Found the time this afternoon to transfer my beer from primary fermentation to secondary.    If you recall, my Original Gravity was 1.081 corrected.  When I transferred it to secondary, the gravity was 1.029 corrected.  So, according to my calculation (via beertools.com) it is sitting at 6.9% ABV right now … I’d like for it to go up a little higher (over 7% would be sweet) but I think the yeast is really stressed.  The higher Final Gravity might make it more of an east coast IPA with a good malt balance.  When I tasted it, I definitely got plenty of hops in the mouth.  I added my 1 oz of Cascade for dry hopping — I’ll probably leave it in secondary for two more weeks and then keg it!  Yes!  It should be good …

1) Here it is waiting for transfer to secondary.  When I popped off the top, you can tell that it was really active — thank goodness for extra room in this bucket!

2) Here’s the next bucket being prepped for secondary.  Since I’m dry hopping, I decided to use a bag to hold the hops and am using a secondary bucket instead of my normal carboy.

3) Here are the hops as I prepare them for secondary fermentation.  I decided to go ahead and dunk them in my sanitation solution on the off chance there might be some wild yeast floating around — oh, and here’s also a picture of some sweet lupulin I lost … darn it.

4) Finally, since I had the time and desire, I decided to capture a few vials of yeast (1056 American Ale) to try and save myself some money.  We’ll see if the alcohol content was too high and suffocated all the remaining yeast.

Beer Mentor

Today for Father’s day I was able to do two of the things I love.  I got in a nice Mountain Bike ride … and I brewed an IPA!  Because I’m a geek, I named it “Imperial Walker IPA.” Ha!  See the recipe below …)

What is special about this beer is that I used the hops from my garden — so the Nugget and Cascade hops that are in this beer came from my backyard.  Oh, and the Kent Golding hops came from the Hop Farm in Belgium I visited last November.  Here’s hoping that it turns out well.  I’m also including some pictures of the brew day today.  If Star Wars decides to sue me over the name, I can always change it to “Imperial Stumbler IPA” to match my other nickname … stumblingpiper.  Ha ha!

From the initial specific gravity measurement, I think I pegged my 1.079 OG.  Here’s hoping it starts bubbling tonight …

Beer Mentor

Imperial Walker IPA
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General
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                    Category: India Pale Ale (IPA)
                 Subcategory: American IPA
                 Recipe Type: All Grain
                  Batch Size: 5 gal.
               Volume Boiled: 6 gal.
             Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
         Total Grain/Extract: 15.00 lbs.
                  Total Hops: 3.6 oz.
       Calories (12 fl. oz.): 313.6
                Cost to Brew: $51.55 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.97 (USD)

Ingredients
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           13 lbs. 2-Row Brewers Malt
            1 lbs. Munich Malt
            1 lbs. American Caramel 60°L
          1.25 oz. Nugget (Whole, 13 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
             1 oz. Goldings (Pellets, 5 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
           0.5 oz. Goldings (Pellets, 5 %AA) boiled 3 minutes.
          0.35 oz. Cascade (Whole, 5.5 %AA) boiled 3 minutes.
           0.5 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 11.9 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
             1 oz. Cascade (Whole, 5.50 %AA) added to Secondary.
            Yeast: WYeast 1056 American Ale

Notes
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Vital Statistics
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  Original Gravity: 1.079
  Terminal Gravity: 1.016
             Color: 13.72 SRM
        Bitterness: 100.8 IBU
 Alcohol (%volume): 8.3 %

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Results prepared by BeerTools.com
http://www.beertools.com/

Now that I’m home, settled in, and back in a routine, I’ve put together a nice IPA recipe.  I built it out at BeerTools.  This beer is special for a couple of reasons: 1) First beer brewed in 2010, and 2) I’m brewing it on Father’s Day.   I decided I wanted to brew a beer where I could use my homegrown hops …

Soooo … without knowing the Alpha Acid, I’m taking 15 lbs of malt and using the following hops for my brew: 1) Simcoe (0.5 oz) – bittering (leftovers), 2) Nugget (1.25 oz) – bittering (homegrown), 3) Golding (1 oz) – flavor (I got these while in Belgium (see this post)), 4) Golding (0.5 oz) – aroma, 5) Cascade (0.35 oz) – aroma (homegrown), 6 Cascade (1 oz) – Dry Hop (homegrown).

That leaves me with some Chinook homegrown to use in my next brew … I’m really looking forward to this brew!

Beer Mentor