Brew #19: Honey Oat IPA, April 4, 2015

Finally! A Russell original! While I've made a few tweaks to kits, I hadn't yet built a recipe from the ground up yet.  I went with a pretty simple grain bill and I used some leftover hops in the recipe.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.068 (1.062)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.015 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (72%)
IBUs: 69
Color: 6.4 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 70 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Grains:
11 lbs US 2-Row
1 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Honey Malt
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.50 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 5 min.
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
1 oz Simcoe (pellets) dry hop 8 days
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets)dry hop 8 days
1 oz Centennial (pellets) dry hop 8 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
4/1/15 - Yeast Starter:
Another 1 Liter yeast starter: 4c of water, 1/4 lb Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.

4/4/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 17.88 quarts of water to 170 F in 5 gallon economy stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: mashed in, temperature was 155F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153-155F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153-154F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Vorlauf process is very much manual.  I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 17.5 quarts of 190F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Volume seemed high, so although I had planned 60 min boil, I set the timer for 70 min to get more boil off
• Added:
  0.50 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.50 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
  0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  Wort Chiller @ 10 min.
  0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 5 min.
  0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG reading of 1.062, corrected to 1.063. Volume was 5.5 Gallons
• Pitched entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

4/4 - 4/15/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note. Gravity was 1.011 when I racked to the 5 gallon glass carboy

4/15 - 4/28/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, and 1/2 ounce Amarillo on 4/20.

4/28/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.3oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.011 (6.8% abv).
Here's a moment that was a little ridiculous.  In the back left, I'm boiling caps to sanitize for this batch. On the back right, I'm boiling the priming sugar.  On the front left, I'm boiling a hop bag to act as a strainer for the dry hops, and on the front right, I'm boiling the yeast starter for #21.


5/15 - First Taste:
This one turned out very well, and I planned to repeat it in the future.  A friend described (very enthusiastically) as "The kind of beer that when you take a sip... it makes you want to take the next sip."  I guess that's the goal?