Chinook IPA - Friday, May 28, 2021 ( brew day from hell )

Conical

With a new hop schedule and brewing water, I hope this beer is not astrigent again. 

Ingredients

22 lbs. CMC

1.75 lbs. Victory

12 ozs. C 40

8 ozs. Aciduated Malt - ( should be lower, but this is from a previous brew and already mixed in )

1.9 g Baking Soda ( to lower the PH because of too much acid malt ) Yea, makes no sense.

23 g Chinook - FWH - in kettle as soon as the hot break ends. Usually stop the boil, turn on again.

130 g Chinook at 10 min.

56 g Chinook at 0 min.

Missed the dry hop schedule at 3 - 5 days prior to kegging.

Dry hopped with 85 g of Citra in the keg with a muslum bag for a week. Sample was great on day 3.

45 g US-05

CA - 75 MG - 10 S04 - 152 - CI - 53

PH - 5.31

O.G. - 1.049

F.G. -  1.015

% -      4.6

SRM - 6.4

BU - 33.4

I am looking for a smoother hop taste along with no astrigent taste. Will look at my crush on notch 4, but notch 3 is not enough of a crush. Take a better look at it, but I don't think this is the problem. Nope, notch 3 leaves too many unmilled grains, but I didn't take it up a " notch " until I was done. The valve plugged from the boil kettle for the first time in 18 years. No idea why. Scooped the wort into the 11 L SS pot and added it to the Conical that way. Took forever. I did notice that when I cleaned the boil kettle that the valve was not tight, but not loose enough to leak, hmmmm. I did however, add all of the salts in the correct order/time so even though this is a sludge mess, everything will settle out in a couple of weeks. May take a little longer to clear than usual, but I am patient.

                                                        FERMENTATION NOTES

Seems to be a slow ferment. I did pitch the yeast on top of a lot of foam though. It may of stuck to the sides and not being used, but I can't see in to confirm that.

Sunday, June 6 - Still bubbling but very, very slow. This is a funny ferment. Not the blow all out quick and slowly stopping. Just a steady bubbling but not very long. Must of been all of the trub that go in the conical when the valve plugged up and I had to use a pitcher to get it into it. Maybe it will be okay, but forgetting the whirlfloc meant nothing now that I had to scoop it all out. Keg around June 14, if it is ready. Seems to be bubbling on a steady basis on June 10. Still doing an odd bubbling on June 14, day 18? This should of stopped days ago. Screw it, kegging it soon.

Finally, an IPA that tastes fine, no goofy taste I was getting last year. I am using the same process I used now, so why the difference? No idea. I do hope I don't get an astringent taste I got with the last one that I did end up tossing out because I just can't stand a beer with that going on.

Brewing another one, so get it right. Kegging this mess on Tuesday, June 15. A ton of trub coming out the bottom dump, ( thought it would plug ) and it was a thick mess coming out. Beer seems fine so far as no funny taste I was getting the last time I used brewing salts. Kind of light on the hops, but this was Phase One. Next up is Phase Two - 200 ppm Sulphate. If this isn't enought, go with 250 or 275. Not sure I want to go over 300 though. I do think using Citra hops, 200 ppm is going to be the sweet spot.

                                                         Taste On Day 10

Seems fine. The hop aroma/taste is lower now. The best thing is there is no astringent taste this time. Tossed the last one. No filtering, no gelatin. Slowly clearing.

                                                    DRY HOPPED ON JUNE 20 ( 85 g  Citra )

Not getting the grapefruit/citrus aroma I was looking for when I dry hopped this. However, it seems to be getting through as time goes by. In future brews, I will try to get a good hop aroma but not as bitter as this is. Maybe hop to like 25 - 30 tops?

Today is July 8 and this is as good as it gets. Actually, a good beer. Not a strong hop aroma like the hazy ipa beers Frank brings over, but fine to me. Will try to get a more pronounced hop aroma but need to work on the final bitterness as I don't want a huge bitter taste. This is an acceptable beer. It was clearing well until I dry hopped in the keg and had to start all over again, but it doesn't matter any more as the latest craze is hazy ipa. The brewers are making a killing as they don't have to filter any more and save a ton of money on top of that. Of course, Ontario beer is still stupid expensive and I rarely buy it and it is shit beer anyway.