IPA: Conan vs. Chico

These are the carboys of the split batch of our San Diego IPA with Conan yeast on the left and Chico yeast on the right. There is at least a pound of hops in each!

There are considerable differences in color, attenuation/ABV, and taste, but consistent in flocculation.

Bottling station is ready.

Cheers!

AHA National Homebrew Competition 2015

We were fortunate enough to advance an American IPA in the Nashville first round of the 2015 American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition!

Since we floated the keg of that batch at a local homebrew competition, we got a chance to rebrew it with a few tweaks based on tastings and feedback.

It is a San Diego style IPA with plenty of Pacific Northwest hops.

The final round with entries placing 1, 2, & 3 in each category from each of 12 regional sites will be judged in June in San Diego at the National Homebrewers Conference.

The grains are:
US Pale, UK Pearl, Crystal 10, Cara-Red (20), & Carapils

The hops are a mix of:
Amarillo, Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Ahtanum, Simcoe, Citra, & Crystal

Fermentors were 64 and got good attenuation. Bottled.

IPA Brew Day

Brewing our Eternia IPA for the National Homebrew Conference Competition.

7 types of Hops:

US Pale and UK Pearl with German Cara-Red and Carafoam.

Mash hopping and big hop stand after 90 minute boil.  Double dry hop planned.

War of the Wort Entries

We are entered in an AHA/BJCP competition in Starkville, Mississippi on May 16.  I packed some of my entries for shipping and have one more batch to bottle to complete the box.  The competition name is the War of the Wort and is sponsored by the Golden Triangle Homebrewers. I cut the entry labels out, secured them to the bottles with a rubber band, sealed each in gallon ziploc bags, and wrapped them with bubble wrap.  I use 12" x 10" x 8" dimension boxes and 12" width bubble wrap and can fit up to 8 bottles securely.

Honey Imperial IPA Brew Day

On Sunday, we made a batch of Imperial IPA and took some videos of the action.  Once the video is edited, we will post it here.

Batch Moving Day + Ginger Ale

Today was batch transfer day.  We had 10 gallons of Pale Ale and 5 gallons of IPA that finished in the primary.  One Pale Ale went directly in the keg with a sock of Ahtanum hops and the other went into a secondary fermenter.  The IPA with an original gravity of 1.064 went into the secondary fermenter at a gravity of 1.011, which equates to about 7% ABV with 70 IBU.  In addition to the three transfers, we made a 5 gallon batch of ginger ale with fresh ginger, lemons, sugar and water.  Here are a few shots of the action.

Dry hop Ahtanum:

Pale Ale transfer:

Washing bottles with recycled cleaning water:

Racking Pearl Malt IPA:

Ginger Ale:

Cheers!

Fawcett Pearl IPA Brew Day

Today we brewed the base malt challenge IPA for my homebrew club with 95% Thomas Fawcett Pearl malt and 5% Carafoam.  Hops are Columbus, Simcoe, and Amarillo.  The target ABV is 7% with 70 IBU.

Weighing the malt:

Heating strike water for mash:

Milling the malted barley:

Grains into mash tun:

Water into mash tun:

Vorlauft:

Lauter:

Measure hops:

Draining with first wort hops:

Boiling strong:

5 minutes remaining:

Racked into carboy and pitched yeast:

The original gravity was 1.064 and the yeast is Wyeast American Ale 1056.  Hopefully we can get it down to around 1.010.