I've been wanting to experiment with a lower ABV IPA for a while now and finally got around to doing it. So often in order to get really big hop flavor you have to have a higher ABV beer. I'd like to have a lower ABV beer with really big hop flavor (one of the reasons I like Bitter American from 21A so much). So this is my first attempt at a "lawnmower beer" in the IPA department. Here's the details...
Recipe:
5.5 gallons
Fermentables:
8 lb GW 2-Row
12 oz Crystal 40L
8 oz Carahell
4oz Dextrose
Anticipated OG: 1.047
Actual OG: 1.046
Anticipated FG: 1.013
Actual FG: 1.010
Anticipated ABV: 4.4%
Actual ABV: 4.7%
Hops:
161 Calculated IBU's
1oz CTZ for 60m
1oz Summit for 60m
1oz CTZ for 30m
1oz Summit for 30m
1oz Centennial at flameout
1oz Cascade at flameout
2oz CTX hopback (used my mash tun)
1oz Centennial for 7 days dryhop
1oz Cascade for 7 days dryhop
Yeast:
Safale 05
Notes:
I had been reading about hopbacks and using them while brewing. I'm not sure how I didn't come across this before or pay attention to it, but decided it was time to put it into play. I first tried to convert a thermos into a hopback that could also be used as a randalizer in the beer line, but I probably rushed it and failed. I'll retry that another time. So I then thought maybe I could drain the boiled wort into my cleaned out mash tun with 2oz of CTZ in it which would filter the hops out as it then entered my wort chiller. That worked perfectly. It's now fermenting in my basement and should be ready to transfer to secondary in a couple more days. I brewed this last Friday (7/13/12).
Also I once again ended up about a gallon short after the boil so I added a gallon of water to the wort. I'll have to figure out how to adjust Brewpal for that.
Update 7/21/12: Racked to secondary. FG was 1.010 so ABV is about 4.7%. Added 1oz of Centennial and 1oz of Cascade.
Go into the settings using the cog in the top right of Brewpal. Scroll all the way down and click on System Losses. Change whichever of these settings apply.
ReplyDeleteHow did this turn out?
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty good, but the initial bitterness was a bit much. I'd lower the buttering hops and add them to the aroma/dry hop end. Malt bill was really good for a session beer.
ReplyDelete