Brew #10: Plinian Legacy, November 15, 2014

Brew #10 was my first in a line of "clones of things I've never tried the original of."  This is Northern Brewer's version of Russian River's Pliny the Elder. I bought the Plinian Legacy extract kit online from Northern Brewer without yeast or priming sugar.  I bought a vial of WLP001 from Bailee's a few days before brew day as well as a one liter Erlenmeyer flask and some extra light DME.  The kit's instructions strongly recommended a yeast starter due to the size of this beer, so I decided this would be a good first time to do that.

Recipe
Batch Size: 6 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.070
Target FG: ???
Style: IIPA
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
10 oz Carapils
6 oz Bairds Carastan

Fermentables:
4 lbs Pilsen DME @ 90 min.
6 lbs Pilsen LME @ 15 min.
0.75 lb corn sugar @ 0 min.

Hops (brace yourself):
0.25 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ steeping grains (FWH)
10 mL (2x) Hopshot @ 90 min
1 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 45 min
1 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min
1.5 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 0 min, steep 10 min.
2.5 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 0 min, steep 10 min.
1.5 oz Columbus (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 15 days
1 oz Centennial (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 15 days
1 oz Simcoe (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 15 days
0.5 oz Columbus (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 5 days
0.5 oz Simcoe (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 5 days
0.25 oz Centennial (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 5 days
0.25 oz Amarillo (pellets) Dry Hop in secondary 5 days

Other:
1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 10 min.

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001

Brewing Notes
11/12/14 - Yeast Starter:

This was a new part of my process starting on this brew. The kit's recipe recommended a yeast starter due to the high starting gravity, so I bought a one liter Erlenmeyer flask, an appropriate drilled stopper, an additional airlock, and some extra light DME from Bailee's to get a starter started.  I did not use any kind of yeast calculator.  This was mostly a "wing it" based on advice I got from the staff at Bailee's.  I boiled 4c bottled water, with 4 oz of extra light DME in a small pot on the stovetop for 10 minutes, then chilled in an ice bath and poured it into the sanitized Erlenmeyer flask.  I covered this with sanitized aluminum foil and my hand and shook vigorously for 30 seconds to aerate. Then I poured all of the yeast into the flask.  Due do boil-off, the volume was around 650mL.  Here's the starter on 11/14 and 11/15:



11/15/14 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 3 gal water to 155 F in 5 gallon economy stainless kettle on the stovetop.
• Steeped specialty grains in muslin bag for 20 minutes.  At the same time added .25 oz Amarillo hops directly in the kettle.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added 4lbs pilsen LT DME and stirred well
• Set timer for 90 minutes and added:
  10mL Hopshot @ 90 min.
  1oz Columbus @ 45 min.
  1oz Simcoe @ 20 min.
  6lb Pilsen LME @ 15 min.
  1 Whirlfloc tab @ 10 min.
  0.75 lb corn sugar, 1.5 oz Centennial, 2.5 oz Simcoe @ 0 min.
• Removed the kettle from heat and allowed to stand for 10 minutes
• Moved kettle to the ice bath in the sink to chill to 100 F
• Added 2 gal of pre-chilled water to the kettle to bring temperature to 76F
• Siphoned to BMB, then added more room temperature water and the entire yeast starter until I had 6 Gallons. The 6 Gal volume is due to the large expected fermentation losses.
• Took an OG reading of 1.074, corrected to 1.077
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a 1.5 inch blowoff tube.  I wanted to be ready since there was almost no head space left in the fermenter.

11/15 - 11/22/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
Active Fermentation began almost immediately, blowing off through the 1.25 inch blowoff tube in 6 hours.  I also covered the carboy in an old t-shirt to keep the hop oils from getting lightstruck.  This is Where I noticed that the BMB leaked a little bit around the ring because I started to get some sticky hoppy staining on the t-shirt.

11/22-12/14/2014 - Secondary Fermentation:
All about dry hops.  On 11/29 added:
1.5 oz Columbus (pellets)
1 oz Centennial (pellets)
1 oz Simcoe (pellets)
on 12/9 added:
0.5 oz Columbus (pellets)
0.5 oz Simcoe (pellets)
0.25 oz Centennial (pellets)
0.25 oz Amarillo (pellets)
All of these were directly to the carboy.

12/14/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime. Gravity was 1.014, which I calculated to mean 8.3% abv.  Yield was 46 12 oz bottles.  I certainly put a sanitized nylon mesh bag over the end of the siphon hose to keep most of the hops out of the bottling bucket.

12/24/2014 - First Taste:
It was Christmas eve and my brothers were over... So we decided to try 1. or maybe 6.  Carbonation was good, and on a hop bomb like this, I'd prefer to enjoy it fresh.  I decided right away to brew this again so I could have more when the first batch kicked.  See Brew #15.

12/25/2014 - Photo OP:

My brother-in-law and his girlfriend got me these custom glasses for Christmas.  Here's the Plinian Legacy in the glasses.