Bottled some beer yesterday, the IPA and Low ABV saison/farmhouse that I brewed a couple of weeks ago.
In the past I have brewed at my parents’ farm and fermented in my spare room (about 170km away). This meant I could control my temperatures, add dry hops, rouse it a bit if I needed, take gravity tests, keg it, add more dry hops, taste, taste and taste again. Now I brew, add the yeast and drive away. Thus when I’m driving to the farm to bottle I have no idea what I will be bottling, good, bad or indifferent.
I brewed an English IPA about a month ago, it was a drain pour, however I was pretty happy with the beers I bottled yesterday. Especially the IPA. I’m going to hold comment on the low ABV saison/farmhouse beer as I just haven’t decided if I like it yet.
Back to the IPA, the third iteration of an IPA named after a sons kid, Tex. Both of the previous Tex beers have medalled at VicBrew, looking for a 3rd with Tex the Third. On tasting the un carbonated beer it was dry and hoppy and aromatic. I could just smell that citrus bomb of an IPA as I was bottling, all the things I wanted. Big smile on my face for a more or less neglected beer.
Time will tell how it goes, but at least I think I have a beer I’ll like. Here is the recipe;
TEX the THIRD
Batch Size: 22.00 L Brewer: Darren Keating
Boil Size: 28.00 L Boil Time: 55 min
Mash Temp 64 deg C, Ferment Temp 20 deg C Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 (I actually think I got more like 65%)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.25 kg Marris Otter Pale (5.9 EBC) Grain 79.82 %
0.90 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 11.49 %
0.38 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 4.85 %
0.20 kg White Wheat Malt (4.7 EBC) Grain 2.55 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt – 30L (59.1 EBC) Grain 1.28 %
15.00 gm Magnum [14.70 %] (60 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 5.8 IBU
30.00 gm Simcoe [12.60 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops –
30.00 gm Amarillo Gold [9.20 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops –
27.00 gm Warrior [16.70 %] (55 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 63.2 IBU
20.00 gm Centennial [10.90 %] (25 min) Hops 11.5 IBU
20.00 gm Cascade [6.20 %] (25 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
50.00 gm Centennial [10.90 %] (1 min) Hops 11.9 IBU
50.00 gm Cascade [6.20 %] (1 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
10.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) (Dry Hop) Hops –
10.00 gm Cascade [6.20 %] (0 min) (Dry Hop) Hops –
10.00 gm Amarillo Gold [9.20 %] (0 min) (Dry Hop) Hops –
10.00 gm Centennial [10.90 %] (0 min) (Dry Hop) Hops –
11.62 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.072 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.13 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.92 %
Bitterness: 105.8 IBU Calories: 615 cal/l
Est Color: 16.0 EBC
Brew that one and fingers crossed you will have an IPA that is not to bad, and if all goes well you will even have a Zen brew and bottling day as I did. Ah Zen, and it was a beautiful spring day out on the farm, on the day after the Catters had a good win. Cant go wrong with that.
Cheers D
PS – I’ll post the low ABV Saison recipe when I get around to it
