GrainFather Brewday #14 - Goose Island IPA Clone

Started at about half 4 and just finished so it looks like 4.5 hours is now my standard brew time which I'm pretty happy with.

I got the recipe from the Mitch Steele IPA book although as the book is so difficult to interpret (especially this recipe) I have no shame in posting my interpretation (which is pretty different to other interpretations I've seen!)

Recipe: Goose Island Clone
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated FG: 1.015 SG
Estimated ABV: 6.1 %
Estimated Color: 4.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 55.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
6.50 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK
29.60 g Pilgrim - Boil 60.0 min
111.00 g Styrian Golding (Savinja Golding) - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0
44.40 g Cascade - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0
1.0 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028)
24.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop
13.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop


Mash:
-----
71.0 C 25 min
77.0 C 10 min

The mash schedule is nothing like anything I've done before but it's what the book said so I went with it, hit my OG bang on so will be interesting to see the result.

I also used a hop spider for the first time, certainly made clean up easier but not sure it is ideally suited for adding over 150g hops at flameout, most of which were leaf. That said, the wort did smell great so I'll have to wait an see.

The yeast was harvested from my last brew, it's the 3rd brew I've got from it so as long as it is still healthy I've got good value from the yeast and will hopefully get another brew yet. Pitched the yeast at 21 and it's now sat in the brew fridge set to 19c. I calibrated my fridge during the week and have attached the sensor to the FV for the first time so hopefully that'll improve my temperature control.

I'll see how the brew is getting on in a week and add the dry hops.

Plenty of action in the FV so it looks like the harvested yeast was still nice and healthy.

Might have a slight issue with this one, forgot to check the AAs of the Styrian Goldings and they're only 1% which is way lower than I had in BeerSmith (I also never knew you could get hops with such low AAs!) so I think I'll have undershot the IBUs by a fair amount, the only thing I'm hoping is that because I didn't account for the extra IBUs that'll have been extracted from the pilgrim hops during the steep I won't have missed by enough to knock the balance out completely. Ah well, you live and learn!

I did take a peek this morning and there is still a thick krausen, will take a reading tomorrow and add the dry hops if it close to finished. I wasn't expecting it to still be fermenting tho, the other brews I've done with the same yeast have finished within a week so I'm hoping that isn't something to do with my harvesting technique.

Jeezo, mash at 77?!

That certainly looks like an interesting recipe, I might have to give that a go one day.

Seeing as the Styrian Goldings went in at the end, they won't contribute to any bitterness anyway.

ezraburke said:

Jeezo, mash at 77?!

Click to expand...

Yep, that was the instruction. It seems to have worked pretty well and I hit my targets, the proof will be in the tasting.

jceg316 said:

That certainly looks like an interesting recipe, I might have to give that a go one day.

Seeing as the Styrian Goldings went in at the end, they won't contribute to any bitterness anyway.

Click to expand...

They were steeped for 20 mins without cooling so they should have imparted quite a bit. I'll see how the sample tastes tomorrow, can't change anything now.

DoctorMick said:

Yep, that was the instruction. It seems to have worked pretty well and I hit my targets, the proof will be in the tasting.

Click to expand...

The body on it will be immense, that's for sure. Is fermentation going well?

ezraburke said:

The body on it will be immense, that's for sure. Is fermentation going well?

Click to expand...

Haven't took a reading yet but it looks good from the visible signs and there is still a krausen. Will test tomorrow and dry hop.

Tried a sample this morning, down to 1.020 but there is a slight sour smell, it tastes ok but the smell is a concern. I hope its not down to my yeast harvesting cos I need to use it again in my next brew!

Had a pint of Goose Island in the pub at lunch and it smells and tastes absolutely nothing like my sample this morning! :cry: The dry hopping and a bit of conditioning will have to completely transform the beer and it'll be a miracle if it comes out anything like the original! I live in hope tho and stranger things have happened.

Still not cpnvinced all is well with this one, Gravity has dropped to 1.013 and there is still what looks like a krausen. I'm going to take a risk and cold crash tomorrow if the gravity is still the same and bottle next week, then it'll be a case of crossing my fingers and hoping for the best but I'm expecting it to be a very disappointing brew. I certainly won't be chancing reusing the yeast in my next brew.

DoctorMick said:

Still not cpnvinced all is well with this one, Gravity has dropped to 1.013 and there is still what looks like a krausen. I'm going to take a risk and cold crash tomorrow if the gravity is still the same and bottle next week, then it'll be a case of crossing my fingers and hoping for the best but I'm expecting it to be a very disappointing brew. I certainly won't be chancing reusing the yeast in my next brew.

Click to expand...

Good luck Mick, fingers crossed it all turns out well.

Went into kegs and bottles last night, the good news is that there was no sign of any infection or off tastes but the bad news is that it is just a bit meh and absolutely nothing like Goose Island.

Maybe with a bit of extra time the hop character will shine through? I've had this before where I've made an IPA, tastes kind of standard but after a month or so it tastes amazing

Tried a bottle and it's vile...not having much luck at the minute! It's got an awful sour taste which I'm putting down to something going wrong with my yeast reuse technique.

sorry to hear! I know that with storing yeast, washing it, reusing it etc. the whole process needs to be very very sanitary. With brewing I'm probably not the most careful person, but no chances can be taken when it comes to yeast.

Bud, that sucks. Best of luck with the next GF brew.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk