Brew #6: Brewers Best Double IPA (Citra Dry Hopped), August 22, 2014

Brew #6 was an extract kit from Bailee's Homebrew, Brewers Best brand.  This is where I formed my fundamental belief that there is no sense in making an IPA that is not dry hopped.  So, even though the recipe did not call for any dry hop, I bought 2 ounces of whole leaf citra hops for a dry hop.  If I did it again, I might consider a blend of dry hops like citra & centennial but at the time I had very limited familiarity with hop varieties.  I also had become a believer in late malt additions on beers I wanted to remain pale, so that was another little deviation from the kit's recipe

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.078-1.081
Target FG: 1.015-1.019
Target IBU: 100+
Style: American IIPA
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
8 oz Caramel (Crystal) 40L
4 oz Carapils

Fermentables:
9.9 lbs Light LME
1 lb Corn sugar

Hops:
2oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
2oz Columbus (pellets) @ 15 min
2oz Cascade (pellets) @ 0 min
2oz Citra (whole leaf, dried) Dry hop 8 days


Yeast:
Safale US-05, pitched dry

Brewing Notes
8/22/14 - 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.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added 3.3 lbs light LME and stirred well
• Return the kettle to the burner and bring back to boil
• Set timer for 60 minutes and added hops per the recipe schedule
• At 15 minutes, paused the timer, removed the kettle from the burner, and added 6.6 lbs light LME and 1 lb corn sugar stirred thoroughly.
• Returned to boil and resumed the timer, adding the remaining hop additions per the recipe schedule, the 15 minute hop addition was just after the wort returned to boil.
• At 0 minutes, after adding the flame out hops,  moved the kettle to the ice bath in my sink to chill. Chilled/diluted to 78F and 5 gallons. (probably should have chilled a couple more degrees now.  That seems like a warm fermentation temperature.)
• Took an OG reading of 1.076, corrected to 1.079
• Sprinkled the yeast directly on top of the wort.
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with blowoff tube just in case (standard practice now).

8/22 - 8/30/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
Racked to 5 gallon glass carboy on 8/30.  Gravity was 1.016.  I took this picture because this was the most trub/hop sludge I had ever seen.


8/30-9/15/2014 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with whole leaf Citra hops, floating loose on top of the beer in the carboy.  My experience with this dry hop was not pleasant. Because of the size of the neck of the carboy, I couldn't really pour the hops in.  I needed to insert each flower through the neck one by one by hand.  Then, because they have air between the petals of the flower, they didn't gradually sink through the beer like pellets do - they just floated in a big mass on top.  I tried to combat this a little by gently rocking my carboy around once or twice a day to try to cover the hops in liquid.  They did look pretty though.  There is a bonus preview of Brew #7 Pocahontas Pumpkin Pleaser in the background.



9/15/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar to prime. Gravity was 1.018, which I calculated to mean 8.0% abv.  Yield was 47 12 oz bottles.  This is where the whole leaf dry hop was once again a pain.  After soaking in the beer for 8 days, the hops had swollen up from their original size and wanted to stick together.  I spent the better part of an hour holding the carboy upside down over a trash can trying to extract all of the hops.  I don't have a direct comparison of how this beer would have tasted with a pellet dry hop instead of whole leaf, so I can't say for certain that whole leaf dry hop is not worth it, but I can say that I haven't tried it again - every beer that I've dry hopped since has been with pellets.

I don't have notes on tasting or even a date, but I would have tasted after 2 weeks of conditioning and noted if the beer wasn't carbonated.  This beer was big and bitter - I'd say with the additional dry hop it made a darn fine extract IIPA.