Two days before brew day I went to go make a yeast starter with the new 2000mL Erlenmeyer flask we got from Northern Brewer, and I was all excited about using it because I could heat the starter solution over my gas stove and cool the solution in the same container. That way I could just pitch the yeast into the flask and avoid the step of transferring the solution. Sounds like a plan, except for while sanitizing the flask I dinged it lightly on a measuring cup, causing the flask to crack ALL the way around, like a rock hitting a car windshield. There goes my hopes and dreams. Luckily, I had a gallon jug on hand, so I just used that as the stirring vessel. Next problem was that the stir plate we're using for the first time gets WAY too hot, which is enough to heat the yeast to an uncomfortable temperature. Typically you want the brewers yeast to be warm during a yeast starter, but not in the 100's degree F. Problem was solved by constantly shutting off the stir plate or taking the yeast off the plate, either way the yeast didn't get to multiply as much as I would have liked. And the funny thing is, we haven't even started brewing yet!
Last day of 2010 was quite a warm one here in St. Louis, I couldn't have asked for a better brew day, although thinking back on the day, there was a freak thunder storm/ tornadoes that leveled many houses a few miles west of us... yeah, forgot that part. It rained hard for like 2 or 3 minutes near us, then it was sunny and 50F the rest of the day!
Starting off the day, when we threw in our heated strike water over the crushed grains we didn't reach the temperature we wanted. We panicked and quickly boiled a quart of water to toss in but it only made the grain bed a degree or 2 higher. We just cut our losses and settled at around 152F for the mash temperature. Despite the warmer weather, we lost a lot of heat from our mash tun over the course of an hour, a lot more than usual. Thinking back on this, I believe it was because the lid to the mash tun was slightly open because the cord for the thermometer was so thick. Anyway, most of this didn't matter in the long run because we still extracted tons of sugars from the grains... crisis averted. Now let's move on to the next disaster... apparently when I went to clean the ball valve of the boil pot, I forgot to add the washer back on when reassembling the apparatus. This caused leaking in that area when we poured the wort into the boil pot... *sigh* so we cleverly poured the wort back into a bucket and wedged the O-ring back to a position to where it wasn't leaking. But that wasn't all, oh no, the forces of the universe wouldn't let us get away that easy. After boiling and cooling the wort, we went to drain it, AND.... nothing. Not even a drop with the ball valve completely open! It must have just been clogged with hops, so we did what we did best and tried (emphasis on the word "tired") to pour the wort through strainers and into the bucket by lifting and tilting the 10 gallon boil pot with 5 gallons of wort in it. You can just imagine how much of a fail that was, we probably lost about 3/4 of a gallon useing this brilliant method... oh well. Alright, enough complaining, here's the recipe:
X-Patriot American IPA
Grains
9.0 lbs Rahr 2-row pale
1.5 lb German Munich Malt
0.5 lbs Briess Caramel Malt 60L
Hops
1 oz. Columbus (FWH) 14.4% AA
1 oz. Columbus (60min) 14.4% AA
2 oz. Simcoe (0min) 12.2% AA
2 oz. Cascade (dry hopped 10 days) 6.1% AA
Yeast
WLP060 American Ale Yeast Blend (Optimum Temp: 68-72F) - 1 quart yeast starter, 1 cup DME
BrewDay Stats
Style: American IPA
Brewed: 12/31/10
H2O/grain ratio: 1.24 qt/lb
Mash Temp (Time): 152.6F-147F (60min)
Mash Out Temp: 154F
Pre-boil Volume: 6.25 gal
Pre-boil SG: 1.052
Boil Time: 60min
Post Volume Boil: 5.0 gal
Mash Efficiency: 82%
Transferred to secondary: 1/8/11
Bottled: 1/29/11
OG = 1.064
IBU = 98.4
BU:GU = 1.54
Fermentation Temp: 64F-72F
FG = 1.010
Apparent Attenuation = 84%
ABW(%) = 5.6%
ABV(%) = 7.1%
I'm pretty excited to try this beer, we just bottled it last weekend so I'll have to update this post when we do get around to trying it. Just smelling the aroma from dry hopping with the Cascade hops is enough to make me excited, hopefully this beer tastes as good as it smells. Here's a couple of pictures:
We've got Scotty stirring the hops back into the boil on the left, and a picture of the beer dry hopped on the right. You can kind of make out the wrap of the carboy heater, it's on pretty loosely but it keeps the beer at a nice mid 70F range, and considering the room I keep it in can get down to 60F, it's pretty helpful
Thanks to our friend Anne, who seems to have become our brew day photographer, which I'm really grateful for since Scott and I are either too busy or forgetful. So if you do see any pictures of our brew day adventures, it's most likely from her.
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