Funners not a Word IPA

Everything set-up in the backyard before the busy day.

Chris warming his hands while boiling.

The Boil

Chris enjoying the Imperial NW Red

The CFC in action. That thing works like magic. Beer came out at 58F

So, I changed the recipe on this one from my previous post of the planned recipe. I ended up using Nugget instead of Millennium. Not so much because of taste but because that is what I have most of on hand and wanted to burn through it. I also changed the first set of cascade for nugget to add a little bit more bitter.

Grain:
11 lbs 2 Row Base Malt
1 lb Crystal 50l
1 lb carapils

Water:
4.9 Gallons @163F
3.4 Gallons @182F

Hops: (all pellets)
1.5 oz Nugget 13% @60
1 oz Nugget 13% @30
1 oz Cascade 6% @20
1 oz Cascade 6% @10
1 oz Cascade 6% @2

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

19FEB2011: Brewing went okay for first time on the system. I think those burners have a break in period or something cause they did a lot better on the second batch. I insulated the mash tun but ended up dropping about 7 degrees by the end so I was a little frustrated at that. Then when I went to sparge I had accidentally left the ball valve on the mash tun open and the hose was sitting on top of the lid for the boil kettle. That meant that I lost about a quarter gallon of good sugars. That was kind of frustrating, but oh well. It boiled ok but not as great as I would have liked. Like I said I think those burners have a break in period. It was hard to keep it at a full rolling boil the whole time so I ended up with 6 gallons at the end instead of 5. That meant my O.G. turned out to be a lame 1.038. I was pretty bummed about this so I ended up pouring a few gallons of it into my extra pot and put it on the stove to boil off a gallon or so in hopes to raise the gravity. Well, it didn't work as planned. It did raise but my O.G. still ended up being only 1.041. I don't want to mess with it too much so I am just going to leave it and see how it ends up tasting.

23FEB2011- Used a thief on this one as well. Gravity is at 1.010. Thats pretty low but its still bubbling fairly actively. Due to the low O.G. this obviously can't hit the higher ABV I like in an IPA. Which I have a hard time even calling this an IPA, I'm probably just going to consider it a Pale Ale. It tastes really good and refreshing but the hops don't come through as strong as I like. A nice crisp summer beer is what this seems more like.

03MAR2011- Finally got my last keg fixed today after work. I went over to my parent's house and my dad had just bought a dent puller for hi truck. It worked amazingly well on the keg and now it seals without even having to use pennies. Transferred the IPA (maybe I should just rename it a pale ale) to the corny. Everything went well and F.G. is at 1.004 giving an ABV of 4.9%. It tastes really good with a light maltiness and strong but not overly boisterous floral notes. Can't wait til its carbed and ready.