Hooray for brewing! I forget how much fun it is...the Westmalle is bubbling ferociously while the Paulaner is far more subdued. Hopefully I can bottle this weekend...
Next up is the uber-IPA that my friend Aaron suggested to me
Extract recipe:
7# Munton's light DME (NOT LME)
1.25# Crystal 60
0.5# Cara-pils dextrine malt
pellet hops -- if you want to use whole leaf hops increase the amount
of hops for each addition by 25%:
1 oz Mt. Hood (FWH)
1 oz Columbus (60 min)
0.5 oz Mt. Hood (30 min)
1 oz Mt. Hood (flameout)
1 oz Columbus (dry hop)
yeast (these are all the same type of yeast, just from different labs):
1 packet Safale US-56 OR
2 tubes White Labs WLP001 OR
1 tube White Labs WLP001 started at least 2 days before and added to a
start OR
1 small smack pack Wyeast 1056, started 3 days before (make a starter) OR
1 activator pack Wyeast 1056 started at least 2 days before and added
to a starter for at least 1 day
Technique notes:
1. For a clean and crisp taste to this beer it is absolutely
imperative that enough yeast be pitched, so don't neglect making a
starter if you're using liquid yeast.
2. Heat the water up to about 130 degrees, turn the flame off and
reconstitute the dry malt extract at this point. Also, add the
specialty malts at this time as well as the FWH (first wort hopping)
hops. Use pellet hops for higher alpha acid extraction and do NOT
contain them in a nylon bag. Yes this is a little annoying later but
if you want the hoppy beer this is the technique that gets the bitter
out of the hops and into the beer. If you can find these hops in whole
leaf form, it will be much easier to separate the hops from the wort
later.
3. Heat up to 170 degrees over the next 20 minutes or so, then remove
the specialty malts. If you leave them in the beer will taste
astringent and tannic.
4. Proceed as usual (heat to boiling, add 60 minute hop addition,
wait, add 30 min hop addition, wait, add flameout hops at the end of
the 1 hour boil). Do not use nylon bags for hops, let them tumble
around freely.
5. Cool the wort down enough so that the wort plus the cold water in
the carboy will give you a reconstituted wort that's 55 degrees. This
is also a reason to add a lot of yeast initially -- the yeast will get
off to a slow start because the fermentation temperature is cool.
6. Ferment cool, at 55-60 degrees F, until ~80% done fermenting. Rack
and add dry hops in secondary. Dry hop for at least two weeks and
bottle.
All-grain recipe:
Same ingredients except for malt. I assume a 65% extraction efficiency
from the malt.
14# 2-row North American Pale Malt
1.25# Crystal 60
0.5# Cara-pils dextrine malt
To FWH an all-grain batch, add the hops to the boiling vessel as soon
as you start collecting wort during the sparge.
I think I'm gonna investigate alternatives to the Mt. Hood hops...
