Brew #12: Bailee's Winter Warmer, December 7, 2014

This was an impulse buy.  I went to Bailee's for yeast and I left with this house brand winter warmer kit too.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.060-1.065
Target FG: 1.014-1.018
Style: Specialty/Spiced Beer
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
??? Only Bob and Bailee know.  And one of them is a dog.

Fermentables:
3.3 lbs light LME
3.3 lbs amber LME.
1 lb amber DME
1 lb corn sugar

Hops:
1 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
Mystery spice pack (appears to be orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg) @ 15 min.
1 whirlfloc tab @ 15 min.
2 whole vanilla beans in secondary for 1 week before bottling

Yeast:
2 packs Danstar Nottingham dry yeast

Brewing Notes
12/7/14 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 3 gal water to 110 F in 5 gallon economy stainless kettle on the stovetop.
• Steeped specialty grains in muslin bag as the temperature rose to 155F, then held at 155 for 20 more minutes.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added all fermentables and stirred well
• Returned to boil, set timer for 60 minutes and added:
  1oz Goldings @ 60 min.
  Spice pack @ 15 min.
  Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  1oz Fuggles @ 10 min.
  All hops were in a nylon mesh bag.
• Moved kettle to the ice bath in the sink to chilled to 100 F
• Added 2 gal of pre-chilled water to the kettle to bring temperature to 72F
• Siphoned to BMB, then added more room temperature water until I had 5 Gallons.
• Took an OG reading of 1.062, corrected to 1.064.
• During chilling, I re-hydrated both packs of yeast in about 8 oz of 85 degree water.  This was in a 2 cup measuring cup, which was needed because it nearly foamed over.
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room.

12/7 - 12/16/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note during primary.  Racked to 5 gal glass carboy on 12/16.  Gravity was 1.014

12/16-12/23/2014 - Secondary Fermentation:
Conditioned for 1 week on the 2 vanilla beans.

12/23/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime. FG was 1.014 (6.6% abv)

??? - First Taste:
No date or notes.  I know these drank quickly and easily last winter.

Brew #11: Bourbon Barrel Porter, November 22, 2014

Brew #11 and I finally got around to brewing an bourbon/oaked beer.  This was on my to-brew list from the start.  I bought this kit from Northern Brewer at the same time as the Plinian Legacy to save on shipping.  Since I could get the yeast locally, I didn't risk it getting screwed up in shipping.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.065
Target FG: ???
Style: Porter
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
1 lb English Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb English Dark Crystal
0.5 lbs English Black Malt

Fermentables:
2 lbs Wheat DME @ 60 min.
6.3 lbs Dark LME @ 15 min.

Hops:
1 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.5 oz US Goldings (pellets) @ 15 min.
0.5 oz US Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.

Other:
2 oz Medium toast oak cubes, secondary 12 days
16 fl oz Makers Mark Bourbon, secondary 12 days

Yeast:
White Labs WLP 028 Edinburgh Scottish ale yeast

Brewing Notes
11/19/14 - Yeast Starter:
Again, the kit's recipe recommended a yeast starter due to the high starting gravity, so 3 days prior to brewing I made a 4 cup starter: boiled 4 cups of water, 4 oz extra light DME, and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient for 10 minutes.  I chilled to 82F in an ice bath, then poured into the 1 liter flask, shook it up like crazy, then poured in the vial of yeast

11/22/14 - 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 2lbs Wheat DME and stirred well
• Returned to boil, set timer for 60 minutes and added:
  1oz Chinook @ 60 min.
  1/2 oz Goldings @ 15 min.
  6.3 lbs Dark LME @ 15 min.
  1/2 oz Goldings @ 5 min.
  All hops were in a nylon mesh bag.
• 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 70F
• Siphoned to BMB, then added more room temperature water and the entire yeast starter until I had 5 Gallons.
• Took an OG reading of 1.064, corrected to 1.066
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room.

11/22 - 12/6/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
Active fermentation began within 8 hours.  I like yeast starters.  They go well with my impatience.  Rather than waiting out up to 3 days lag time, I get to see near-instant results.  Starting at this point, I planned to make a starter for any beer with OG of 1.060 or greater. Racked to secondary on 12/6 - Gravity was 1.024 (5.5% ABV)

12/6-12/30/2014 - Secondary Fermentation:
Bulk conditioning and bourbon/oak aging.  On 12/16 I started soaking the 2 oz of oak cubes in 16 oz bourbon in a quart mason jar.  On 12/18 I took an FG measurement on the beer, which was still 1.024 (5.5% abv).  I did this here because after adding the bourbon, these measurements would be meaningless.  I poured the oak cubes and all of the bourbon into the secondary on 12/18.  I did some math to figure the approximate final abv of the beer based on the addition of 16 oz of 50% alcohol.  My estimate is 6.4% abv.

12/30/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime. I didn't bother taking an FG reading because of the reasons discussed above. Yield was 52 12 oz bottles.

1/15/2015 - First Taste:
Fully carbonated at this time, but I rationed these, assuming it would improve over time and it did. By the time I tasted the last one in November, I think this had reached it's prime.  Too bad it was gone... I guess I needed to repeat this one too.  See Brew #28.

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.

Brew #9: Mocha Stout, October 19, 2014

Brew #9 was based on an extract kit from Bailee's Homebrew, house brand.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to make a java stout and for simplicity and budgetary reasons I decided to start with an existing extract kit and doctor it, rather than build a recipe from the ground up.  I was very happy with this one, but it still provided a few "learning opportunities" which I'll spell out as they come up in this post.  Additions to the base recipe included some English roasted barley, and extra pound of DME, cocoa powder, and a quart of espresso.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.056-1.060
Target FG: 1.014-1.018
Style: Stout
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
appx 2 lbs of mystery specialty grains (remember Bailee's doesn't share what is in their kits)
4 oz English Roasted Barley

Fermentables:
6.6 lbs Dark LME
1 lb Light DME
1 lb Dark DME

Hops:
1oz  Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
1/2oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 30 min
1/2oz Cascade (pellets) @ 15 min

Other:
8oz Hershey's Cocoa Powder @ 55 min.
1qt brewed espresso @ bottling

Yeast:
Safale S-04, pitched dry

Brewing Notes
10/19/14 - 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 25 minutes.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added all malt extracts and stirred well
• Returned the kettle to the burner and brought back to boil
• Set timer for 60 minutes and added hops per the recipe schedule.  All hops were added in a single nylon mesh bag.  At the appropriate addition time, I would pull the top of the bag open, put in the hops, and close it back up.  This is a good way to burn your fingers.
• At 55 minutes, added the full 8 oz package of cocoa powder directly to the boil while stirring.
• At 0 minutes, moved the kettle to the ice bath in my sink to chill. At this time I pulled the hop bag, and tried to drain it over the kettle.  It seems the cocoa powder gummed up the fine nylon bag to the point where it took nearly the entire chilling time to get the bag to drain fully.
• I chilled the 3 gallon volume to 100F, then added 2 gallons that I had put in the refrigerator earlier.  Then I siphoned to the BMB and topped off with about another half gallon of room temperature water to get to 5 gallons.  This was generally my standard practice, which I probalby established around Brew 2 or Brew 3, but this was the first time I actually wrote it down.
• Took an OG reading of 1.070, corrected to 1.072
• 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).

10/19 - 10/26/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note during primary fermentation. Racked to 5 gallon glass carboy on 10/26.  Gravity was 1.022.  With the clear fermenter, I base the timing of racking from primary to secondary on visual cues.  I'm looking for a large reduction in airlock activity, that the krausen has fallen back into the beer, and that the trub has been settled for a few days.

10/26-11/8/2014 - Secondary Fermentation

11/7/2014 - Brew Day #2:
This time it was espresso.  I do have an espresso machine in my kitchen, so I bought a 1 lb bag of espresso beans, ground them fresh, and brewed espresso until I had a quart in a sanitized mason jar, then sealed it up and put it in my fridge.  I'm not going to say what brand of espresso I used because that company does not need any free advertising even if I only have 1 reader.  It may have had a green mermaid on the bag.

11/8/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled per our standard practice with 5oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime. I also added the chilled espresso to the bottling bucket. Gravity was 1.022 before adding the espresso, which I calculated to mean 6.5% abv.  Yield was 49 12 oz bottles.

11/19/2014 - First Taste:
Where was my patience?  My note says "still pretty flat." Of course it was still pretty flat, it was only 11 days to condition.  And it was mid-November, which means it was probably 66-68 degrees ambient in my dining room and cooler on the floor.  I served a few of these around Thanksgiving and they were still on the flatter side.  By Christmas, they were much more consistently carbonated and through the rest of the winter it continued to improve in flavor.  The coffee flavor mellowed out some and the chocolate came through a little more, turning into a well-balanced "mocha" flavor.This is something I would try to impress upon a new homebrewer: Bottle conditioning is not just about carbonation.  The flavor continues to develop/blend/mellow in the bottle over some time, especially on darker or more complex beers.  I know it is hard to be patient.  I find it easier to be patient with a steady cycle of brewing so that while one is conditioning, the previous one is just coming into its prime.   If I brewed this or something similar again, I would consider possibly adding some lactose sugar to add a little more sweetness.

Brew #8: Bailee's Dunkelweizen, October 4, 2014

This is a house recipe from Bailee's Homebrew featuring Midnight Wheat, which adds an unique flavor to any beer in which it is included.

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

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
1lb 1oz Flaked Wheat
12 oz Midnight Wheat
4 oz Chocolate Malt

Fermentables:
6.6 lbsWheat LME
1 lb Wheat DME

Hops:
1oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.

Yeast:
WLP380 Hefeweizen IV

Brewing Notes
10/4/14 - 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 30 minutes.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added all malt extracts and stirred well
• Returned the kettle to the burner and bring back to boil
• Set timer for 60 minutes and added hops in nylon hop bag.
• At 0 minutes moved the kettle to the ice bath in my sink to chill. Chilled/diluted to 72F and 5 gallons.
• Took an OG reading of 1.056, corrected to 1.058
• Pitched 1 vial of yeast directly
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with blowoff tube.

10/4- 10/18/2014 - Fermentation:
I noted that on 10/6, this blew off foam through the blowoff tube for at least 12 hours, which ended by morning of 10/7.  By the evening of 10/7 I replaced the blowoff tube with an airlock.

10/18/2014 - Bottling:
Bottled with 5oz of corn sugar to prime. Gravity was 1.022, which I calculated to mean 4.7% abv.  Yield was 51 12 oz bottles.

I don't have any notes on tasting or carbonation time, but I know that we really enjoyed this beer.  I'd say it tastes like fall.  It has a nice balance of roastiness, typical hefeweizen banana and clove, with more emphasis on the clove, and the unique flavor of Midnight Wheat.  This made a great light-tasting dark beer that seems perfect for the cool weather of fall.  I repeated it in late September 2015.

Brew #7: Pocahontas Pumpkin Pleaser, August 30, 2014

The Pocahontas' Pumpkin Pleaser was a recipe I found online from Brew Your Own magazine, who credits Owen Ogletree & Paul Eckloff with Brewtopia in Athens, Ga.  I made a couple of minor tweaks, using WLP001 yeast, selecting orange blossom honey, and using English crystal for the specialty grain.  I brewed this one because I was challenged by one of my co-workers to a 3-way pumpkin beer "throwdown."

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: ??
Target FG: ??
Style: Specialty (Pumpkin) beer
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 45 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
1 lb English Crystal, 60L

Fermentables:
6.6 lbs Amber LME
1 lb Orange Blossom Honey @ 15 min

Hops:
1oz Willamette (pellets) @ 45 min.
1oz St Celeia (pellets) @ 15 min.

Other:
2 lb Libby canned pumpkin @ 45 min.
2 Cinnamon Sticks @ 15 min.
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 0 min.

Yeast:
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
8/30/2014 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the Big Mouth Bubbler
• Steeped Specialy grains in a muslin bag in 3 gallons of water as it heated from around 75F to 170F, which took 23 minutes.  
• Removed and drained the bag when the temperature reached 170F.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added all of the LME and the pumpkin
• Return the kettle to the burner and bring back to boil
• Set timer for 45 minutes and added hops, honey, and cinnamon per the recipe schedule
• At 0 minutes, moved the kettle to the ice bath in my sink to chill.
• Chilled/diluted until I had 5 gallons at 75F
• Took an OG reading of 1.053, corrected to 1.056
• Pitched 1 vial WLP001 directly
• Moved BMB to the beer corner for fermentation.

8/30-9/29 - Fermentation:
Nothing of note.  This one is visible in the background of this picture.  Looks like I didn't need or use a blowoff tube.


9/29/2014 - Bottling:
Measured FG of 1.013, which I calculated out to 5.5% ABV. Yield was 48 12 oz bottles.  This time we successfully primed with orange blossom honey.  I used 1/2 cup honey, boiled in 1 1/2 cup water for 10 minutes and then cooled.

10/11/2014 - First Taste:
I noted "well carbonated"  Later, this one, like many of my earlier brews, got a bit over carbonated and the head got out of hand.  I didn't do anything about this until Brew #16 in April 2015.

10/18?/2014 - The Throwdown:
I'm going to write about this silly little contest because, well, it's my blog and I can do what I want to.  This was a fun little event where I and my 2 co-workers who also homebrew each made our own version of a pumpkin beer.  At the time we were all relatively equal in brewing experience/skill so it was a fair contest.  Each of us made an extract pumpkin ale. I made the one described above, Bob made the Pumpkin Patch Harvest Ale from Monster Brew, and Joe made a recipe he hasn't shared with me, but I know it involved some roasty malts in the specialty grains and fresh oven roasted pumpkin.

Most of the engineering department along with our families gathered at Bob's house for an evening party and each attendee was encouraged to taste all 3 beers and vote for their favorite. I think the most remarkable thing about this little contest was how different each entry was.  Bob's was very light, almost like a blonde, and had champagne-like carbonation.  Mine was somewhere in the middle, and Joe's was almost as dark as a stout and tasted roasty and creamy.  I think most of us agreed that since we were at a party with free beer we were all winners, but the trophy is sitting on my desk.  I'm told that this may be because I was the only one who was really serious about the contest aspect.  For some reason we didn't do this event again in 2015, but maybe we'll need to do another one this year.

Bonus - Pumpkin Beer Opinion:
I don't have a problem with pumpkin beer.  There is nothing wrong with the addition of pumpkin and spices to an amber or a porter or a belgian dubbel or whatever you want to try it in.  I have a problem with the timing.  At least here in PA, pumpkins are harvested in September/October.  When I visited Dogfish Head in mid-July last year, they were bottling and stockpiling their Punkin Ale for distribution once it came in season (September-November).  This means that the pumpkin used in that production run was (at best) harvested a full year before the beer was distributed to the public.  Now, I'm not saying that mine was any better since the pumpkin also came from a can, but wouldn't it be better if we planned to enjoy pumpkin ales in December-February, using the more recent pumpkin harvest?  I also think this is another (one of several) example of why production craft brewing can't touch the freshness of home brewed beer.  Because of my extremely small batch and 0 distribution network, I can go from brew to enjoy in 3-4 weeks minimum.  This means I can brew a pumpkin beer in early-mid September using freshly harvested pumpkins and serve it to my friends and family on Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Just another advantage to brewing my own beer.

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.