Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Batch 5: 'Merican IPA: Secondary Fermentation/Bottling Day

The beer spent two weeks in the secondary. I measured the gravity of the beer at 1.012, which keeps it at just over 8% ABV. The sample from the thief had some off flavors but otherwise had a nice hop character. It was a beautiful golden color, much lighter and more appropriate to the style than my last attempt at this recipe. The nylon bag seemed to keep some of the hop residue contained, but there was still a decent amount of trub. I'm not sure that I'll use it in the future. I primed the beer with 4 oz. of corn sugar before bottling and, for the first time, tried gently stirring after every six bottles to keep the sugar evenly mixed. I ended up with 48 bottles. I'll give the beer two weeks to condition.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Batch 5: 'Merican IPA: Primary Fermentation

Within 18 hours of pitching, the beer was fermenting like gangbusters. I couldn't keep the pail lid on! I eventually gave up and just surrounded the pail with a drop cloth to catch all of the blowoff. Things slowed down after about 36 hours. I racked the beer to a carboy for secondary fermentation after 24 days in the primary and measured the specific gravity at 1.013. That puts the beer at just over 8% ABV, about a percentage point higher than I had expected. The sample I took with the thief tasted a little less flavorful than I remember the previous batch of this recipe.  I added an additional 0.7 oz. of the Centennial hops to the secondary in a mesh nylon bag. This is the first time I'm trying the bag so we'll see how that goes. I'm planning to let the beer condition for a couple weeks before bottling.