Black IPA

posted by Jon

I woke up on Tuesday morning to find a healthy bubbling in the yeast starter, so brewing day was moved up 24 hours. The brewers of batch #1: Jon, Ryan and Steve.

Time line for beer geeks:

7:06  2 gal water started

7:31  Water at 155, started steeping grains (1 lb American Munich, 1/2 lb De-bittered Black, 1/2 lb CaraMunich, 1/2 lb CaraPils)

8:07  Grains sparged with 1/2 gal hot water

8:13  10 lbs light LME added

8:47  Rolling boil, hops added (1/2 oz Summit, 2 oz Willamette)

9:02  1/2 oz Simcoe added

9:17  1/2 oz Simcoe added

9:32  1/2 oz Amarillo, 1 tsp irish moss and 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient added

9:37  Servomyces (yeast nutrient) added

9:47  Flameout. 1/2 oz Summit, 1/2 oz Amarillo and 1/2 oz Simcoe added

10:05  Chilling wort

11:08  Yeast pitched @ 75

The gravity reading after pitching yeast was 1.072. We were hoping for an OG of 1.082. This means that if we achieve the intended FG, we will be right around 7% ABV. Not too bad. Also, the IBU will be close to 100, maybe just a bit under. This is going to be one hoppy beer. We will be dry-hopping the secondary with 1 oz Amarillo and 1/2 oz Simcoe.

Those of you who missed this occasion missed out on some tasty beverages.

You also missed out on Steve having some major battery/wiring issues on his preferred method of transportation.

It took Steve about 15 minutes to get from the driveway to the end of the block. As far as we know, he still hasn't arrived home. If any of you see him between Zeeland and Jenison, please give him a ride home.

Beer was bubbling in the fermenter quite well on Wednesday morning. The bubbling was loud and rapid enough that Kendra was afraid to go into the fermenting room (the rest of the family calls it the bathroom) by herself. Look for this one to be drinkable around the end of October.