Session IPA Brewday

[YeastFace]

Today I had a day off work, and wanted a sessionable, hoppy pint for a BBQ in August so got my brew on. The forecast said rain all day, so I decided to brew in the kitchen, with the window open to act as a vent.

Recipe was as per this thread - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63771 I increased the Mash Temp to 68°C to leave more body, as I'd read that one of the biggest complaints of Session IPAs is a thin mouthfeel and body.

I have made the odd stupid mistake in recent brewdays, so the first thing I did this morning was to make a list with everything I needed to do (put my hop filter in), measure out the water and so forth. This greatly helped and I didn't make any mistakes of note.

My mash efficiency went through the roof (not sure why) and I ended up with pre-boil SG of 1.040, which was my desired OG.

The Azacca smelt lovely

I've cheated a litte and used Magnum as the FWH addition, so it isn't a true Single Hop beer, but I didn't want to waste an expensive hop on bitterness and pretty much exclusively use Magnum as my bittering hop as I like the smooth bitterness and predictability it gives.

First Wort Hops

I usually do around 15l, but as this was destined for the corny I wanted to do a full 20l batch. Pre-Boil volume was just under 28l, which made my 33l boiler look rather full. I only had a small boilover, which was due to me accidently putting the lid the whole way on.

Thar she blows

After the boil, I cooled to 80°C, gave a big stir and added the whirlpool hops which steeped for 30 mins. Once that was over, I chilled down to 20°C. As I'd decided not to use a hop bag, the flow started to wind down at 18l or so. As the SG was higher that desired, this didn't turn out to be a bad thing as meant I could top up with water to 20l. I ended up with just over 20l at 1.042.

Clearest wort yet

I then added 200ml of Vermont Ale Yeast and sealed the fermenter. This will be dry-hopped with 50g more Azacca next week and I plan on kegging the weekend of the 9th.


I also dry-hopped my Vermont IPA today (http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63613), racking it onto 20g each of Mosaic, ADHA-527, Rakau, Motueka and Hallertau Blanc. For 15l, 100g is by far the biggest dry-hop I've ever done. The beer is also smelling very much of stonefruit, with a bit of tropical fruit too, which is what I aimed for, so fingers crossed it finishes up good.

All the dry-hops

 

[Robin54]

I reckon you have it nailed...well done!!

 

[machin05]

You doing anything different with the fermentation of the Vermot yeast? I've seen Cloudwater (who have started usuing it) saying that it's a very tricky yeast to get fermenting to the best of its ability.

 

[RZH]

Saw on Cloudwater's Twitter feed that to get the best out of Vermont yeast they ferment at 16°C until 1.020 then ramp it up to 21°C for a diacetyl rest. Hope that helps. Also got a session IPA planned with this yeast and that's the schedule I'll be following.

 

[Covrich]

Looks good, glad it was only a small boil over, that boiler looks dangerously full :lol:

 

[YeastFace]

The yeast is second generation. I didn't do anything special with the first fermentation, 19-20℃. I didn't encounter any diacetyl and it fermented to where expected. Will check the AA of the first, but assume upper 70s.

This is being fermented at the same temp, but have read that AA can increase with each generation, but hopefully it won't be more than 80 or so.

 

[YeastFace]

This was dry-hopped with 50g Azacca and 20g Rakau. Just tapped a pint, having set up my pallet bar for a BBQ later on.

It's a refreshing beer, good bitterness, not too thin and a decent amount of citrus taste. It's not particularly interesting, but fits the brief of a BBQ/Lawnmower beer very well. I would like to have had more aroma, so would increase dry hop or hop in the keg next time.