Bryan's IPA

Brewed again today. Things went fairly well. I'm starting to get my system dialed in.

Here it is while mashing

The Boil

Again with the boil

So for part of the "dry hop" I did a hop tea. Basically took two small french presses and put an ounce of pellet hops in each, then I put boiling water in each and let it sit for an hour and pressed it out and poured the "hop tea" in with the primary.

CFC working amazing still

Ingredients-

Grain:

11 lbs 2 Row Base Malt

2 lbs Munich Malt

1 lb Caramunich II

Water:

5.2 Gallons @ 163F

3.2 Gallons @ 184F

Hops: (pellets)

0.75 oz Nugget @ 60

0.75 oz Cascade @60

1.5 oz Nugget @ 15

1.5 oz Cascade @ 10

1.5 oz Cascade @ 5

Hop Tea:

1 oz Nugget

1 oz Cascade

Dry Hop:

2 oz Cascade

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

21FEB2011: Like I said I had a really good time brewing. Things went fairly well but I lost some more temperature than I would have liked in the mash. This probably contributed to the lower than target O.G. I hit 6.8 Gallons pre-boil at 1.041. Post-boil I came out to 4.8 gallons and ended at 1.056. I wanted to hit 1.061 but oh well. I need to raise up my banjo burner a couple of inches and then I think it will be better on the boil.

02MAR2011: Finally transferred to secondary. Gravity is at 1.008 so sitting at 6.4% ABV. I think that will be perfect for this beer. Aroma is wonderful with a lot of the dry hop coming through. I think that Hop Tea did wonders because there is so much Hop Flavor without it being overly bitter or grassy. I can't wait to try that again on some future brews.