Author: Administrator

Red Rye IPA

Here’s the Red Rye IPA recipe I like to brew:

Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 12.20 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 18.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.00 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 4.0 %
11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 43.6 %
5.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 19.8 %
2.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.9 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 7.9 %
2.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 6 7.9 %
1.00 lb Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 4.0 %
1.00 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 8 4.0 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 9 1.0 %
1.00 oz Experimental #07270 [16.60 %] – First Wo Hop 10 34.9 IBUs
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 11 –
1.50 oz Magnum [15.20 %] – Boil 15.0 min Hop 12 20.7 IBUs
1.50 oz Chinook [12.20 %] – Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 6.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Magnum [15.20 %] – Boil 5.0 min Hop 14 2.8 IBUs
2.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124 Yeast 15 –
2.00 oz Amarillo [8.20 %] – Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Chinook [12.20 %] – Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Magnum [15.20 %] – Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

Mash Schedule: -Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 25.25 lb
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 22.20 qt of water at 179.22 F 154.00 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 9.49 qt of water at 210.09 F 168.00 F 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 7.81 gal water at 170.00 F

Make a Yeast Starter

A couple days before your brewing, here’s what you need to create a Yeast Starter to jumpstart your fermentation:

Ingredients:

  • One quart (32oz) water – this should be the same water you intend to brew with
  • One cup dried malt extract
  • Your yeast
  • Ice (for an ice bath)

Equipment:

  • Saucepan (stainless steel is preferred) with cover
  • Container (a “growler”, etc.) with an airlock (airlock optional) large enough for the liquids (~42+ oz)
  • Funnel
  • Wire whisk
  • Thermometer
  • A container/sink to make an ice bath
  • Your choice of sanitizer

The steps:

  1. If you have an Activator (smack pack), smack it to let it begin.
  2. Boil the water and malt for ~15 minutes, whisking occasionally.
  3. Put the hot pan in the ice bath to cool the liquid (wort). Cover and cool for ~15 minutes.
  4. Once the wort is cool (less than ~ 65 degrees F), pour it into your container.
  5. Put the container’s cap on and shake the wort to aerate it.
  6. Sanitize your funnel and pour in the yeast.
  7. Put on your airlock or loosely put on the cap to the container.
  8. Set it aside until brewing day!

Brew-b-q 2013

Enjoying the Brew-b-q
Enjoying the Brew-b-q

This past Memorial Day weekend, our group of friends got together for our third annual brew-b-q celebration.  At the event, we had three groups of people, those of us brewing a “big” beer, those cooking and smoking various meats, and those enjoying the entire event.

There were four of us making the beer, with many helpers on hand.  Those of us making the beer each brought a couple specialty malts, hop varieties, and base malt.  This year, I had some base malt I wanted to use, so I provided the base malt, 22 pounds of a mixture of pale malt, organic pilsner malt, and organic pale malt. With each of us contributing 2 pounds of specialty grains, that brought the total grains for a five gallon batch of beer to 30 pounds. By comparison, your standard batch of beer has around 10 to 12 pounds of grain.

After the mash, during the boil, we added several varieties of hops, including Summit, El Dorado, Centennial, and Pacific Jade. With the hop additions, the theoretical IBU’s were 128! By comparison, many very bitter IPA’s tend to be in the 80-90 range. But this was necessary for our brew, since it was going to be very strong. If everything went correctly, it was supposed to be around 14% ABV, so the large amounts of hops were to balance out the beer.

Once we were done with the boil, we cooled the wort (unfermented beer), and put it into our fermentation container. Once measured, the original gravity wound up a bit lower than we expected, but it was still potentially a beer in about the 10-12% ABV range.

We aerated the jug well by shaking it, then added our yeast, which was just a standard American Ale yeast. After a day, we added a Super High Gravity yeast, to keep the fermentation going when the alcohol percentage was high.

Later this year, we are going to bottle it and enjoy it when the cold nights of winter are upon us.

Have you made any large beers lately? How did it turn out?