Brewday - Imperial IPA

I'm still sick, still mostly stuck in bed, but still really keen to be brewing. My solution is to make someone else do the work while I get the rewards. The problem is that there are way too many beers I want to brew.

So on Friday my brother came around and was my brewing slave. I've got a 40l electric urn on its way so this is hopefully the last time I'll be brewing a half-sized batch on the stove. I was pretty keen to try out Galaxy hops for the first time and brew something big and imposing.

And that was my mistake. Thanks to a pot that was more full than usual and a gutless stovetop and really bad efficiency, we ended up with too much wort and an OG of something around 1.050. I should have known that it wouldn't work out properly with the equipment I have. Oh well, the first sample tasted delicious and it's just possible that it won't end up as nasty hop juice.

What it should have been: Recipe on Hopville

Artist's impression of the finished product

'Battlestar Galactica' 11.5l

OG: 1.081

FG:  1.016 

IBU: 128

4kg Pale malt

175g Table sugar

60g Crystal 120 ebc

40g Caramunich II

35 Galaxy @ 60 min

40 Galaxy @ 10 min

40 Galaxy @ 0 min

45 Galaxy @ Dry hop

Yeast: US-05

I took a sample yesterday and it tastes like it's going to turn into a nice Pale Ale. I don't know what happened with the bittering hops, it should be bitter enough to dissolve my tongue. But it's not, instead, it looks like it will turn into a happy mistake.