Last Friday I took a vacation day and brewed a 10 gallon batch of IPA. I split the batch in two - here's what I did: 20lbs Marris Otter
4 lbs Munich Malt
2 lbs British Crystal
I split the batch because I wanted to try out some homegrown hops I received (Willamette I believe). In the first batch, I added 1 oz. Summit (60), 1 oz. Ahtanum (15), 1 oz. Simcoe (5), and will be dry hopping with 1 oz. of Argentine Cascades. The other 5 gallons, I added 1 oz. of Summit (60) and a bunch of the fresh dried home grown hops (15).
California Ale yeast - starter made a couple days before.
This brew went surprisingly well. I started at 5 a.m. and things went like clockwork. My mash tun was filled to the top when I put the lid on. This time I put towels over the top of it, thanks to a tip from a Beer Advocate member - it really helped keep the heat in. After an hour I started draining the wort into the split batches.
I boiled and followed the hop additions as seen above. I really need to get something for my keg boil kettle, a screen or something at the bottom, because the whole leaf hops got all stuck when syphoning the wort out.
Anyhow, I'm going to dedicate the fresh hops batch to Leon Blackburn, who's wife donated a bunch of their hops to us. Leon passed away in June of 2007. He grew some amazing hop vines a while back and this year the crop was huge! I'll be doing a post on the MiBeerBuzz.com blog when the beer is finished.
Hoppy Fall IPA: Pre boil gravity - 1.072
Post boil gravity - 1.082
Blackburn IPA - Pre boil gravity - 1.076
Post boil gravity - 1.084
The difference in the gravity between the two was a mistake on my part. I was doing one pitcher in one boil pot, then another in the second boil pot. Well, I did two in a row in the Blackburn IPA.. oops! My other mistake was coming out a bit under 5 gallons on both of them. The Hoppy Fall IPA came in around 4.5 gallons, the Blackburn IPA was just under 5. I didn't top them off with water, I feel that kind of messes with the whole batch by doing that - but I did learn, a 6 gallon boil will reduce to a 4.5 gallon wort after an hour - so, I'll probably shoot for 6.5 gallons of wort to boil next time.
Anyhow, the room these carboys are in smell freaking awesome. I can't stop walking in there every few hours and smelling them. I'll be racking the Blackburn IPA to a secondary for a week or two of settling and the same with the Hoppy, but I'll be dry hopping that one at some point. mmm. Hops. Oh yeah, the odd hops I used were the ones free from the AHA rally I went to. Somehow I wound up with 3 bags of hops. The Summit hops were the only ones I had to purchase. This whole batch cost about $55.00.
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Some guys on BA said the starting gravity is a bit high, and this beer will probably be classified as a DIPA. Doh! Next time I'm going to top off with water to reach expected gravity..
I racked the Hoppy Head IPA off tonight. The final gravity reading was 1.026, which puts this beer at a very nice 7.5% ABV's. It tastes great. Warm, there's a bit of an alcohol to it, but it's a fantastic IPA. I'm stoked. One more week and I'll be enjoying a pint of this bad boy. The Blackburn IPA is still freaking fermenting!! That thing just won't quit. It's still bubbling away. I was hoping to keg that one for Saturdays football game, I don't think I'll be able to at this point.
Hop head IPA came out to 1.024 - 8.1% and the blackburn IPA came out to 8.4%.
I've changed the name on the blackburn to - Blackburn Bitter. I'm not sure it's hoppy enough to call it an IPA. It's sweet, bitter and excellent.
Kegged half, bottled half of the hop head. Tastes pretty awesome. Going to have a pint for the UM game Saturday.
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