Sunday, September 21, 2014

Batch 9: Simcoe MIPA Iteration: Tasting Day

I'm very happy with this one. It ended up spicy with round plum notes and a wee hint of orange. I've finally eliminated the off-flavor that has been consistent so far in my beers, and I suspect the culprit had been either the vinyl tubing that I replaced, used with the auto-syphon and bottling wand, or cleaning with PBW. Ironically, though I used a clarifying agent (i.e. Whirlfloc) for the first time, this batch is by far the haziest I've brewed thus far. (The haze is superficial and doesn't really bother me.) Again, I'm quite happy with this batch!


Friday, September 19, 2014

Batch 9: Simcoe MIPA Iteration: Secondary Fermentation/Bottling Day

I'm almost a week late with this post, but better late than never, right? The beer spent three weeks in the secondary. I dry-hopped an additional 0.67 oz. of the Simcoe hops during the last 26 hours in the secondary. I measured the final gravity at 1.019, which is just a couple points higher than I had expected but should still put the ABV just over 7%. I was still struck by how the Simcoe tasted very round with plum notes, but the dry-hopping added a spiciness that I really like, too. I primed the beer with 5 oz. of corn sugar (boiled in 2 cups of water and cooled) before bottling and ended up with 24 24oz.-bottles. I'm giving the beer two weeks to condition. I'm very excited about this one.