fat polar ipa
brewed: 15/07/13
pitched: 08/08/13
bottled: 25/08/13
subsequent batch info: definitely, however no plans as yet
ingredients:
2.1kg simpsons maris otter
250gm weyermann vienna
150gm joe white medium crystal 60
100gm weyermann carapils (dextrine)
12gm cascade (pellets, 7.8 aa%, 60 mins)
8gm cascade (pellets, 7.8 aa%, 20 mins)
5gm nelson sauvin (pellets, 11.5 aa%, 20 mins)
4gm cascade (pellets, 7.8 aa%, 7 mins)
4gm nelson sauvin (pellets, 11.5 aa%, 7 mins)
14gm cascade (pellets, 7.8 aa%, after 7 days for 7 days)
10gm nelson sauvin (pellets, 11.5 aa%, after 7 days for 7 days)
200gm slurry WLP080 - cream ale yeast
0.5gm tablet whirlfloc
process:
10L batch, single infusion, no sparge, mash in 66C for 60 mins, no-chill, 18C fermentation, 2C cold crash
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.016 - 1.014 (expected)
%AbV: 5.7 - 6.1 (expected)
ibu: 62
brewing notes:
the brew day went along quite well, however lately, i think my thermometer has been off, and so i was concerned i'd been mashing too high on my last few brews. the mash-in temp for this beer ranged depending on where the thermometer was, so i don't really have a proper idea on what temp i mashed at. hopefully it gets down to the proper gravity because i'll be annoyed if not. having said that, it's time to buy a new thermometer. got all my targets but missed the final one by a fair margin. only got a bit over 9L into the chill cube, and a lot of that is trub and break material so, kind annoyed. still think it'll taste nice for what i have though.
08/08/13 - pitched tonight. ended up changing the yeast to the WLP080 because it was a lot healthier smelling and looking than the cultured coopers yeast. will try the coopers yeast in a smaller batch of upcoming beer and see how it goes.
15/08/13 - tested gravity today and it seems like the yeast has stalled. i'm not sure if it was because i potentially underpitched or didn't make a decent starter for it to get off to a good start on doing its thing, but it's now at 1.020 and has at least another 6 to 10 points to eat through...go yeasties! i raised the temp to 20C and gave it a bit of a gentle rouse. also dry hopped with 14gm cascade and 10gm nelson.
25/08/13 - so bottled today, and sure enough, there are a few things at play here that are making my yeast stall before it attenuates all the way down to where it should. the final gravity, for this yeast should have realistically seen it drop to about 1.008 but it fell short at a quite high 1.016. kinda disappointed, even though the taste was pretty decent, i ended up doing a few things that have affected my beer negatively so i'm gonna look to really sharpen those up (higher than needed yeast cells for pitching and configuring my current thermometer).
tasting notes:
14/09/13 - first proper taste tonight. pretty happy. not my best ipa but i think this recipe could be tweaked and i think i could have made the beer a bit better so i'll take that one board. i think i used a wee too much nelson sauvin in this one and not enough cascade but i'm happy. it's a nice sipper and is still very young. keen to try this again soon.
13/09/13 - even a few days after my first initial taste and it's really come into its own! too much nelson for my own tastes but i really dig it! i might make another one similar with a bit more cascade to even it out. a good mate tried it and really liked it so i'm pretty excited about that too! thanks masters!
brew pics: