Brew Night - Hoppy American Pale Ale (hop-bomb)

[ProjectBeer]

So I got home on Saturday evening at 10:30pm and stupidly decided to start brewing. I was expecting my deliveries of hops and grains early in the morning, but they didn't turn up until about 3pm and I had to head out as I had plans.

I ended up sleeping at 4am, mainly due to the fact that I was a little tipsy when I started and it took me a while to get things going - and once they got going I couldn't really stop!

Following a comedy of errors including throwing in my 15min additions at 60mins (cue loud and prolific cursing), and almost falling asleep whilst cooling the wort, I managed to hit my OG bang on.

Recipe I was meant to brew:

Batch size 20 litres
Boil Volume: 26 litres
IBU 38.25
ABV 5.66%
Estimate OG 1.053 Estimated FG 1.010
Bitterness Ratio: 0.72
Yeast: Safale US-05

2.85kg DME
350g Caramalt
150g Carapils
150g Caragold

Hops
Magnum 12.5% (bittering only)
Simcoe 13.2%
Galaxy 13.8%
Citra 13.2%

(planned) Schedule
2g Magnum @ 60min
9g total - 3g each of Simcoe, Galaxy and Citra @15min
15g total - 5g each of Simcoe, Galaxy and Citra @10min
45g total - 15g each of Simcoe, Galaxy and Citra @5min
120g total - 40g each of Simcoe, Galaxy and Citra @ Whirlpool (below 80C) for 30 mins
111g total - 37g each of Simcoe, Galaxy and Citra @ Dry Hop 5 days (the odd number is to use up the 100g hop packs I've bought because who wants 7g of odd hops lying around?)

Actual OG = 1.054

I steeped the speciality grains in about 5 litres of water for 30 mins. I forgot about heating some separate sparge water, so I didn't bother with it and just threw it all in the kettle. I then added about half of the DME into the kettle and brought it to a boil.

After accidentally throwing in my 15min addition at 60 mins, I managed to re-calculate the hop schedule and removed 15g of the mixed 10min addition and threw those in with the flame out hops.

Apart from that mishap, the rest of the brew went well.

I got to use my newly made hop spider for the late and whirlpool hop additions. It worked really well given the ludicrous amount of hops I was using and definitely helped minimise kettle loss. I threw in my immersion chiller, brought the wort down to below 79C in a couple of minutes, added the whirlpool hops and let it sit for 30mins.

I had purchased a submersible pump and was hoping to use it with my chiller in a recirculating system with an ice bath, but annoyingly the unit I bought was defective and wouldn't switch on - I changed the fuse in the plug and it still wouldn't work so I'll have to get it exchanged. I ended up cooling normally to 20C.

I racked to the FV, pitched the yeast and stuck it in my fermentation fridge at 17C. I completely forgot to aerate the wort and this morning (28 hours later) it's bubbling very very slowly.

Takeaways:
- Even though I clearly labelled my hop additions, ALWAYS check before throwing them in
- Don't forget the sparge water
- Don't brew late at night....idiot :lol:

 

[rodabod]

Hoptastic!

 

[durangokemre]

Looks good.

I weigh out my hop additions as I go, rather than weigh them all out in advance, so I don't accidentally stick the wrong one in at the wrong time.

I've also made the mistake of starting a brew late in the afternoon and not finishing until stupid o'clock.

 

[pms67]

Looks good,i brewed 2 kits on Thursday morning,started at 10am and was done by 10.29am.
Even that was a struggle for me,wish i had the time to brew AG or extract but my life at present is hectic.
Will have to make do with my Brewferm Rasperry beer and my Muntons Belgian.
Nice and organised brewing set up you have,one day,one day.

 

[MyQul]

Well done for getting it done and hittting your OG. Your braver than me starting at 10.30pm. If you following morning was free, would have been the perfect opporunity/excuse to try out an overnight mash

 

[Covrich]

Sounds very nice brew mate!!

Although starting at 10:30pm mental!! :lol:

 

[Hoddy]

There was me thinking it was bad finishing the clean up at 9pm. That is mental.

 

[SiWHU]

Like the look of that hop spider. Where did you get that from?

 

[ProjectBeer]

Looks good.

I weigh out my hop additions as I go, rather than weigh them all out in advance, so I don't accidentally stick the wrong one in at the wrong time.

I've also made the mistake of starting a brew late in the afternoon and not finishing until stupid o'clock.

I like to measure them out before and clearly label them and put them in a row in order of additions with the closest one to the kettle being the first I add. I think in my tired state I moved the first addition somewhere else which meant I just grabbed the 15min by mistake!

 

[ProjectBeer]

Well done for getting it done and hittting your OG. Your braver than me starting at 10.30pm. If you following morning was free, would have been the perfect opporunity/excuse to try out an overnight mash

Brave or stupid...?? :rofl:

If only my mash tun was ready... :)

 

[ProjectBeer]

Sounds very nice brew mate!!

Although starting at 10:30pm mental!! :lol:

Clearly not the wisest decision I've made, but I'm glad it's done and I have beer bubbling away in the fermentation fridge

 

[ProjectBeer]

Like the look of that hop spider. Where did you get that from?

I made it myself! It took all of 10 minutes to make.

Got the idea from here https://byo.com/mead/item/2427-build-a-hop-spider-projects

All the parts should be available at a hardware store, but I'm lazy and ordered it all online.

All you need are:

Paint strainer bag (I've only got 5 gallon ones, which are a little big)
PVC ducting pipe reducer - I got a 5" to 4"
Stainless steel jubilee clip
3 x carriage bolts (I'm going to buy some washers when I get round to it as I forgot these)
A drill

 

[ProjectBeer]

Just updating this - dry hopped yesterday with 37g each of Citra, Simcoe and Galaxy. I normally use a fine mesh hop bag, but due to the sheer volume of hops, I switched up to a 5 gal paint strainer bag.

Took a gravity sample and it's 1.012. It tastes delicious and the smell is amazing! I can't wait to bottle this and try it in a couple weeks.

Dry hopping for 5 days (technically for 7) then cold crashing it on Friday to 3C until I bottle on Sunday.

 

[ProjectBeer]

Well, I've almost finished the beers - it's gotten thumbs up from everyone who's tried it!

I liked it so much I brewed it again last night, hit the OG bang on at 1.054. I have extra leftover hops so I upped the IBU from 38 to 43 as well as upping the whirlpool and dry hop amounts by 30 grams :)

I forgot to order my yeast, but I got a free packet of Mangrove Jack Workhorse when I attended the London Craft Beer Festival back in August, so hopefully that will do the trick!