Kings Landing - Monday, January 15, 2018

Carboys

22 lbs. UCM 2 row
1 lb. Biscuit Malt
1 lb. Honey Malt
65 g Chinook - 12.3% AA @ 20 min.
140 g Chinook - 12.3% AA @ 10 min.
100 g Chinook - 12.3% AA @ 0 min.
50 g US-05

O.G. - 1.050
F.G. -  1.008
% -      5.5
SRM - 5.3
BU - 35.5

CA - 108
MG - 20
SO4 - 274
CI - 51
PH - 5.35 ( estimated ) No acid required in mash

MASH _ 1.25 qts/water per lb.

GYPSUM - 11.70 G
CALCIUM CHLORIDE - 2.61 G
EPSOM SALT - 7.20 G

SPARGE

GYPSUM - 14.3 G
CALCIUM CHLORIDE - 3.2 G
EPSOM SALT - 8.8 G

                                                            NOTES

Working on the mash tun element so had to delay this brew session. As of January 7, it still is leaking. Ordered food grade silicone adhesive and will have to wait until it gets here and cures for a day or so. Adding 3 - 4 applications to element. I had to bend the shit out of the element to get the false bottom in. It is very close to the element though. I regret ever doing this. Done. Stopped the leak with food grade silicone. Had to bend the shit out of the element to get the false bottom to fit. God, looks like shit. May have trouble selling it. I need to do the sparge keg and wire twist lock plugs in so I can clean everything without dragging the bloody wire around. Double electrical box will help with that.

                                             SCREWED UP AGAIN

Decided to brew in the morning instead of 2 days later. Mash tun water ended up being 11 gallons instead of 9. Half asleep as usual. These mistakes have to stop. I did kind of fix it, but still, the brewing salts were already added. Do this at night for now on. I didn't get a lot of hop aroma in the wort since I did add over 300 grams the last 20 min or so.

                                           FERMENTATION NOTES

Pitched yeast @ 2 pm. ( so much for 4500 watts saving time ). One carboy going good the next am, but the other one no so much. Same amount of yeast so why the difference? Should be able to move this to bench in a few days. Need to brew again soon as I am not sure how much I can brew in Feb.

                                               DRY HOPPED ON JAN 21

Sampled while I did this and I got biscuit malt flavour which kind of dominated the honey malt at this time. Not a lot of hop taste however. Not sure why since I added a ton of them. Maybe this addition ( 2 ozs. dry hop in each carboy ) will help. Changed the recipe for next week. However, good bitterness with no off flavours, that has to mean something since I always seem to make a mistake.

                                                KEGGED ON JANUARY 28

I got a lot of bitterness and vegetal hop taste when I sampled this. I realize I was getting it right from the dry hop sludge so I am not worrying, and relaxing. Will know more in a week after gelatin and transferring to new kegs.

                                                 TASTE AFTER GELATIN

Cleared up very quickly. Very bitter. I toned it down from 35 to 30 for my next beer. I am getting a vegetal hop note from the dry hops. Need to tone that down too. I will dry hop with 2 ozs. of hops instead of 4. The hop twang has gone now, but still very bitter. A clean, crisp IPA. Homebrewers will like it, but general people will not. Too bitter. The hop aroma has gone down a bit, but the bitterness has not. I do not like it. Tossed it.