Sneaky Extra Brewday: Galaxy Wet Hopped IPA

Most of the gang

Yesterday we had the first meeting of our new home brew club, Hobart Brewers. There were 24 people present and several more who couldn't make it but are planning on coming along in the future. That's a pretty good start! We had a fun evening planning, talking about some fun stuff we'll be able to do as a club and enjoying a few beers. It seems like we're all pretty much wanting the same kinds of things out of the club - enthusing with other brewers, learning more about the craft and evaluating beer. I can't wait for the next meeting.

On top of that, at the end of the meeting we had a 20kg bag of fresh picked Galaxy hops to divvy up thanks to Owen Johnston and Hop Products Australia. The smell in the room was incredible and standing around stuffing bags with hops was a fun way to finish things off. We live in a great place to have a home brew club!

Duncan with his head in the bag while John
waits to see if he passes out in the hop fumes

I managed to come away with the leftovers after everyone had their fill and ended up with somewhere around 3kg of fresh hops. Today's task was to brewed a beer to make use of as much of that 3kg as I could.

After the meeting I didn't have enough energy to brew an all grain batch so I went with a simple extract recipe similar to Huw's Magical Mystery IPA. The whole brewday was a bit of a free kick as I had no real plans and a pile of Galaxy to play with. It's the first time in my brewing adventures where not wasting hops meant using as many as possible! If only every day was like this.

Since I had way more hops than I could use I decided to avoid adding them to the boil completely and gain all the bitterness I wanted from a flame out addition. From what I've read wet hops are worth 1/5 of the same weight of dried hops so assuming the alpha acids would be similar to last year's 13.9%, I aimed to add enough at flame out to get into the 60-65 IBU range. I normally calculate a 20-25 minute hop stand as a 10 minute addition so with a 25 minute hop stand I figured 750g of Galaxy (equivalent to 150g of dried) would be worth roughly 60-65 IBU. After the 25 minute stand I chilled for a couple of minutes to get the temperature of the wort down to 80C and added more hops. It was going to be a matching 750g but when I was shovelling the hops into the box I thought 'why stop there?' and brought it up to 1.5kg of hops. I'm not going to be dry hopping this one as the remaining hops will have deteriorated too much by then so I figure over the top is the way to go with the hop stand.

It's hard to stop smiling when you're pouring
1.5kg of hops into a 20L batch of beer

It was a relaxing brew that didn't require much energy or attention beyond inhaling deep breaths of fruity, dank hop goodness and grinning stupidly. It was so much fun to be extravagant and over the top with the hopping. My kitchen smelled heaps like Sierra Nevada's Southern Harvest turned up to 11. If the end product is in that ballpark I'll be very happy.

I don't have any room in my fermentation fridges so this one got packed up in the car and driven to my brother's place where it'll have an entire chest freezer in which to luxuriate. Extra fermentation space, that's what brothers are for.

Hopefully we'll get to sample a bunch of the fresh Galaxy creations in the next club meeting. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else does with their hops!


Galaxy Fresh Hop IPA (20L extract batch)

Jiggling the chiller to get all the hops into
the wort.

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.012
IBU: 60-65 (estimated)
EBC: 17 (estimated)
ABV: 6.9%


Recipe
89.5% Light dried malt extract
5.5% NFH Crackerjack biscuit malt
5% Dextrose

750g Fresh Galaxy hops @ 0 minutes (30 minute steep)
1.5kg fresh Galaxy hops added @ < 80C (50 minute steep)

US-05


Method
Boil:

• 60 minute boil
• 1/2 tab of whirlfloc @ 10 minutes
• 750g Galaxy @ 0 minutes, steeped for 30 minutes




It's not very clear but all those little specks
 are bits of lupulin emerging from the cones

• 1.5kg Galaxy @ < 80C, steeped for 50 minutes

Fermentation:

• Oxygenated for 90 seconds
• Pitched 21g of US-05
• Started fermentation @ 18C

20/03/14 - Brewed

Tasting: Dave's IPA (aka Huw's Magical Mystery IPA)

Huw's been a regular brewing assistant over the last 4 months or so. Without him, I would never have been able to get the wedding and birthday beers done. After all his brewing experience over the last few months he's kicked off on his own and brewed his first solo beer, an extract and specialty grains IPA.

Aroma: Pine, lychee, passionfruit and pineapple.
Appearance: Pale gold, good, sticky white head and a decent amount of haze that seems to be partly from yeast and I'm guessing some from the dry hopping.
Flavour: The hop assault hits first, fruit and pine and some spicy hop business. That's followed by a restrained light cracker flavour from the malt and finishing with a bitterness that lets you know you're drinking an IPA. Not much sweetness, it's nice and crisp. The flavours work very nicely together.
Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel on the light side, carbonation not too effervescent, the absence of most of the malt makes it feel lighter even though the actual FG is 1.015.

Wow! What a first effort! It took me ages to brew a beer this good and Huw's managed it on his first go. He's managed to brew it well, ferment it cleanly and has produced a crisp, drinkable IPA with a range of flavours that cohere nicely. I'd never have guessed it's an extract brew if I didn't already know.

It's good to see Ella and Galaxy working nicely in combination. One of my goals this year was to get to know our locally grown hops better and this is a good start. There's some of the characteristic Galaxy passionfruit and a slight dankness but it's not overwhelming Ella at all. There's a pine quality which is the dominant part of the the aroma

As an IPA it's pretty much just what I like. The malt is taking a back seat and the hops are doing their job well. It doesn't have that hop sweetness that can be a problem for some fruity IPAs, it just finishes crisply with a nice bitterness. It's not what many people would describe as balanced but the balance is just what I like in an IPA.

Next time: There isn't much to be picky about with this beer. I guess working on the clarity would be one thing. If I was going to change anything I'd probably increase the dry hop rate to the same as the flame out addition to give the aroma a little more pop.


For reference, the recipe:

Huw's Magical Mystery IPA (23L batch)
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.011 (1.015 measured)
IBU: 54
EBC: 9
ABV: 6.7% (6.1% measured)

90% light dried malt extract
4% NFH Crackerjack (biscuit malt)
6% corn sugar

23 IBU of Aramis @ 60 min (any clean bittering hop is fine)
2.1g/L of Galaxy @ flame out (16 IBUs with a 20 minute hop stand)
2.1g/L of Ella @ flame out (15 IBUs with a 20 minute hop stand)
1.3g/L of Galaxy @ dry hop
1.3g/L of Ella @ dry hop

US-05 yeast

Brewday: Sideshow Brett - 100% Brett Baby IPA

The low gravity (aka Baby) IPA-style beer is a beer I keep coming back to. Big hop aroma, nice bitter kick but very drinkable. I know some people think it's stupid to call it an IPA when pale ale is the category for a pale hoppy beer that's lighter than an IPA. Still, I think that when the balance of bitterness is on the side of the IPA, the IPA label is appropriate and even helpful. If a label like IPA has any meaning, it's to give people an idea of what to expect before they drink it.

I've brewed several of these over the years with some good results and they're always somewhere on my torturously long list of 'what I'd like to brew next'. I've also been aiming to brew some kind of Brett IPA since August but between competitions, events and a couple of seasonal brews, I haven't been able to get to it until now. So here we are, two birds, one stone.

The yeast I used is fairly exotic. Last year my brother posted me a jar of Brett II from Saccharolicious, a home brew yeast supplier in Sweden. I've been itching to try it out in a beer but haven't gotten past making a starter. The starter gave me heaps of strawberry aroma and I'm hoping that those esters make it into the finished beer. I'm flying blind with regard to temperature and the esters it will give in primary fermentation so we'll just have to see how it goes.

The recipe is pretty much what I've used before for a 'clean' Baby IPA except for a smallish addition of flaked oats to ensure the beer has a decent body. Vienna and biscuit malt are there to maximise the malt flavour which is important in helping a low gravity beer punch above its weight. I've used it in the past with good results. With the hop combination I'm shooting for a big fruity and floral punch with plenty of bitterness to back it. Hopefully the Brett will give an extra dimension to the hops.

The good stuff! Crackerjack biscuit malt.

I'm still fairly new at 100% brett fermentations but these seem to be the key differences between a 100% brett beer and a 'clean' Saccharomyces fermentation:

• Add some extra lactic acid/acidulated malt after the mash conversion is complete to get more fruity esters from the Brett. The lactic acid is converted during fermentation to ethyl lactate which can add creamy and fruit aromas.
• A brett fermentation can leave a thin mouthfeel. It's a good idea to mash a bit higher than normal and maybe add flaked oats/barley/rye for body.
• It's a good idea to grow up a bigger starter than with saccharomyces. I aimed for a pitching rate of 1.25 million cells/ml/degree plato or around 245 billion cells total. Most people seem to suggest something between standard ale and lager pitching rates.
• Keep oxygen out! Brett tends to produce acid/funk when it's got access to oxygen, the aroma of my starter was crazy. We're talking about the stinkiest washed rind cheese smell ever, it was crazy. The original unstirred starter was all strawberry, hopefully that's what I get from the beer.
• Fermentation temperature is a bit of an unknown for me with this yeast but it seems to be higher than I'd normally ferment an IPA. The yeast didn't come with any documentation so I'm making a guess based on WLP644 Brett Trois which says 21-29C. I started conservatively at 19C but it was sluggish until I increased it to 21C.

Hop stew: post boil hop stand

Sideshow Brett Baby IPA (22L batch)
OG: 1.035 (1.037 measured)
FG: 1.007
IBU: 35
EBC: 8.3
ABV: 3.9%

Recipe
88% Golden Promise
7% NFH Crackerjack (biscuit malt)
5% Flaked oats

5g Columbus @ 45 minutes
20g Simcoe @ 10 minutes
20g Galaxy @ 10 minutes
20g Centennial @ 10 minutes
30g Simcoe @ dry hop
30g Galaxy @ dry hop
30g Centennial @ dry hop

Brett II from Saccharolicious


Method
Mash:

• 8g CaSO4, 2g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 to increase the calcium and sulfate. 3ml lactic acid added during mash out to encourage the production of ethyl lactate.
• Stepped mash: 66C (45 min), 72C (15 min) and a mash out at 78C.

Boil:

• 60 minute boil with hop additions as above at 45 and 10 minutes.
• Irish moss @ 15 minutes.

Fermentation:

• Chilled but didn't oxygenate this time. 
• Started fermentation at 20C, increased to 22C over 7 days.

31/01/14 - Brewed with help from Sacha

12/02/14 - Krausen has mostly dropped, I'll take a gravity reading in the next day or two and hopefully dry hop & bottle within the week.

22/02/14 - Finally got around to dry hopping

Brewday: Hansard's Delight Red IPA

My friend Luke enjoyed the Shepherd's Delight Red IPA, a Little Creatures Single Batch released sometime in 2013. He has a hunger for hoppy beers and asked me if I could brew a Red IPA. I said 'sure' and whipped up a recipe. That was at least 6 months ago and I never got around to brewing it. So I'm trying to mend my ways with my first brew for 2014.

The idea for this one is a deep red colour leaning towards black. People on the AHB forum recommend a combination of 5% CaraAroma and 1% Roast Barley to achieve a red colour so I went with that and made up the remaining 94% with Golden Promise and some munich malt. This was a chance to focus on presentation both in terms of colour and clarity so I hope it comes out with something that can be legitimately called red, not brown. The results during the brew looked promising.

For hops I went with a modest first wort hop addition and then added a heap of Galaxy and Centennial at the end of the boil for a hit of passionfruit, citrus and floral hops. Then there was another heavy dose of Centennial alongside Columbus for the dry hopping. I went for bitterness on the high end of the IPA scale (it's got an estimated 70 IBUs) to give it a decent bitter kick with the high level of malt flavour.

This was Luke's first experience of the brewing process from start to finish and it was fun to introduce him to the process behind the beer he drinks.

Hansard's Delight Red IPA (21L batch)

Luke very seriously adding the final hops

OG: 1.063 (1.061 measured)
FG: 1.011
IBU: 70 (estimated)
EBC: 34.2
ABV: 6.6%

79% Golden Promise malt
15% Best Malz Munich malt
5% Weyermann CaraAroma
1% Roast Barley

25g Columbus @ FWH min
60g Centennial @ 0 min
40g Galaxy @ 0 min
50g Centennial @ dry hop
50g Columbus @ dry hop

Starter of WLP 090, for an estimated pitch of 300 billion cells

8g CaSO4, 3g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 went into the mash to get calcium up and raise the sulphate level to enhance the perception of the bitterness. I also added 2.5ml of lactic acid for pH correction.

Stepped mash: 64C (45 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) with a mash out at 78C

90 seconds of O2

04/01/14 - Brewed with Luke

Brewday: American Brown

I did a brew with Mark, a mate who just lives around the corner. We've lived near each other for about 2 years yet somehow hardly ever meet up. Among its many virtues, brewing provides a great opportunity to hang out.

We did a simple American Brown Ale. I went for extract + specialty grains instead of all grain for the sake of saving some time and helping him get familiar with that step in the brewing pathway. Colour came from some Carafa Special III, Chocolate malt and some crystal. I'm still trying to use leftover hops and I thought Citra would be nice with the darker malt flavour. I also added Columbus and Galaxy. 1.052 OG and 32 IBUs.

Simple and good. Hopefully.

Tasting: Galaxy Pale Ale

So the ill-fated Galaxy Pale Ale is now mostly in bottles. It's tasting pretty good although it isn't what I intended at the time. Fortunately I made several mistakes instead of just one. Each one added up to leave me with a beer that's somewhere in the Pale Ale/IPA vicinity so it's worked out well enough.

Galaxy Pale Ale

Aroma: very aromatic, floral, fruity, with a 'sharp' passionfruit aroma. It actually smells very similar to my Baby IPA which used Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo together. I'm quite relieved that it lost the 'dirty tea towel' smell that it had when I bottled it.

Appearance: pale golden colour, slightly hazy, 3cm head that left some lacing.

Flavour: assertive bitterness, some maltiness but it's largely buried in the hop flavour. The similarities to the Baby IPA continue with the hop flavour. Some citrus, some passionfruit, some resiny kinds of flavours.

Mouthfeel: the carbonation is just shy of medium and it suited the beer very nicely. It'll probably carb up a bit more, I'm drinking it with only 13 days in the bottle. It's quite dry and suits an IPA or Pale Ale pretty well.

Overall: Well, this isn't the beer that I intended to brew but it's still ok. Not amazing, but decent. If I was going to brew it again as a Pale Ale, I'd probably try to squash some more malt flavour into it and add some other hop varieties. This was my first time using Galaxy hops and they haven't wowed me. They're nice enough but not really doing it for me in a single hop beer.

As an experiment, I saved 5l in a glass jar and added some WY5112 Brett Bruxellensis to it. It's sitting in a dark cupboard and I'll see how that's doing in a few months.

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.