This was intended to be an IPA but with homegrown hops there's the risk they aren't very strong so in the recipe I threw in some commercial hops just to be sure.
Fermentables
Pale Malt 7000 grams 73.5%
Crystal Malt 500 grams 5.3%
Pale Rye Malt 2020 grams 21.2%
Hops
Northern Brewer @ 60 mins - 98 grams 34.5%
Apollo @ 60 mins - 51 grams 18%
Cascade @ 30 mins - 60 grams 21.1%
Cascade @ 15 mins 40 grams 14.1%
Cascade @ 0 mins - 35 grams 12.3%
According to Beerengine there are 100IBUs here. I rounded the AA for my home grown hops to 5% to allow for them not being as strong as commercially grown varieties.
This was the first time I've been able to brew with my old man who started me off into brewing a very long time ago with Boots the Chemist kits. Time to repay the experience with some all grain.
Not the clearest but it had a good taste...
The boil is on.
Too much heat is being given off here, great on the cold day but I think it is time for a collar to be attached to increase thermal efficiency.
Time for a pint of Citra.
I used a Mangrove Jack M44 yeast, first time with this one so was interested to see how it turned out. I put the FV into the cupboard I used for drying my hops. The temperature dropped to 8C over night in the cupboard despite the insulation. After filling the empty space with anything I could find the temp stayed solid at 18C. The 60W 12 inch tube heater is probably on the small side for the volume I was heating. Ferment 1 was over a week, the yeast head was still big and after another week in the second fermenter I bottled.
Overall I got 39L bottled up with some wastage in the fermenters, testing and then bottling.
The test sample was a bit cloudy after 10 days but damn tasty. There is a creamy silk mouthfeel with a strong bitter bite and subtle hop aftertaste. Not the IPA hoppy taste I was after but pretty good. As this is a home grown beer I won't be able to replicate it again. Nice to have a truly unique beer. I expect it to be consumed over the festive period.
Final stats
Bottled Volume: 39 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.8% ABV
