Brew #37: Perpetual IPA Clone?, March 5, 2016

Troegs Perpetual IPA had been on my to-brew list for a while.  Troegs nicely posts quite a bit about their recipe on their website, including malts, some information about hop timing, IBUs, and ABV.  So this was my starting point for this brew.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.074 (1.072)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.008)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (65%)
IBUs: 94
Color: 6.8 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
12.5 lbs Pilsner
1.5 lb Munich Malt
1 lb Caramel 20L

Hops:
0.75 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
1.0 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 20 min.
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 10 min.
1.0 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
1.0 oz Citra (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days
1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days
0.5 oz Mosaic (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days (because I had it and I wanted to)

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP001

Brewing Notes
3/2/16 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature, 2 drops of fermcap, pitched WLP001. Fermented on a stir plate.

3/5/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 19 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 166 to 168F in 8 gallon 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: temperature was 148F
• 15 minutes: added 2 cups of boiling water, paddled, temperature was 148-149F
• 45 minutes: paddled, temperature was 146-148F
• 75 minutes, temperature was 146-147F, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: 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.
• Heated 6.5 gallons sparge water with pH 5.2 to 195
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had 7.5 gallons
• Boil gravity was 13.2% - 1.052, right on target.
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.75 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1.0 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 10 min.
  1.0 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
  1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
• Chilled  and siphoned to BMB, Volume was 5 gallons.
• Took an OG brix reading of 17.8% which calculated to to 1.072.
• Pitched entire yeast starter, volume was now about 5.75 gal

3/5 - 3/14/16 - Primary Fermentation:
Transfer to 5 gal glass carboy. Measured 8.2% brix which calculated to 1.008.

3/14 - 3/25/16 - Secondary Fermentation:
On 3/19 dry hopped with 0.5 oz Mosaic, 1 oz Cascade, and 1 oz Citra. Yes, I know Troegs doesn't use Mosaic.  I had it and I wanted to anyway.

3/25- Kegging:
Kegged on 3/25 - I forgot to use a strainer bag so I was a little worried about plugging a dip tube (so far so good). I pressurized/purged at 10psi 3 times and put in the kegerator to force carb. 8.2% brix, 1.008 FG, 8.5%

3/30 - 5/20- On Tap:
I tapped this after only 5 days because I wanted to see how long was really needed to force carb.  This was still a little on the flat side and still pretty cloudy, so I guess 5 days was too early.  I've been told this is a spot on clone but I'm not sure those people were tasting critically.  I never did go get that bottle of perpetual for comparison.  I'm not complaining.  I have it on good authority that mine was "better than the original."  You just can't compete with the freshness of homebrew.