So this post was supposed to be a recap of the IPA brew session. No IPA, welcome to Plan B.
The brew day started off well enough. We mashed in with a bunch of pale malt, some Ashburne, and some caramel 40 and 80. Mash temp was 152F, and ph 5.50. All just fine. I noticed when we started running off to the kettle that the level of the grain seemed a lot lower than last weeks oatmeal stout, even though they were both 425 pounds of grain. What this should have indicated to me was that the grain bed was seriously compacted. We had had such good run offs and efficiency on the last few batches that I didn't think it would be an issue.
When we were done sparging and the kettle was full, I opened up the mash tun and took a look at the grain bed. The grain was severely eroded all around the perimeter, which indicated the the sparge water had run around the edges and not through the center of the grain bed. I got a big spoon and dug down into the center of the bed and tried some of the grain. Lots of sugary goodness. Which at this point is a bad thing because it's supposed to be in solution in the boiling kettle.
We got the refractometer out and checked the amount of sugar in the wort. The reading translated to a specific gravity of about 1.050, which is about 8 points lower than I wanted. This definitely put us out of IPA range which typically has a starting gravity of 1.060 or better. So I decided to go with Plan B.
I cut back on the initial bittering hop addition and completely revamped the flavor and aroma hop schedule. I put in Cluster for bittering, Willamette for flavor, and Cascade and Centennial for aroma.
The OG wound up being 1.054 which puts us solidly in American Pale Ale range and the hop schedule is perfect for that. In fact this beer will wind up being very similar to a pale ale I used to brew called Derailed Ale.
So I guess I'm still learning the quirks of this system, and I have too really pay attention to the subtle signs of the process. I could have salvaged the IPA early in the sparge by taking the paddle and cutting through the grain bed to force the sparge water to flow more evenly through it. But I didn't. Something to remember for next time.
Plan B is bubbling away nicely in the fermenter this morning, and every thing looks good. So don't worry, the beer will still be awesome.
5 comments:
Rick,
Interesting read. You are encountering issues that me, as a AG homebrewer encounters. Good to know some things dont change all that much! What size system do you use at the brewhouse? 7bbl?
Yes it's a seven barrel system.
Good brewing practice isn't dependent on system size. I should have been on top of that.
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Hope to make it in there soon. I live in the cities now, but am originally from Grantsburg, and New Richmond is right on my way when I head up there.
The brewhouse looking for a Assistant brewer/cellarman? Thanks Rick.
Travis
Very interesting. Brewing is fickle. Glad to hear you had a decent beer come out of it! What yeast did you use? Thx!
Travis - We already have Luke who is doing an awesome job as brew grunt. Thanks for asking though.
Paul - Wyeast 1056, which is just a great workhorse yeast. It does it's job fast and gets out of the way.
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