Here is an old post that never got published from last summer. The beer turned out good but darker and maltier then I expected. I attribute this to the perl and cara malt. If i were to brew it again I would halve the cara malt and split the base malt 50% 2row and 50% perl.

We spent a recent long weekend at Little River State Park in Vermont. It is just outside Waterbury (check out Prohibition Pig and Ben & Jerry’s Factory) and near Stowe home of The Alchemist. The park offered some great views and swimming and the beer in the area was fantastic. Heady Topper was awesome. I really liked Focal Banger and Joanna was a big fan of Crusher. They have that juicy NEIPA character but they also have a bit more bitterness and dankness that I really liked. My Rye IPA is getting low so its time to brew and a Heady Topper clone is whats on my mind.

The beer has dried up! Time to get back to business. Up first several IPAs. It’s time to brew a New England IPA (NEIPA). I have had a chance to try the great NEIPA Mass Riot from Prison City and a friend was nice enough to share some brews from Treehouse. The signature of this style is low bitterness but a huge juicy hop flavor and smell. It generally has a nice full/soft mouthfeel and is as cloudy as a glass of orange juice.  Below are the keys to a good NEIPA from my research.

1. Water profile – Opposite of traditional IPAs this style calls for high amounts of Chloride and low levels of Sulfate.
2. Hops – Few if any hops added during the boil. Most of the hops should be added during a whirlpool. That whirlpool should occur at lower temp then right after knockout to protect the volatile hops oils you want in your beer. Citra, Mosaic, and Galaxy are very popular.
3. Grain – Wheat, Oats, and Barley are popular to help add body and haze.
4. Mash – Keep your mash pH around 5.3. Acidify your sparge water.
5. Dry Hop – Should be done at full krausen not at the tail end of fermentation.

OG 1.065 / FG 1.013 / ABV 6.86% / IBU 36 / SRM 4.76

18# 2-row
4# Marris Otter
1# Flaked Oats
1# Flaked Barley
0.5# Wheat Malt
0.5# Honey Malt
1.5oz Warrior @ 60 min
2oz Citra @ 0 min
2oz Mosaic @ 0 min
2oz Simcoe @ 0 min
2oz Citra Whirlpool @ 160° for 30 min
2oz Mosaic Whirlpool @ 160° for 30 min
2oz Simcoe Whirlpool @ 160° for 30 min
3oz Citra Dry hop @ full krausen
2oz Mosaic Dry hop @ full krausen
1oz Simcoe Dry hop @ full krausen
3oz Citra Dry hop in keg
2oz Mosaic Dry hop in keg
1oz Simcoe Dry hop in keg

Water target – Ca 96 – Mg 12 – SO 74 – Na 11 – Cl 118

Mash at 153° for 60 minutes then raise to 168° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 14 gallons and boil for 60 minutes. Produces 12 gallons at the end of the boil and 11 gallons in the fermenter.

GigaYeast – Vermont IPA Yeast

Brew day notes:
Salts – Added 6g of Gypsum and 14g of Calcium Chloride to 19 gallons

Mash was initially a pH of 5.56. Added 6ml of lactic acid to the mash and 5ml to the remaining sparge water. Mash pH settled at 5.35

I am going to add a splitter to also pump water inside the coil  

Mashing

Mashing in TUN

Sweet wort run off

Hops explosion after dry hop at high krausen

Looking and tasting good on keg day (14 days after brew day)

I brewed up a batch of Pliny the Elder clone. Brewed the week before Christmas and it was pouring on new years. It came out great. I have never had Pliny so I cant say if it was accurate to the original. I split the batch between US-05 yeast and a new yeast by Rochester Yeast Co. AM-CAL.  The US-05 finished faster and dryer.  The AM-CAL had more character by adding a bit of spiciness.

Actual
OG: 1.074,
FG: 1.015 (US-05), 1.018 (Roc AM-CAL)
ABV: ~7.70%

24.5# 2-Row
1.25# Corn Sugar
0.5# Crystal 60L

2 oz Warrior Pellet – 90 min
0.66 oz Columbus Pellet – 90 min
2 oz Amarillo Pellet – 45 min
2 oz Simcoe Pellet – 30 min
1.5 oz Cascade Pellet – Whirlpool 15 min
1.5 oz Centennial Pellet – Whirlpool 15 min
1.5 oz Amarillo Pellet – Whirlpool 15 min
1.5 oz Simcoe Pellet – Whirlpool 15 min
2 oz Simcoe Pellet – Dry Hop Fermenter
1.66 oz Cascade Pellet – Dry Hop – Fermenter
1 oz Columbus Pellet – Dry Hop – Fermenter
2 oz Simcoe Pellet – Dry Hop – Keg
1.5 oz Cascade Pellet – Dry Hop – Keg
0.72 oz Amarillo Pellet – Dry Hop – Keg
0.72 oz Columbus Pellet – Dry Hop – Keg

I had a local Kolsch on draft on a hot day and it has been in my head to brew a batch. The Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Zymurgy hit my mail box and had the National Homebrew Competition results.  Joe Edidin of the Tennessee Valley Homebrewer’s won the light hybrid beer category with a good looking Kolsch recipe. It uses a lager yeast vs the traditional Kolsch ale yeast. After scaling up to 12 gallons and adjusting for my system I ended up with the following recipe.

OG 1.049 / FG 1.010 / ABV 5.05% / IBU 29 / SRM 3.24

16# Pilsner malt
2# Vienna malt
1# Carafoam malt
.5# Acidulated malt
3.75oz Tettnang @ 60
1oz Tettnang @ 15
0.25oz Tettnang @ 1

Mash at 148° for 60 minutes then raise to 164° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 15 gallons and boil for 90 minutes.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager – 5L Starter (decanted)
Ferment 14 days @ 54°

The baby beer is down to 1.032 and still dropping slowly.  That puts the current ABV @ 13.5%.  I am going to move it into a secondary fermenter and let it bulk age for a while.

Next up needs to be an IPA.  I am a big fan of the juicy hop flavor you get from whirlpool hopping.  I was a huge fan of Deschutes Fresh Squeezed when I had it on tap at Tornado Pub in San Francisco.  I was able to sample this back to back with Pliney the Elder also on tap, and liked the Fresh Squeezed better.  Both were amazing beers.

Bertus Brewery has a clone recipe that I like the looks of which I tweaked to my system and some suggestions in the comments.

OG ~ 1.068, FG ~ 1.021, ABV ~ 6.18%, IBU 107, SRM 10.9

22# 2-Row
2.5# Crystal 60
1# Munich 10L
1oz Apollo @ 60min
2oz Citra @ 10min
2oz Mosaic @ 10min
3oz Citra @ 180° Whirlpool for 15 min
3oz Mosaic @ 180° Whirlpool for 15 min
2oz Citra Dry Hop
2oz Mosaic Dry Hop
Mash @ 155° for 60 min
WLP005 British Ale Yeast

I finally decided on a recipe for the baby beer.  The goal will be 5 gallons of packaged beer or at least 24x bomber bottles.

OG at 65% efficiency 1.160, FG 1.039, 15.8% ABV, 78 IBU (Second pitch of WLP099 should hopefully lower the FG to 1.021 with an ABV of 18%)

28# Maris Otter
4# Munich 10L
1# Crystal 60L

2oz Magnum at 60min
1oz Fuggles at 15min
1oz Fuggles at 0min

Mash at 146° for 30 minutes then raise to 156° and hold for 30 minutes.  Collect 8 gallons and boil for 90 minutes.

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II  – Starting pitch @ 1 gallon (decanted)
White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast – Finishing pitch @ 1 gallon (decanted)

A fellow member of my local homebrew club received a 53 gallon bourbon barrel as a birthday present.  Several members are brewing the same stout recipe to fill the barrel.  I will be adding 10 gallons to the total.  Below is the recipe.  I am currently waiting on an order of oat malt before I brew.

15# Marris Otter
6# Oat Malt
1.5# VIctory Malt
1.5# Chocolate Malt
1.5# Crystal 120
1.5# Carafa II
1# Roasted Barley (300 SRM)
3oz Magnum @ 60min
1oz Williamette @ 10min
Mashed at 136° and 156°
English Ale S-04

I ended up with a OG of 1.069.  The beer needed blow off tubes less than 12 hours later and is now fermenting very aggressively.  I need to figure out a better container for the blow off tubes since the container is now overflowing with krausen.

I brewed an extremely light colored and dry beer with a big juicy hop character.  I was a big fan of Mosaic + Falconers Flight hop combo.  In this beer I am going to try Mosaic and Citra.

OG at 80% efficiency 1.060, FG 1.012, 6.4% ABV, 107 IBU

20# 2-row
1# Munich 10L
1# Corn Sugar

2oz Nugget at 60min
2oz Citra at 15min
2oz Mosaic at 15min
2oz Citra at 5min
2oz Mosaic at 5min
2oz Citra at 0min
2oz Mosaic at 0min
2oz Citra dry hop for 5 days
2oz Mosaic dry hop for 5 days

White Labs – San Diego Super Yeast WLP090

Already kicked the first keg of this.  It definitely turned out with a light body. It is very easy to drink.  Next time I might try just increasing the 2-row and dropping the sugar.  I think this will increase the body a little but not to much.  I like the Mosaic + Citra combo but I think I liked the Mosaic + Falconers Flight even better.  The later had a very mango like flavor vs the fresh grapefruit flavor of the former.