Pale Force IPA

To contrast with Code Name: One I brewed a normal recipe for my IPA from Austin Homebrew Supply. This won't wind up being as good of a learning experience as I thought it was going to be, because I truncated Code Name: One's secondary fermentation to get it ready in time for the superbowl. It will, however, give me 10 gallons of beer instead of 5 gallons of beer, so it's not all bad. 

Here are the ingredients for my normal Pale Force IPA recipe:

Crushed Grain

1lb of Crystal 20L

Extract

9lbs of Extra Light Liquid Extract

Hops in the Boil

1oz Nugget for 60 Minutes

0.5oz of Perle for 30 Minutes

2oz of Centennial for 15 Minutes

Yeast

Safale S-04

Dry Hopping 

1oz Centennial

0.5oz Chinook

Additional Ingredients

Whirlfloc

Initial Specific Gravity

1.062 taken at  72ºF

The boil went well, and the wort looked and smelled like a standard IPA wort should. The only procedural "problem" that I had was that my mini-mash of the crystal 20L was at a higher temperature than I wanted. It was at about 170ºF instead of the 155ºF that I was aiming for. I don't think this will be an issue, because this malt was added for the color and flavor it will impart on the beer, and not for its fermentables. The only possible affect this could have on the finished product is to give it a imperceptibly lower alcohol content, and a slightly thicker mouth feel.

Beer: The Motivational Speech

This video is the equivalent to watching a trailer for Rudy, Hoosiers and 300 at the same time, and I now feel like i was just inspired to brew by the likes of Lombardi, Patton or FDR. Here is the bug, but be careful. It bites.

Code Name: One - Racking to the Secondary Fermenter

Today I racked Code Name: One into my secondary fermenter, and dry hopped it with 1oz of Centennial, and 0.5oz of Chinook as per the recipe.

I took a specific gravity reading, and got 1.018 at 62ºF. This tells us that the beer is now at approximately 6%ABV, but I believe that it has a little farther to go.

Code Name: One

My local homebrew supply store, Mr. Steve's Homebrew Supply, is great at many things, but they are lacking in liquid malt extract selection. Their bulk liquid extract can only be bought in seven pound increments, and they didn't have any extra light liquid extract at all. These issues left me with an interesting opportunity to experiment away from one of my regular IPA recipes.

Here are the ingredients for the 5 gallon experimental recipe:

Crushed Grain
1lb of Crystal 20L

Extract
7lbs of Light Liquid Extract
2lbs of Plain Extra Light Dry Extract

Hops in the Boil
1oz Nugget for 60 Minutes
0.5oz of Perle for 30 Minutes
2oz of Centennial for 15 Minutes

Yeast
Safale S-04

Dry Hopping 
1oz Centennial
0.5oz Chinook

Additional Ingredients
Whirlfloc

Initial Specific Gravity
1.062 taken at  70ºF

The boil went well, resulting in an expectedly darker wort than my normal recipe that replaces the 9lbs of extracts with 9lbs of extra light liquid extract. I am planning on ordering my normal recipe from Austin Homebrew Supply to have a comparison, and see how these recipe tweaks affect the finished product.

It is experiences like this that really add a fun element to homebrewing, and turns "my beer" into "my baby". Never be afraid to experiment. What is the worst that can happen? You might just have to invite some friends over to destroy the evidence. Trust me, as bad as you think your experimental beer turned out, if your friends are anything like mine they will drink any free beer with smiles on their faces.

Monkey T@il Brewery

Hello world, my name is Bill Krayer. I have been homebrewing for the past four+ years, and a beer snob for awhile longer. Monkey T@il Brewery is what I call my homebrew operations, and this blog will consist of my brewing "lessons learned the hard way".

For my blog dedicated to learning more official brewing information than my personal experiences can provide please visit Brew True.

Welcome aboard.