA are between 60-70 IBUs and this recipe calculated out to be 71 IBUs with an original gravity of 1.061. I started my hop schedule by lautering 5 gallons of wort onto an ounce of Columbus hops and then adding another ounce of Centennial at 20 minutes and the other 2 ounces of Cascades at 10 and 7 minutes before flameout. I also held a couple of ounces of Cascades in reserve to be used for dry hopping once the primary fermentation is done. With 15 minutes remaining to the boil I added a tablet of WhirlFloc to help coagulate some of the proteins and make them easier to keep out of the fermentor.

1.080 Start Of Lauter 1.030 End Of Lauter And 1.060 Original Gravity

I used a single infusion mash for 60 minutes at 155F to prepare the wort for lautering. after the wort was running clear I took my sweet time fly sparging and filled the 5 gallon boilpot in a little over 30 minutes. Since the ECY-12 yeast is a medium attenuator and this beer comes in at just under 6% ABV I chose a mash temperature of 155F, your mileage may vary if you use a lower or higher attenuating yeast or a higher ABV brew. For a lower attenuating yeast you may want to mash a few degrees lower and just the opposite for a higher attenuating yeast. Whichever yeast you use be sure it ferments cleanly without producing excessive ester, phenol or other overpowering flavors that will interfere with the up front hop character so important in an American IPA style beer. 

1 Ounce Of Columbus Hops Added As First Wort Hop Addition

The trick to getting this high IBU beer right is in getting all that great IPA hopping without turning the beer bitter. I've used First Wort Hopping several times in my IPAs and I'm a believer in any process that claims increased bittering without introducing any harsh resin or vegetable off flavors. So into the boilpot the Columbus hops went submerged in hot wort for the entire 30 minute lauter, another 30 minutes while the wort reached the boiling point followed by a good 60 minute boil. The other big challenge to making a good American IPA is loading up the wort with enough hop aroma and flavor so that it will remain hop forward after spending a month or two in the bottle or keg. I've heard from other brewers and experienced it myself where a nice hoppy beer at bottling kind of losses it's aroma after sitting in the bottle for a few months, this is what I'm trying to avoid by using the hop bursting technique.

Vorlauf Wort Until The Grain Bed Sets And The Wort Runs Clear

If you've done all grain brewing before and used a mash tun you know the first few quarts of wort to drain out during the lauter are pretty cloudy and loaded with bits of grains as shown in the picture on the left. After recirculating, or performing the vorlauf process, until the grain bed has been set the wort runs clear as shown in the picture on the right. I took the extra time to recirculate the wort before lautering so that only the clearest wort went into the boilpot. The lauter itself took a little over 30 minutes, I always set a timer at the start of the lauter and adjust the flow so I fill a quarter of the pot every 7-10 minutes until it's filled with 19 quarts of wort. I keep the lid on top of the boilpot the entire time to keep the heat in and any flying bugs out and it takes my stove 30 minutes to bring the wort up to a boil. As the water in the wort evaporates I replace it about halfway through the boil with boiling water I keep in a separate pot just for that purpose. At the end of the boil I remove the hops sacks and add enough of the boiling water so that the wort level is a half inch down from the top of the boilpot. That's just enough room so the wort doesn't spill out when I carry it over to the sink and put my wort cooler in it to cool the wort down quickly.

Screwy's Burstin Out Pale Ale

Size 5.00 gallons: Estimated IBU=74, SRM=5, OG=1.061, FG=1.015, ABV= 5.9%

Recipe:

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew

10.5 pounds US 2 Row

0.5 pound Crystal 20L

1 ounce Columbus (pellets)

1 ounce Centennial (pellets)

3 ounces Cascade (pellets)

East Coast Yeast ECY12 - Old Newark Beer™

..or...

White Labs WLP001 - American Ale Yeast™

Mash at 155° F for 60 minutes.

Boil for 60 minutes.

Ferment at WLP001 at 68° F (18.8 °C), ECY12 at 58° F (14.0 °C) until final gravity is reached.

  Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Directions:   

Infusion Mash: (Soak mash tun in 8 quarts of 170° F water for 20 minutes, preheat and dump it)

Heat 21 quarts of filtered water to 165° F

Pour 14 quarts of 165° F water into mash tun

Mix in 11.0 pounds of crushed grain mix at 68° F

Pour the remaining 165° F water to fill mash tun to 4.50 gallon mark

Stir water and grain mixture and adjust to 155° F and mash for 60 minutes

Fly sparge with 168° F strike water to set mash bed to 168° F

Lauter for 30 minutes adding 19 quarts of sweet wort to 20 quart pot

Full Wort Boil:

Add 1.0 ounce Columbus hops as the FWH added to boil pot during lauter

Add 1.0 ounce Centennial hops with 20 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1/2 tablet WhirlFloc with 15 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1.0 ounce Cascade hops with 10 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1.0 ounce Cascade hops with 7 minutes remaining to boil

(Dry hop 1.0 ounce Cascade hops after primary fermentation for 5 days)

Primary Fermentation:

Use autosiphon to prevent excess hop and grain debris from getting into fermenter

Fill two Mr. Beer fermenters equally with wort and top off with filtered water to just above the 8.5 quart mark

Aerate wort and pitch WLP001 at 70° F or ECY12 at 60° F

Ferment to final gravity, raise to 3-5° F over 2 days, dry hop and hold for 5 days

Secondary Fermentation:

n/a

Keg/Bottle:

Keg and force carbonate at 30 psi for 2-3 days at 34°F

..or..

Keg with priming sugar, purge with Co2 and naturally carbonate for 7-14 days at 68°F

..or..

Bottle prime and carbonate at 68° for 14 to 21 days

Adding Mr. Beer Yeast As Nutrient

Once the wort got up to a good hard boil I started my countdown timer. The wort boiled pretty much unattended for the next 40 minutes before I had anything more to do to so I started getting my next hop additions, wort cooler and racking cane ready. During this time I gently rolled the ECY12 yeast every once in while to mix the cells up into solution in the bottle so they all poured out easily into the fermentor when pitched. The East Coast Yeast bottles contain a huge amount of yeast cells packed into a large 125ml jar. I have no problem splitting a single jar into two separate jars for pitching into each of my two 2.4 gallon fermentors since each 125ml jar of yeast is capable of fermenting 5 gallons of beer.

Each ECY Bottle Contains Massive Cell Counts

The ECY12 is priced the same as Wyeast or White Labs liquid yeast and each ECY jar contains at least twice the amount of yeast in a typical smack pack or tube, making using this exceptional yeast a no brainer. Not to mention that the yeast is grown locally by Al Buck, hand delivered in a cooler to Princeton Homebrew my LHBS and is awesome for fermenting just about any type and style of beer. Princeton Homebrew is the exclusive distributor of East Coast Yeast and currently ships up to 7 vials anywhere in the United States for $16.00 including ice pack and bubble wrap. Orders are now available to be placed online using PayPal and you can subscribe to the ECY Google Group by visiting the Princeton Homebrew website and getting the latest East Coast Yeast inventory information. You should act fast though the last shipment was sold out in just 21 minutes.

Sanitize 2 Bottles, Split And Pitch Into 2 Fermentors

With 5 minutes remaining in the boil the brewhaus aromas coming off of the wort were by now unmistakable and pure heaven to breathe. Even with the continuous movement of fresh air being blown in one window and hot boil vapors being exhausted out another window at a fast rate it was very obvious to anyone in the room we were making beer. As the count down timer rang out signaling the end of the boil I used a pair of sanitized stainless steel tongs to begin removing all four hop sacks from the boil pot. I placed them inside a strainer placed on top of a small aluminum pot to allow any remaining wort to drip out before emptying the spent hops into the garbage. I learned the hard way that spent hops and grains need to be drained, bagged and taken outside to be disposed of as soon as possible on brewday. The first and last time I didn't do that the brewhaus got infested with fruit flies, it seems they really like breeding in spent hops for some reason.

Giving The Boiling Wort Some Final Stirs Before Flameout

To help cool the boiling hot wort down quickly I filled one side of my double sink up halfway with cold water and about a dozen frozen water bottles to get the temperature of the water even lower, basically making a huge ice bath to place the boil pot in. After removing all the hop sacks and pouring in enough boiling make up water to raise the level of the wort up to a half inch below the top of the boil pot I carried the boil pot over to the sink and placed it in the ice bath. I quickly put my wort cooler into the boil pot and connected it to the sink after routing a vinyl tubing from the discharge end of the cooler to the drain of the other double sink. As the boil pot sat in the ice bath I opened the valve on my filtered water faucet letting the water flow into the ice bath raising the level up to an inch below the top of the boil pot, to totally submerse the wort in cold water. Using the ice bath with the wort cooler to cool down the hot wort dropped the wort temperature very quickly from 212F to 90F in about 10 minutes or so. I was able to get the wort down to it's 65F pitching temperature in about another 20 minutes, stirring the wort once or twice to keep the hot wort in contact with the cold sides of the boil pot and cooler coils helped it along.

Large Double Sink Makes For A Huge Functional Ice Bath

With the wort cooled down to pitching temperature, the hop sacks removed and the fermentors and racking cane sanitized it was now time to transfer the wort to the LBKs. Stirring the wort while it was cooling off helped form a nice pile of trub in the center of the boil pot which worked perfectly with the racking cane and clip I use to transfer the wort. Since the thickest part of the trub pile is near the center of the pot and the racking cane hangs close to the wall of the boil pot the wort is easily transferred clean to the fermentors. Once again having a double sided sink comes in handy because by simply putting a temporary shelf across the top of one side, placing the boil pot on it and the fermentors in the bottom of the other side allows the wort to transfer by gravity. I found the top of an old unused cooler that fits perfectly across the top of my sink without sliding and therefore eliminating any chance of accidentally spilling hot wort. The top is made of plastic which is easy to clean and sanitize as needed, it was a very lucky find for me and I use it all the time.

Happiness Is Racking Clear Trub Free Wort Easily

As all the racking and cooling was going on I managed to keep turning and gently shaking the two bottles of East Coast Yeast I was going to pitch. I do this to get as many cells into suspension as possible by keeping them stirred up and preventing the cells from sticking to the bottles walls. I do this with all brands and types of liquid yeast because I want to end up with as many cells as possible in my fermentor and not inside the bottles to be thrown away. Another interesting fact I found out is that fruit flies are also attracted to yeast solutions whether it be rehydrated dry yeast or liquid yeast. I mention this because it took me nearly a week to eliminate the infestation of fruit flies from my brewhaus and until I did I got a first hand look at what they were attracted to. If you've ever had a similar experience you know what a nuisance they can be especially when your transferring cooled wort and pitching yeast, they seem to be everywhere and shooing them away gets to be a real pain.

Pitching Half A Bottle Of ECY12 Directly Into Fermentor

With the wort transferred to the fermentors, the yeast stirred up into solution and both my hands hurting form aerating the wort for several minutes it was time to unscrew the top of the bottles and pitch the ECY12 yeast. Once the yeast was pitched it was back to aerating the wort all over again for several more minutes so that I could get as much oxygen as I could back into the wort before screwing on the fermentor lids. After boiling the wort mostly all of the oxygen that was present in it before the boil was now gone. Since yeast need oxygen, during their initial lag and growth phases in order to multiply and build up energy for the upcoming fermentation, aerating the wort is the only way to put the oxygen back in it. Sore hands are the price I pay for manually aerating the wort instead of investing in an O2 tank, gauges and diffuser stone which would make aeration much easier and actually increase the levels of oxygen to higher levels than when using a spoon.

Cleaning Up The Mash Tun After The Lauter Was Done

A typical all grain brew day takes me 5-6 hours from start to finish including cleaning up all my brewing gear and storing it away until my next brew day. I brew 5 gallon batches now all the time and rack the wort that's made into two 2.4 gallon Mr. Beer fermentors. I started out doing it this way because I bought 6 of the smaller fermentors when I first got started brewing beer and since then I have found them to be pretty versatile. They are easier to carry around when full and to clean when empty. Their smaller capacity let's me fill up two of them from a single 5 gallon batch and allows my to ferment or dry hop one of them a little differently than the other and judge the results to see which one is the best. It also allows me to mix the two together to take the experimentation a bit further if needed. The LBKs work well as secondary fermentors and double as bottling buckets too and it's not too rare that I have all 6 of them in use at the same time.

Final Gravity Reading 1.012 At Bottling

The Burstin' Out Pale Ale was ready to bottle in about 10 days after pitching the ECY12 yeast into it and fermenting it at 58-60F until I got the final gravity reading of 1.012, which actually finished about 2-3 points lower than qBrew had calculated. I always naturally carbonate my kegged beer so I added to each 2.5 gallon corny keg 5 tablespoons of pure cane sugar boiled for 5 minutes in half a cup of filtered water then cooled down to 68F. This comes out to roughly a half a teaspoon full of pure cane sugar per 12 ounce bottle and adds between 2.5 - 2.75 volumes of Co2 which is just perfect for this style of beer.

First Pour From Bottle At 12 Days

 Bingo! What more can I say, at only 12 days old this beer is already perfect. I'm not sure how to describe it but I'll try. The first thing you notice when opening the bottle is that familiar 'ppfftt' immediately followed by an aroma that is undoubtedly what you'd expect from an awesome IPA. Not bitter at all but full of hop aroma and flavor with great lacing and head retention. The ECY12 cleanly fermented this beer letting all the hop aroma and flavors through with absolutely no traces of astringency or resinous off flavors. I only had two bottles to sample but they were both delicious so I just racked a corny keg in the refrigerator for drinking this weekend. I feel like I've died and gone to hop heaven.

Naturally Carbonated And Delicious

 After sharing this beer with a few of my favorite hop loving friends, and some family members that don't care for hoppy beers at, I am now convinced that this recipe is destined to be real favorite of mine. Full of American hop aroma that hits you square in the face as you lift the glass to take your very first sip. Next thing that takes you by surprise is the soft smooth mouth feel and the amount of pure hop flavor in each sip.

Perfectly Balanced, Not Bitter And Naturally Carbonated

 Nothing stands in the way of the beer when delivering the most favorable hop flavor and aromas directly to you with each and every taste. Its soft golden color reminds me of fields of grain waving in the wind on a midsummer afternoon. Burstin' Out Pale Ale's unsurpassed long lasting foam, superior lacing and 'session' beer-like qualities are deceptive of it's nearly 6.0% ABV alcohol content. I'd suggest this beer with a pepperoni pizza while sitting down watching a good movie.

Screwys Recipe #57b - Screwy Pale Ale (All Grain)

I have two batches of my Screwy Pale Ale in various stages of production now, one is just finishing up primary fermentation and the other had been moved to corny kegs a few weeks ago for conditioning. The weather was lousy this past weekend and I saw it as an opportunity to sneak in another brewday.

The only question was what was I going to brew, a nice Chocolate Barley Stout, another batch of my Screwy Noble Wheat recipe or maybe another Screwy Oktoberfest/Marzen lager. This brewing thing was really starting to get interesting.....so many great tasting beers, so little time.

Marris Otter, Crystal 40L, Biscuit, Magnum, Kent Golding And Cascade

I had an extra tube of White Labs WLP005 - British Ale Yeast™ in the mini refrigerator, left over from last weekend's brewday when I brewed my Screwy Pale Ale for the second time. The latest samples I took of the now nearly fermented ale tasted amazing so I decided I would be brewing it again.

Brewdays Always Start Out With Coffee And qBrew

I loaded my SPA recipe from last week into qBrew and made some changes to the grain bill cutting back on the Crystal malt and adding a shade more Biscuit malt this time. The plan is to reduce the sweetness and increase the biscuit flavor while leaving the hop schedule the same. This should produce a beer that has subtle differences when compared to last week's recipe.


Size 5.00 gallons: Estimated IBU=65, SRM=11, OG=1.062, FG=1.016, ABV= 6.0%

I pitched White Labs WLP005 - British Ale Yeast™ directly into the 70F wort right after aerating it. I soaked the tubes in One-Step™ as an extra precaution against infection.

Recipe:

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 
10.0 pounds Marris Otter Malt (UK)

  0.5 pounds Crystal 40L

  0.5 pounds Biscuit Malt (Belgium)

 1 ounce Yakima Magnum (pellets)

 2 ounces Kent Golding (UK) (pellets)

 1 ounce Cascade (pellets)

 1 - White Labs WLP005 - British Ale Yeast™

Aerate, pitch at 70° F and ferment at 68° F until final gravity is reached

Raise to 70° F over 2 days and rack to secondary fermenter

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34° F

Keg at 30 psi for 2-3 days and serve at 34° F

Infusion Mash at 158° F for 60 minutes.

Boil for 60-90 minutes.

Ferment at 68° F (18.8 °C).

The only real changes I made in the ingredients from last week's recipe was to substitute 1.75 pounds of Crystal 60L with 0.5 pounds of Crystal 40L this time and to add another 0.25 pounds of Biscuit Malt. To keep the total grain weight at 11 pounds, the maximum I can mash in my 5 gallon mash tun, I added another pound of Marris Otter.

Hitting The 158F Mash Temperature

 I know that 11 pounds of grain when mixed in with 172F strike water to a total volume of 4.5 gallons give me a 1.25 mash thickness at 158F. This also leaves me enough room to add a small amount of cold water, or some hot water to lower or raise the mash temperature if needed.

30 Minute Lauter With First Wort Hops In One Pot

I decided to toss some hops into one of the boil pots at the start of the lauter to see if I or anyone else will be able to taste the difference between this batch and the other one without the FWH. I always boil the pot on the right first for 60 minutes and it's the first one in the fermenter. The other pot usually boils for 90 minutes because I have to wait until the first pot has cooled down enough to pitch since I only have one wort cooler.

Start Of Lauter Gravity Was 1.092

Once the wort was flowing clear I drew off a sample and cooled it down to 60F to get a reading on the gravity of the wort at the very start of the lauter. The sample tasted very sweet and it was also somewhat thick as well, it had a lot of nutty caramel grain flavor to it that was very pleasant.

Left Pot 90 Minute Boil Right Pot 60 Minute Boil

 Both pots of wort got a good hard boil and a fast cool down to remove any DMS produced quicker than it could form. I also skim off any break material I see floating on the top, I like to keep the wort as free of any unwanted grains or proteins as I can before siphoning it off into the fermenters.

The Wort Took About 20 Minutes To Cool Down To 70F

 Once the wort was cooled down to pitching temperature I used my auto siphon to move the wort to the primary fermenter. I pitched half a tube of WLP005 yeast directly into each of the Mr. Beer fermenters after briskly aerating the wort before and after pitching the yeast.

Mankind's Greatest Achievement The Auto Siphon

I view every time I move my beer as being another opportunity to clean it. Usually there is about half a quart or so of thick gooey sludge left in the bottom of the boil pot after transferring the cleaner wort to the fermenter.

Allow For Boil Off And Trub Loss When Figuring Boil Volume

When I looked at the fermentation progress 24 hours after pitching the yeast I saw that there was already a nice thick layer of krausen floating at the top and a layer of trub forming on the bottom of both fermenters.

Fermenting Away Nicely At A Steady 68F

  I could also smell the nice fruity aromas seeping out of the fermenters along with the Co2 being produced. This was a great brewday.

1.016 Final Gravity And Ready To Bottle

I took another final gravity reading today and it was spot on according to my qBrew recipe calculations. Tomorrow I plan on bottling this up into the 12 ounce Sierra Nevada glass bottles I've been stocking up on until now. I like buying the Sierra Nevada bottles because of their unique stubby shape and because they come with free beer inside them to drink.

If I can find the time in the next few days I would love to brew this same exact recipe again and pour the cooled wort right on top of the same yeast. When a brew comes out tasting exactly the way I wanted it too I hate pouring the poor yeast down the drain especially after they did such a great job.

Bottle Carbonated Sample Tasted Awesome

 I had to try a sample of this beer while I was brewing up another batch and I'm glad I did. This beer tasted good even though it's only been carbonating and conditioning in the bottle for a little under 3 weeks. I also kegged 2.5 gallons of this batch and batch primed it with the same amount of pure cane sugar I had used for the bottling bucket. Allowing the beer to naturally carbonate in the corny keg as it conditioned.

Natural Carbonation Was Done In The Corny Keg

Screwys Recipe #57 - Screwy Pale Ale (All Grain)

This time around I added another pound of Crystal 60L and removed a pound of Marris Otter but I left the 1/4 pound of biscuit malt unchanged. My 5 gallon mash tun allows me to mash 11 pounds of grain with a 1.25 thickness in just under 4.5 gallons of space, leaving me more than enough room to tune the mash temperature up or down as/if needed.

Size 5.00 gallons: Estimated IBU=59, SRM=14, OG=1.062, FG=1.015, ABV= 6.0%

I pitched Safale S-04 dry yeast directly into the 70F wort right after aerating it this time. I soaked the packets and scissors in One-Step too as an extra precaution against infection.

Recipe:

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 
9.0 pounds Marris Otter Malt (UK)

1.75 pounds Crystal 40L

0.25 pounds Biscuit Malt (Belgium)

1 ounce Yakima Magnum (pellets)

2 ounces Kent Golding (UK) (pellets)

1 ounce Cascade (pellets)

1 - Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast

Aerate, pitch at 70° F and ferment at 68° F until final gravity is reached

Raise to 70° F over 2 days and rack to secondary fermenter

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34° F

Keg at 30 psi for 2-3 days and serve at 34° F

Infusion Mash at 156° F for 60 minutes.

Boil for 60-90 minutes.

Ferment at 68° F (18.8 °C).

  Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

 Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 

Directions:  

Infusion Mash: (Soak mash tun in 8 quarts of 180° F water for 20 minutes to pre heat it)

Heat 21 quarts of filtered water to 173° F

Pour 14 quarts of 173° F water into mash tun

Mix in 11.0 pounds of crushed grain mix at 67° F

Pour the remaining 173° F water to fill mash tun to 4.50 gallon mark

Stir water and grain mixture and adjust to 156°F and mash for 60 minutes

Fly sparge with 168° F strike water to set mash bed to 168° F

Lauter for 30 minutes adding 11.5 quarts of sweet wort to both 12 quart pots

Full Wort Boil: (Split these quantities between both boil pots)

Add 1 ounce Magnum hops with 60 minutes remaining to boil

Add 2 ounces Kent Goldings (U.K.) hops with 20 minutes minutes remaining to boil

Add 1/4 tablet WhirlFloc with 9 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1 ounce Cascade hops with 7 minutes remaining to boil

Use wort chiller to cool wort to 70° F

Primary Fermentation:

Pour wort through strainer to remove excess hop and grain debris

Fill the Mr. Beer fermenter with wort to just above the 8.5 quart mark

Aerate wort and pitch 1 package of Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast at 68-70° F

Ferment to final gravity, raise to 70° F over 2 days

Secondary Fermentation:

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34°F

Keg/Bottle:

Keg and force carbonate at 30 psi for 2-3 days at 34°F

Bottle prime and carbonate at 70° for 7-14 days

After lautering off a little over 5 gallons of wort I took a gravity reading of almost 1.020 proving to myself that they were still plenty of sugars available to be drawn off from my 11 pounds of grain.

I got to use my new auto-siphon to transfer moving my cooled wort into the fermenters, it worked perfectly too. All this time I had spent pouring from the boil pots into the Mr. Beer fermenters was soon forgotten as using an auto-siphon was so easy to do. I placed my cooled wort on top of the sink attached the auto-siphon to the side of the pot and pushed the tube down to the bottom of the pot, all without spilling a drop.

This tool was so easy to use, clean and sanitize I still can't wait to use it again the next time I brew. I just fill the tube and tubing with One-Step and let them soak before connecting the tubing and transferring the cooled wort.

I was able to transfer all the clear wort out of the boil pot and into my fermenters leaving only the trub behind. The clear plastic allows you to see the wort and stop the siphoning at any point.

By the end of brewday there was a nice layer of krausen on top of both fermenters a sure sign there was  plenty of yeast activity.

I pitched the dry yeast right on top of the cooled wort after aerating it. About a minute later I aerated the wort again mixing the yeast up and spreading them around the entire keg to mix thoroughly with the wort. A quick starting fermentation is always a good sign that this fermentation will go well.

  After 10 full days of fermentation at 70F the hydrometer reading was 1.019 pretty close to the estimated final gravity of 1.015 so tomorrow I'm going to transfer them to corny kegs, give them a little gas and let them condition out for another 4 weeks or so before drinking.

Sanitized the corny kegs then racked the SPA to them today. Gassed them with 10 psi to set the lid seals and purge the O2 out of them. I'll let them condition in my office for another 3-4 weeks before tapping in. The samples I tasted form both kegs when filling were great, this is going to give me something to look forward too in the coming weeks.

I put one of the corny kegs in the refrigerator on June 20th and gassed it with 30 psi of Co2, it had been conditioning for a little over 3 weeks. A few days later I drew off a couple of glasses to see how it tasted and it definitley needs more conditioning time.

SPA Sample After 24 Days

(June 23, 2011) When I drank it there was not much hop flavor or aroma present, this one could definitely have benefited by some dry hopping, I may drop a sanitized muslin sack with .5 ounce of Cascades into each of the kegs in another week or so and let them sit for another week. The beer also had a biscuit finish and an slight alcohol bite that warmed the stomach a bit as it went down.

I have to let this one condition out  for a few more weeks before I try it again as 4 weeks after brewday is just too soon to be drinking this beer. The other keg is conditioning in the basement where the temperature is still below 70F and I'll tap this one in four weeks to see how it tastes.

Screwy's Recipe #48 - India Pale Ale

I've been drinking some pretty hoppy beers lately even though I never really considered myself to be a hop head. This can happen to you too if you have friends that like really hop forward beers and bring some over for you to try. So with this in mind I set out to brew my very first all grain India Pale Ale and after some intense research on the Internet and recommendations by Joe Bair owner of Princeton Homebrew I came up with the following recipe.

10.5 Pounds Of Freshly Ground Grains

The calculated IBUs are off the chart with this recipe and I can hardly wait to see what 4 ounces of hops will do to a Mr. Beer sized batch. The BJCP style guidelines for an English IPA put the IBUs between 40-60 and my recipe cranks the IBUs up to 134!

1 Ounce Each Of Cascade, Chinook, Northern Brewer (UK) and Saaz Hops

I used qBrew's default 'English IPA' style guidelines as the basis for crunching this recipe's numbers and the recipe download contains my complete ingredient list and brewing notes. You can download the latest qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database. This latest ingredient database includes more yeast, fruits, extracts and other helpful entries then ever before.

  Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 
Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=134, SRM=11, OG=1.070, FG=1.017, ABV=6.8%

5 pounds Marris Otter Malt (UK)

1/8 pound Crystal Malt (40 °L)

1/8 pound Biscuit Malt (Belgium)

1 ounce Saaz hops (first wort hops)

1 ounce Chinook hops (90 mins)

1 ounces Northern Brewer (UK) hops (5 mins)

1 ounce Cascade hops (added when pitching yeast)

1 ounce Cascade hops (dry hop in secondary for 7 days)

1 Pack Wyeast 1968 (London ESB), smacked the night before to activate

Aerate, pitch at 70°F and ferment at 66°F for 19 days

Raise to 70°F over days 20 to 21 then rack to secondary fermenter

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34°F

Keg at 30psi for 5-7 days and serve at 34°F

Directions:  

** Infusion mash at 150°F for 60 minutes **

Heat 16 quarts of filtered water to 170°F

Soak mash tun in 8 quarts of 180F water for 20 minutes to preheat it

Pour 8 quarts of 170°F water into mash tun

Mix in 5.25 pounds of crushed grain mix at 60°F

Pour the 170°F water to fill mash tun to 2.50 gallon mark

Stir water and grain mixture and adjust to 150°F and mash for 60 minutes

Sparge with 170°F strike water to set mash bed to 168°F

Add 1 ounce of Saaz hops to boil pot as first wort hop addition

Lauter for 30 minutes adding 11.5 quarts of sweet wort to the boil pot

Full Wort Boil:

Add 1 ounce Chinook hops with 60 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1/8 tablet WhirlFloc with 9 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1 ounce Northern Brewer (UK) hops with 5 minutes minutes remaining to boil

Use Screwy's Cooler wort chiller to cool wort to 70°F

Primary Fermentation:

Pour wort through strainer to remove excess hop and grain debris

Fill the Mr. Beer fermenter with wort to the 8.5 quart mark

Aerate wort and pitch 1 package of Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) at 62°F

Add sanitized hop sack with 1 ounce of Cascade hops and marbles to fermenter

Ferment at 66°F for 19 days, raise to 70°F over days 20 to 21 for rest

Secondary Fermentation:

Rack to secondary fermenter and add 1 ounce of Cascade hops in sanitized muslin sack

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34°F

Keg/Bottle:

Keg and force carbonate at 30psi for 5-7 days at 34°F

Bottle prime and carbonate at 70° for 7-14 days

I decided to double up on the recipe and mash 10.5 pounds of grains at the same time, this theoretically saved me an hour and a half since I only had to mash and lauter a single batch. I used a mash calculator to figure out my mash volumes and temperatures.

I Mashed All 10.5 Pounds Of Grain At The Same Time

I like to hit my mash temperatures dead on the first try but this time after some last minute research I decided to lower my original 155°F mash temperature to 150°F. Using my Screwy's 5 Gallon Mash Tun I still had enough room to add a bit of cold filtered water and stir the mash to hit my new target in about 2-3 minutes.

Continuous Sparge Into Boil Pot With First Wort Hops

I combined the first runnings into 2 boil pots so that I could do both full wort boils on my stovetop. I  staggered the boil start times by 20 minutes, the amount of time it takes to chill the wort down to pitching temperature. This made it a easier when filling the Mr. Beer fermenters since each fermenter holds the contents of the boil pot.

1 Ounce Of Saaz Hops Added To Each Boil Pot At Start Of Sparge

I've never done first wort hopping before so after reading how it produces complex bitterness and aromas that are smooth and pleasing to the pallet I just had to give it a try. This recently rediscovered method dates back to the turn of the century when brewers used it to lower the ph of their mash and increase overall hop utilization during the boil. The boost in hop utilization can increase the wort IBUs by 10%, according to some sources, so it'll be interesting to taste this beer and find out just how hoppy it comes out.

First Runnings Cooled To 62°F For Pitching Yeast

I cooled the wort down to pitching temperature and used a strainer when racking it to keep the excess hop debris from getting into the primary fermenter. I didn't use muslin hop sacks this time as I would normally do, I wanted to see what difference it would make. The shear amount of all the hops in this beer caused the strainer to become clogged and require cleaning several times near the end of the pour.

I had smacked the liquid yeast packs the night before and left them to activate overnight at 72°F. The next afternoon I took them down to the brewhaus and left them adjust to 62°F so they would match the temperature of the wort when I pitched them. The packages were fully swollen which was a good sign since I had been too lazy to make a starter.

Second Runnings Boil Produces A Free Batch Of Beer

I also made a Mr. Beer sized batch using the second runnings from my original recipe. This is the first time I've ever tried this and I think it will make a pretty nice light beer. The best part of using the second runnings for a batch is that it's like getting free beer, if only I knew what to do with all those spent grains....

After 48 hours of fermentation the krausen is already starting to subside in the first running fermenters. The fermentation really took off fast in both fermenters both reaching high krausen within the first 24-26 hours after pitching. I left the fermenters in the basement overnight where it was a cool 60F to help offset and heat buildup created during the initial fermentation.

Screwy's India Pale Ale After 60 Hours Of Fermentation

The second runnings fermentation didn't start off that good, I had pitched some old yeast I had found in the back of the beerfrigerator and as expected it turned out to be a dud. To the rescue (I hope) came 2 left over packets of Mr. Beer dry yeast which I added to the second runnings fermenter.

Mr. Beer Dry Yeast Pitched After 60 Hours Of Fermentation

I didn't aerate the wort as I would do for an initial pitch, I gently stirred and swirled the wort until the dry yeast was mixed into the wort.

Gentle Swirling Of Mr. Beer Yeast Into Wort

This is a lesson to myself about unplanned brewing ideas and not being totally prepared to do it properly. I should have picked up another yeast to use for the second runnings while I was at the LHBS but didn't. I'll chalk this one up for experience for now and hope for the best, although I plan on repeating this again using better yeast the next time.

I racked the IPAs to clean secondaries last night to get the beer off of the yeast and hops they've been sitting on for the past 2 weeks. I do this routinely now to make sure I don't have a lot of trub to deal with when bottling or kegging as the transfer to the secondary really helps clear up the beer.

My original plan was to dry hop with another ounce of Cascade hops in the secondary for 7 days but after tasting the beer I decided instead to mix in some of the second runnings to add more malt flavor. The second runnings had a nice biscuit and malt flavor and didn't have any hop additions. The first runnings were already heavily hopped to my liking and I did want the complexity of the biscuit malt too.

After removing the dry hop sack and leaving the trub in the primary behind about 2 gallons of beer was racked to the secondary. I then racked about 1/4 gallon of the second runnings beer to this to bring the total volume up to 2 1/4 gallons, just right for my 2 1/2 gallon kegs.

Kegging The IPA

After soaking the kegs in One-Step cleanser for 10 minutes and then shaking them really good I pushed about a quart of the cleaning mixture out of the keg with Co2. I removed the lids and emptied the kegs then let them drain for5 minutes to get all the cleanser out before racking them with beer.

Racking Beer Into Clean Keg While Co2 Enters Via Pickup Tube

It takes only a few minutes to fill the keg with beer so I keep the valve cracked a tiny bit to allow Co2 to gently enter the bottom of the keg during the filling process. Doing this pushes oxygen out of the keg as it fills reducing the chances of oxidation impacting the kegged beer.

2.5 Gallon Keg About Halfway Filled With Co2 Bubbling From Bottom