1120 IPA Brew Day

Last Sunday I was able to brew up the 1120 IPA recipe I shared a couple weeks ago.  The brew day went well and my primary fermentation is winding down, 7 days later.  I will be adding my dry hops to the primary fermenter in the next day or two.  I’ll let those sit for about a week and then I’ll transfer the beer to the secondary.  At that point I’ll let it clear further and age for another week or two and then bottle the batch.  The only slight problem with the brew day was my auto-siphon got clogged at the end with hop flowers, so my final volume ended up a bit short, I only got about 5 gallons into the primary, I usually shoot for between 5.25 and 5.5 gallons.

Oh, and if you were curious I ended up going with Nottingham Ale yeast for this batch.  I fermented at 57F, it took a full 24 hours to see action from the yeast at this cool temperature, but once it got going it fermented slowly and steadily through much of the week.  It will be interesting to see how this beer tastes, I never have fermented an ale at this low of a temperature.  I’ll post back in a couple months with a tasting.  Here are a few pictures I thought you may enjoy from my brew day last Sunday.

1120 IPA Grains

Here is the grain bill mixed throughly before adding to the mash tun.  The non-barley specs are flaked barley, which I think will give this IPA just a bit of a creamy mouthfeel.

Bittering Addition

The bittering addition, added at the beginning of the boil.  The whole hops are Amarillo and the pellets are Cascades.

Mash after draining

Here is the mash after draining, before the first sparge, smells SO good!

Draining into brew kettle

Draining the first runnings from the mash tun into the kettle.  I have the burner on low after running off to stop any further enzyme action that may be going on.

Rolling boil

Ah, a full rolling boil, you can see the whole hop flower pieces if you look closely.

Well there you have it, another enjoyable brew day!  I can’t wait until this one is ready!  Are you brewing anything soon?