Friday 1 June 2012

A Hop Too Far? (IIPA) - Brewing

Ok, I confess.  I'm a hop addict.  Can't get enough of American hops.  So it was inevitable that I'd try and make a Double IPA.  This beer is a bit of a beast and if all goes well, should be quite drinkable.  Although the dry hops are listed I haven't reached that stage of fermentation yet.  The aroma coming off this beer at three days in is the stuff dreams are made of.  I expect this will come together very well in the bottle.

Also I used Calcium carbonate in an attempt to lower the acidity from the fermented sorghum, in the boil this time.  And I added the Amber Candy Syrup at flameout.  This should make for a nice amber coloured beer.

Recipe:
8oz Maltodextrine @ 60 minutes
1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 60 mins
0.75oz Columbus Hops @ 60 mins
0.75oz Centennial Hops @ 60 mins
0.5oz Cascade Hops @ 30 mins
0.5oz Columbus Hops @ 30 mins
0.5oz Centennial Hops @ 30 mins
1 x whirlfloc tablet @ 15 mins
0.5oz Cascade @ 15 mins
0.5oz Centennial Hops @ 15 mins
0.5oz Cascade Hops @ 5 mins
0.5oz Centennial Hops @ 5 mins
0.5oz Chinook Hops @ 5 mins
1tsp Calcium carbonate @ 5 mins
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 mins
500ml Amber Candy Syrup @ 0 mins
1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 0 mins
*** Cold Crashed for 30 minutes ***
2 packets of US-05 American Ale Yeast

Dry hops
1oz Cascade Hops
1oz Centennial Hops
1oz Chinook Hops
1oz Citra Hops

Chinook IPA - Brewing

Continuing on with my Single Hop IPA Series (thanks Mikkeller for the idea) I thought I would trial Chinook.  Having heard some bad things about boiling Chinook for 60 minutes I decided to cut this recipe down to a 30 minute boil.

Recipe:
1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 30 minutes
250g Maltodextrine @ 30 minutes
28g Chinook Hops @ 30 minutes
28g Chinook Hops @ 15 minutes
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 minutes
1tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 minutes
28g Chinook Hops @ 0 minutes
250ml Amber Candy Syrup @ 0 minutes
1.4Kg Sorghum Syrup @ 0 minutes
*** Cold Crash for 30 minutes ***
2 packets of US-05 American Ale Yeast

I also dry hopped this beer with 3oz (84g) of Chinook Hops at 7 days.  Sampling just before bottling I get Hop bitterness, hop bitterness and then a big dose of tropical flavours.  And I also put 1 teaspoon of Calcium carbonate post fermentation.