The last of my bag of Rahr 2 row. No idea when I will buy another sack of malt or even what kind. Most likely Pilsner Malt. This is a lighter IPA as I am kind of sick of darker beers for now. Still working on the recipe because I need to weigh out the grain as it is the last of it in the sack. Do not need or want beer, but I usually brew this time of year anyway. A Xmas thing. I am using Lactic Acid for all PH adjustments now.
Brewing this because I am out of DME for a lager starter and of course need to use up my hops.
They are 2019 now. This makes an easy brew day too. This is the last of my malt and I don't need any more until these 3 batches are almost drank, or tossed. I think I can start jogging soon and work on clearing up my current beers and brew sometime either in late January or sometime in February. Have to buy a sack though since shipping on separate batches is stupid. My last sack is $30 shipping now. Christ, when will this bullshit ever end? Cheaper to buy it, well not yet... Had to adjust my grains to get all of the sack and didn't adjust the water salts amounts. It will be fine, not much difference.
I still have lots of Citra hops left. Dam, should of never bought 7 lbs. What was I thinking? I will use them up. I hope to have enough hops for 2 batches which will put me in to around March or late February before I will need to buy some more. OBK 2 row by the sack in 2023 plus a brick of US-05. Now I can brew when I want without Canada Post throwing a wrench into my plans.
Ingredients
12.70 lbs. Rahr
11 ozs. Crystal 40
US-05
14.5 g Citra @ 60 min.
113 g Citra @ 10 min.
56 g Citra @ 0 min.
No dry hopping. I don't like the vegetal taste I get when I do that. I didn't add the 2 ozs. of
Citra 3 days before kegging because I forgot.
Made a mistake and mixted the 10 min addition with the 0 addition.
Mash - 6.50 gallons ( you need more water, like 1.5 gallons more so buy some )
Sparge - 5 gallons
Mash Salts
Gyp - 8.6 g
CI - 1.9 g
Eps - 4.6 g
.7 ml Lactic Acid
Boil Salts
Gyp - 6.7 g
CI - 1.5 g
Eps - 3.5 g
Sparge Lactic Acid - .2 ml
CA - 110
MG - 18
S04 - 269
CI - 51
PH - 5.32
O.G. - 1.054
F.G. - 1.010
% - 5.8
SRM - 5.7
BU - 56.5 - This is not a hop bomb even though I got the hop additions mixed up.
BREW DAY NOTES
I have a crack on my Robobrew screen. Will have to keep an eye on it. I used too much water
for the amount of grains. I could not use the top screen as I was above the extension pipe. May
be a lower alcohol beer with lower efficiency, but I don't care. It wasn't. Actually I got a
higher efficiency ( 1.054 ). Crazy how things work out. It started to get a good head of
krausen before I went to sleep. Checking to see if I need to toss on the bench for heat, or
turn the fridge on. Checked it on Dec. 24 at 8 am. 64 F. Slow ferment, but I am not going
to toss on the bench and turn heat on. Blizzard outside at the moment.
Next Day - Going good, a little cool though, 64 F.
Day 3 - Same
Day 4 - 66 F
Day 5 - 64 F. Tossed on the bench to get just a little bit warmer with the heat on.
Day 8 - Done, keg after New Years sometime.
KEGGED ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2023
Seems okay. Hard to tell when you keg it. I do get more citrus than grapefruit though. I am
sure it will be fine. Needs dry hopping but I didn't do a late addition in the carboy, so I am
letting it slide for this batch and add an ounce or so the last 3 days of fermentation in the
next batch I do.
Adding gelatin on Jan. 8.
Sampled on Jan. 12
Fine. Still more orange than grapefruit. I prefer pine and grapefruit but I am not going to change a thing until I use up these hops because they are 3 1/2 years old now. Cleared up with gelatin. Nice srm too. I punched it up with C02 also. This is my first beer using just Crystal 40 and no other specialty malts. Good so far. I didn't dry hop and it seems fine, but with most of my beers, the hop taste fades. But, I usually used too much specialty grains and they kind of dominated the taste, but not this time.
Sample
A little early since I only started to carb this yesterday. Needs more C02. Checking for carbonation on Jan. 14. The new regulator doesn't go over 30 psi. The old one that broke for some reason went up to 60 psi. But it is just like 12 hours or a little more to carb up. Patience grasshopper. I still like it, best one yet. I hope the hop aroma doesn't fade and after like day 3 - 4 it doesn't turn on me like a rabid fox which all of the other batches did just that. Other than that, this beer is the most drinkable beer I have made in 1 - 3 years. Keep it going... It didn't last long. Changed for the bad.
The sample glass I had on Jan. 16 didn't taste as good as the one I had on Jan. 15. Hmm... It is still an okay beer. Hope aroma has faded, but I didn't dry hop, or do a 3 day before kegging addition so no wonder it is low. Dry hopping all future beers of this style.
FINAL TASTINGS
Keg is 1/3 full now and it is really astringent. Looks great, wonderful golden colour, great creamy head. Taste sucks balls. Tastes just like a tea bag that has been in the mug for way too long. Dam. It did take 2 weeks though. Making a drastic change in my water profile for the next IPA. Sampled on Jan. 27. It has come a long way to being a drinkable beer. Okay beer now but still too strong for my tastes. With a BU of around 57, yea too much for me. I like 40. Kicked it on Jan. 27.
TOOK 3 WEEKS TO BEING A DRINKABLE BEER
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