Tuesday 19 April 2011

Dry hopping an IPA that isn't

I had a load of things ingredients left over, so decided to give an experiment a whirl.

Taking my lead from these guys (or you can find it here too), I got inspired to try out a 2 litre brew in a demijohn. Liked the dy-hopping idea, so decided to do my own version of an IPA. There's was v. American - all Cascade...mine should have been more like the real thing; all Fuggles and Goldings. The recipe is here.

Its bubbling away in the d-j now. I decided to dry hop on the primary ferment, just to save time, as I will be away in two weeks time. However, my major gripe was that the beer was anything but pale!

Following the idea from the 'Basic Brewing', I boiled the first bittering hops on their own, then added malt and flavour/aroma hops. I used DME again, as I didn't have enough grain for a mash. But on boiling the first lot of hops my water was a real brown colour, and I know have wort that is closer to a bitter than an IPA. No idea what happened there.

Anyway, looks like it could kick in at 8+%, so that is looking promising.

On another note, the weißbier is bottled and should be ok to sample next week. Interesting...doesn't look half as cloudy as commercial wheat beers, and I lost that banana/bubble gum aroma. From the FV it tasted like a malty light lager, so I am hoping for something a bit more interesting after secondary fermentation. The liquid yeast was great - after skimming and rousing, it fermented right out to target.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Die Katze wird gebraut

Indeed.

Spent yesterday having a go at an AG Weißbier. The mash went ok, think I was a bit down on the efficiency this time...it came out a little lower in gravity than I expected (1041 not 1047).

However, getting the thing down to pitching temeprature was a nightmare. Remind me to make this bier in winter next time. Had to pitch at 16C rather than 12C, and I am hoping that it will ferment at around 18C - should still be ok. From what I can see the raised temperature just promotes more banana and clove scented esters, so that's fine by me!

I am also having a 'mare getting the wort from boiler to fermenter. In the past this has been to too many hops and/or adjuncts blocking the hops trainer. No idea why its sticking now - must be all that gloopy crap that seems to settle out upon cooling. Of course, being a wheat beer, the proteinaceous gunk that gives the beer its taste, texture, and appearance cannot help!

Have to say the yeast I used (my first batch from White Labs) smelt wonderful...just put me back in Germany. I can only hope this gets somewhere close.