Brew #14: Conundrum Session IPA (modified), December 28, 2014

This was another time when I browsed Northern Brewer's recipe and then went to Bailee's for the ingredients. I didn't want to wait for shipping so I could brew once more during my Christmas Break.  At the time, Northern Brewer was substituting "Simply Select" hops for Simcoe in their kits due to a shortage of Simcoe.  I didn't know what Simply Select was and neither did any of the staff at Bailee's, so we ended up choosing Citra. So I made a nearly completely different session IPA than what intended by Northern Brewer's kit.  The recipe that follows is as I brewed it.

Lauren (my wife) bought me a copper immersion wort chiller for Christmas, so this was an addition to my process for this brew.  My kitchen sink faucet is a pull-down sprayer type, so there was no way I could adapt the faucet to the chiller. Instead, I added a little bit of "special" plumbing in the cabinet under my sink.  This valve and barb fitting comes off of a T in the cold water line under my sink, after the shut-off valve and before the faucet.  I use the hose adapter that came with the chiller on the discharge end to act as a weight to keep the tubing from spraying hot water all over the place.


Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.045
Target FG: ???
Style: Session IPA
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
1 lb Caramel 20L

Fermentables:
3.3 lbs Pilsen Light LME @ 60 min.
3.3 lbs Pilsen Light LME @ 15 min.

Hops:
0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) During steep (FWH)
0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.5 oz Citra (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
0.5 oz Crystal (pellets) @ 5 min.
0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) dry hop 7 days
0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) dry hop 7 days
0.5 oz Citra (pellets) dry hop 7 days
0.5 oz Crystal (pellets) dry hop 7 days


Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 10 min.

Yeast:
Safale US-05 pitched dry

Brewing Notes
12/28/14 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 3 gal water to 150-155 F in 5 gallon economy stainless kettle on the stovetop.
• Steeped specialty grains in muslin bag for 20 minutes. At this time, I also added 0.5 oz Amarillo pellets directly to the kettle.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added 3.3lbs Pilsen Light LME and stirred well
• Returned to boil, set timer for 60 minutes and added:
  0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  0.5 oz Citra (pellets) @ 20 min.
  3.3 lbs Pilsen Light LME @ 15 min.
  Wort Chiller & Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
  0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
  0.5 oz Crystal (pellets) @ 5 min.
  All hops were loose in the kettle.
  
• Moved kettle to the sink and hooked up the wort chiller to my new plumbing, running cold water until wort temp reached 100 F, which was lightening fast compared to the ice bath method
• Added 2 gal of pre-chilled water to the kettle to bring temperature to 72F
• Siphoned to BMB, then added more room temperature water and the entire yeast starter until I had 5 Gallons.
• Took an OG reading of 1.046, corrected to 1.048.
• Sprinkled the yeast dry directly on top of the wort.
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room.

12/28/2014 - 1/5/2015 - Primary Fermentation:
I siphoned to my second 5 gallon glass carboy that had just been emptied/cleaned/sanitized after Brew #12.  Gravity was 1.014.

1/5-1/20/2015 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped on 1/13 with a half-ounce each of Crystal, Citra, Amarillo, Centennial all added directly to the secondary.

1/20/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.012 @ 68F, corrected to 1.013 (4.6% abv). Yield was 44 12 oz bottles.

??? - First Taste:
No date, no notes.  This was a favorite with my family and drank pretty quickly.  I repeated an all grain version of this for Brew #25 but didn't have a chance to do a side-by-side.  It wouldn't have been fair anyway because the hop character would have faded severely.