Second BIAB attempt - Centennial IPA

[SteveH]

Bottled my first batch this weekend (ESB which came out at 6.9% because I messed up my volumes last time) so decided to have another go, this time an IPA.

Recipe inspired by some commercial Centennial IPAs but tweaked in BeerSmith to fit what ingredients I had:

2.5kg Maris Otter
0.5kg Vienna
12.5g Centennial at 60, 20, 10 and 0 mins

I also plan to dry-hop for the last 4-5 days in the fermenter with the remaining 50g Centennial.

Got my volumes better during the boil this time (mashed with 12l, then dunk sparged to get another 4l), hit my target OG of 1055 (well, 1057 so much closer than last time!)

I tried to leave most of the trub in the kettle (dumped the lot in last time and lost a lot to the fermenter when bottling), which meant I still missed my target of 12l in the fermenter (doh!), ended up with just under 10.

I guess I'll have to accept trub in the fermenter or top-up during/after the boil as I was pretty-close to boiling over near the start.

I did make a mistake when pitching the yeast (NBS West Coast Style), I forgot to rehydrate it and accidentally tipped most of the packet in (should have used about half I guess as it says for 23 litres on the pack). Ah well, lesson learned for next time, hopefully I'll get away with it!

 

[SteveH]

Just checked the gravity on this and added the dry-hops.

It's gone from 1057 to 1010 in 10 days, taste of the sample was pretty good, quite bitter as expected for an IPA but very tasty - hopefully this bodes well for the finished result :)

Going to leave it until the weekend dry-hopping in the primary then bottle it provided the gravity is the same.

 

[SteveH]

Now bottled and the sample I tasted was pretty good, quite sweet but hopefully that will improve with time in the bottle & carbonation, certainly packs a pretty good punch from a hops perspective :)