All Grain #5 - West Coast IIPA

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Just put my latest all grain into the Droid. It's a West Coast IIPA and should be pretty big and bold.

My first brew day using the new toy, the Nano 36l BIABasket. Brew day went really well until the boil when it took ages to get to the boil and then I realised I'd made a rookie error...

Forgot to put the lid on the bucket while getting to temp. Won't forget that lesson again.

Anyway, grain bill for an 11l wort into the Droid was:

Malts (3.2 kg)
1 kg (27%) — Gladfield Munich Malt
1 kg (27%) — Thomas Fawcett Pale Malt, Golden Promise
700 g (18.9%) — Gladfield Pilsner Malt
500 g (13.5%) — Gladfield Malt Gladfield Gladiator Malt
Other (500 g)
500 g (13.5%) — Corn Sugar (Dextrose)

For hops:

Hops (140 g)
20 g (50 IBU) — Warrior — Boil — 30 min

10 g (11 IBU) — Centennial — Boil — 15 min

10 g (13 IBU) — Mosaic — Boil — 15 min

10 g (14 IBU) — Simcoe — Boil — 15 min

10 g — Centennial — Boil — 0 min

10 g — Mosaic — Boil — 0 min

10 g — Simcoe — Boil — 0 min

20 g — Centennial — Dry Hop — 3 days

20 g — Mosaic — Dry Hop — 3 days

20 g — Simcoe — Dry Hop — 3 days

In terms of efficiency I was very happy with my results.

Brewfather estimated a Pre-Boil Gravity of 1.048, got 1.050 and an Original Gravity of 1.078 and I got 1.080.

Brewfather estimates a Final Gravity of 1.008 and I'm using Lallemand LalBrew BRY-97.

Should be pushing a 9.5% final ABV.

A little video of the brew day...

[Dustin Frothman]

Looking great.

That pump is a little scary - I probably wouldn’t leave it unattended but otherwise it looks like a nice compact set up.

And you thought you couldn’t brew all grain in an apartment!

I’ll be keen to see how your brew turns out.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

2 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Looking great.

That pump is a little scary - I probably wouldn’t leave it unattended but otherwise it looks like a nice compact set up.

And you thought you couldn’t brew all grain in an apartment!

I’ll be keen to see how your brew turns out.

Haha, yeah that pump.

It leaked on me during my trials then I realised where the water was coming from and tightened the nut and no leaks at all.

Just need to find a better way to position it, otherwise, it works perfectly. Also want to change the hose connections to something better like camlock fittings.

The recirculation works a treat and I'm thinking that's how I got the higher than expected efficiency.

Giving it another go tomorrow, this time a bigger grain bill to make 19l of Hazy IPA goodness for the Fermzilla.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Got this kegged yesterday.

Had let it sit for an extra 2 days in cold crash as the weekend was busy and TBH, was exhausted after getting smashed all week at work.

During the filling, right from the get go I had another issue with a likely stuck poppet as the beer refused to go into the keg. As soon as it got stuck, I took the liquid line and Dry Hope Filter apart and found a heap of hop sediment and some trub inside the Filter. Figured some hop matter got thru so Instead of stuffing around, just quickly opened the keg, removed the liquid disconnect from the beer line and filled it that way. Had to clean out the Hop Filter twice more before the keg was emptied.

I did change the recipe in that I added 30g each of Centennial, Mosaic and Simcoe during at the Dry Hop. But as I've been doing, did the dry hop 24 hrs after ticking the dry hop in the app so the hops only sat at 17°C for 24 hours before cold crashing.

To help with oxidation, rather than getting it on CO2 right away, decided to chuck in 2 of the BrewArt Primers and will now let it sit for 2 weeks or so.

The beer tasted good right out of the Droid and looked nice and clear with a good light amber colour that you would expect from a West Coast IPA.

Finally, the stats for this brew:

Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050
Post-Boil Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV: 8.53%
1 day dry hop @ 17°C
4 day Cold Crash before Kegging.

As you can see, a FG of 1.015 was quite a ways off the predicted 1.008 by Brewfather.

Given I'm doing secondary with this one, it should be pouring at around 9% ABV in a couple of weeks, a nice winter warmer for sure.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Oops, I had forgotten to provide the full recipe as requested by @Dustin Frothman

Here it is from Brewfather...

Brewfather_5WestCoastIIPA_20220509.pdf

[Dustin Frothman]

On 10/05/2022 at 8:28 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Got this kegged yesterday.

Had let it sit for an extra 2 days in cold crash as the weekend was busy and TBH, was exhausted after getting smashed all week at work.

During the filling, right from the get go I had another issue with a likely stuck poppet as the beer refused to go into the keg. As soon as it got stuck, I took the liquid line and Dry Hope Filter apart and found a heap of hop sediment and some trub inside the Filter. Figured some hop matter got thru so Instead of stuffing around, just quickly opened the keg, removed the liquid disconnect from the beer line and filled it that way. Had to clean out the Hop Filter twice more before the keg was emptied.

I did change the recipe in that I added 30g each of Centennial, Mosaic and Simcoe during at the Dry Hop. But as I've been doing, did the dry hop 24 hrs after ticking the dry hop in the app so the hops only sat at 17°C for 24 hours before cold crashing.

To help with oxidation, rather than getting it on CO2 right away, decided to chuck in 2 of the BrewArt Primers and will now let it sit for 2 weeks or so.

The beer tasted good right out of the Droid and looked nice and clear with a good light amber colour that you would expect from a West Coast IPA.

Finally, the stats for this brew:

Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050
Post-Boil Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV: 8.53%
1 day dry hop @ 17°C
4 day Cold Crash before Kegging.

As you can see, a FG of 1.015 was quite a ways off the predicted 1.008 by Brewfather.

Given I'm doing secondary with this one, it should be pouring at around 9% ABV in a couple of weeks, a nice winter warmer for sure.

Have you got yourself the Bouncer filter inserts yet? If not you really need to as you won't have this issue with them.

Thanks for the recipe. I want to do a WC IPA/IIPA next, perhaps not 9% as that's outside of my comfort zone but I'll refer to your effort as a guide.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Trying this one after 2 weeks of secondary fermentation using the BrewArt Primers and 24+ hours in the Kegerator to chill.

Wow, just wow. Bitter yet fruity hoppiness. Fantastic mouthfeel as it coats your whole mouth with lots of flavour that goes from bitter to fruity and alcohol and back to bitter with the alcohol @ 9%.

Love this, definitely one of my best brews out of the Droid.

Forgive  the hazy appearance as that's chill haze and it's actually quite translucent but not as clear as I would have hoped for.

Oh well, will have to try again  and maybe try using some Irish moss stuff to help with clarity.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

This will impress @Dustin Frothman as this is I'm thinking second to last full pour of my WCIIPA.

Drinking wonderfully, just the right balance of bitter and other flavours, complex is the word that comes to mind. The 9% is well hidden as it is well balanced.

From that bitter to a bit of fruit flavour then more bitter as you swallow. Also, the head is superb, thick and holds the lacing down the glass.

Cleared up the longer it was left and is at 12.5 weeks now.

Will definitely do another WCIPA and will take the learnings from this and other brews.

 

[Dustin Frothman]

5 hours ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

This will impress @Dustin Frothman as this is I'm thinking second to last full pour of my WCIIPA.

Drinking wonderfully, just the right balance of bitter and other flavours, complex is the word that comes to mind. The 9% is well hidden as it is well balanced.

From that bitter to a bit of fruit flavour then more bitter as you swallow. Also, the head is superb, thick and holds the lacing down the glass.

Cleared up the longer it was left and is at 12.5 weeks now.

Will definitely do another WCIPA and will take the learnings from this and other brews.

 

Looks great!

And yes I’m very impressed that one of your beers lasted 3 months.

FWIW I don’t think I’ve cooked up an all grain recipe that hasn’t used some whirlfloc. I also line my stainless steel strainer with a sanitised paint strainer bag when transferring the wort from kettle to Droid and have been achieving some stupidly clear beers.