Sir Reginald's SMaSHing IPA (and a new cider experiment!)

First wort hoping kept this full pot from boiling over!

Hey all! Those of you that keep up with my twitter feed (@cuttshomebrew) have probably seen some of the updates from the last couple of brews, but I thought it was time to log them officially and give a little more information about these upcoming beauties. First of all, my new technique of yeast harvesting worked wonderfully well, and the WLP002 culture from the Husky Lad Mild Porter stayed clean, made a good starter, and is now fermenting vigorously away at the beautiful English IPA I cooked up. I am very excited to have such an easy and reliable new method for harvesting (and reharvesting) yeast, because I definitely have zeroed in on my favorite "house" strains for English (WLP002) and Belgian (WLP500) ales, and it's really nice to save some money on batches, as yeast is one of the more expensive elements of homebrewing.

I had a lot of fun brewing up this beer. I did a long (~2 hours) mash at 152°F, and then, instead of the usual bittering addition, I did some first wort hopping. This is a technique I've used in other beers to nice effect, where you add the hops to the hot wort in the boil kettle as you collect the runoff. Because the wort is hot but not boiling at this stage, certain volatile hop oils and compounds are extracted more effectively, resulting not only in an effective bittering component after boiling, but also more complexity in the flavor and aroma of the finished product. Additionally, this also helped to prevent a boil over in a very full pot. First wort hopping was one of the Top 10 Tips for a Super Hoppy Beer that I followed for this recipe. I also followed Callahan's advice of adding the aroma (flameout) addition once the beer cooled below 180°F and then doing a relatively long (~15 minute) steep of the aroma hops before chilling. I must say, whenever I smelled the hops hitting the hot wort, I got really excited for an EKG hop bomb of a beer. The starter made with the harvested yeast from the porter got the batch going really nicely, and it has been happily and vigorously fermenting for the last several days. Here is the simple yet specific recipe:

Sir Reginald's SMaSHing English IPA:
Projected ABV: 7%
Projected SRM: 7.6°L (a deep golden color)
Projected IBU: 46

14 lbs Maris Otter

WLP002

3 oz East Kent Goldings @FWH
1 oz EKG @20 minutes
1 oz EKG @15
1 oz EKG @10
1 oz EKG 15 minute steep @180°

1 oz EKG dry hop 7 days
1 oz EKG dry hop 5 days
1 oz EKG dry hop 3 days

Awww yeah.

Prior to my brew day, I was really catching the fever while waiting for the starter to reach its full potential, so I finally whipped up a batch of graff, a type of cider that uses malt to achieve a desirable level of body and residual sweetness. I used the very popular Brandon O recipe on Homebrewtalk.com, combining 1 oz torrefied wheat, 1 lbs crystal 60, and 2 lbs of malt extract with 4 gallons of apple juice to make 5 gallons of delicious homegrown alchemy. I threw in some dry Nottingham yeast that took off like a shot and fermented like crazy for quite a few days, kicking off some really nice apple aromas. The other key with graff is that it is supposed to be very drinkable very quickly, so I should be enjoying it soon. I am very excited about this project, because while I have had some decent success making homebrewed ciders, I have never done more than a gallon or two at a time, and they've never come out quite exactly right. I really enjoy cider, and I know that many others do as well, so it will be nice to have a good, reliable recipe for draught cider.

The graff cider bubbles away

More updates to come soon! Prost!

Category 14: India Pale Ale

Beer: Pliny the Elder (OMG!!!!!)
Category: India Pale Ale
Subcategory: Imperial/Double IPA

IPA is a very hoppy, high bitterness, high hop flavor, high hop aroma ale with a strong malt backbone to balance out all of that hoppiness. This style originated when English troops were stationed in India, and they wanted to have an ale that wouldn't spoil so easily. Hops act as a natural preservative in beer, thus a hoppier style of beer was born.

Imperial IPA is a bigger still version of IPA, bigger in pretty much every way, including ABV. Pliny the Elder is pretty much the definitive version of this beer, and is, according to beeradvocate.com, one of the best beers on the planet. This beer is brewed in California and is very sought after and rather difficult to find. I acquired a bottle by *somewhat* questionable means and had been looking forward to drinking it quite a bit. I celebrated my finishing of grad school applications by drinking this beautiful beer.

Appearance: a lightish, pretty golden color with a small but persistent head and EPIC lacing. EPIC.

Aroma: holy moley. I could just stop right here. Complex hop aromas with gorgeous American citrus and floral notes with a very prominent tropical fruit character, particularly pineapple-like in nature. what a treat to even just smell this beer.

Flavor: just like the aroma, with American citrus and pineapple flavors jumping out with amazing complexity, and huge hop bitterness that is beautifully balanced out by the malts in this high gravity beer. for a beer that is so big in flavor, it is amazingly balanced, and incredibly complex. I am officially blown away.

Mouthfeel: really not much like anything I've experienced before. Medium body and medium-high carbonation, but it seems that it is either the high gravity, the copious amount of (dry) hops, or some combination of the two, that gives the beer somewhat of an oily feel to it. Once again, I am pretty wowed.

Overall/Drinkability: not much that I can say that hasn't already been said. This is a truly amazing, world class beer and I am a huge fan. I can only say that I wish it was more easily available away from the west coast...and this beer definitely is PURE west coast stuff. The tropical fruit/pineapple flavor and aroma are what really blew me away here. Not like anything I've ever really tasted before. Can't wait for the day that I can have one again. I'll be sure to share it with my dad, Jeff Cutts, Sr. who is a huge fan of IPAs and other hoppy beers!

Good news about this one is that the brewmaster of the Russian River Brewing Company who brews this beer has actually published a homebrew-friendly recipe for a clone of the beer. I will definitely have to partake of that very soon (12 ounces of hops in five gallons!!!).

On the docket...

After all of my bottling excellence on labor day weekend, I have been forced into seven long days of work in a row and therefore no action in the brewing department. It's truly a sad thing--I have two empty fermenters right now. The delicious BowThai Ale is disappearing quickly, so come and get it while it's cold! Here's what I have planned in the brewing department for the next couple of weeks:

-Finishing my trellises and getting those hops going after the few setbacks I've had in that department
-Two beers to go into corny kegs to be drawn off the tap! I'm planning a dry-hopped APA that edges on IPA strength, and as soon as that guy goes into secondary, I'm going to brew an English mild, which will likely be ready to drink within almost exactly two weeks of brewing. Most people are unfamiliar with this style, but it is a sweet, light-bodied, nutty brown ale with emphasis on maltiness rather than hops.
-Three experimental one-gallon batches of beer, one or two of which will be brewed in larger batches this summer and aged until Christmastime--a "hot" (read: spicy) chocolate stout, a raspberry chocolate stout, and a spiced "cup of holiday cheer" brew that will be a sort of fruitcake of a beer...I'm really excited about these.

I'm hoping to accomplish all of this within the next month, getting at least one batch into primary by the end of this week! More updates to come as things actually happen.

-Brewmaster