OK… So, I have a fairly massive backlog of homebrew activity to report here, and I’m hoping to possibly get up to date over the next few weeks. Since my last post I’ve brewed seven more batches of beer – three more extract with specialty grain batches, two partial-mashes, and two all-grain brews. I’ve been keeping pretty busy, learning a lot, and loving every minute of it.

Again, I’m going to try to keep these recipe posts as short and sweet as possible, and just get the basic info logged for my own records, if nothing else. For my third batch, I went with Papazian’s “Palilalia” IPA recipe. This is meant to be a classic, well-balanced IPA:

Palilalia IPA

Palilalia IPA
Brew Date: Sunday, 2010.03.21
Bottled: 2010.05.11
Recipe: Based on Charlie Papazian’s recipe from “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing”
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
OG =  1.056
FG = 1.012
ABV = 5.9%

Malts / Fermentables:
—————————
6 lbs Amber dry malt extract
1 lb Crystal (60L)
4 oz Victory malt

Hops:
——-
1.5 oz Northern Brewer @ 60min
1.0 oz Cascade @1min
0.5 oz Northern Brewer @1min
1.0 oz Kent Goldings dry-hop for 20 days

Yeast:
——–
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
 – 03.19: first yeast starter using my diy stir-plate ~ 650ml H2o + 1/2 cup DME, boiled 15 min, added 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
- 03.20: stepped up the yeast starter, uncertain of specifics (bad notes)

Procedure:
————-
10:30am  - 1 gal bottled water heating in small pot for specialty grain steep

steeping grains

steeping grains

11:30        - steeping water reached 160੦F; grain bag with Crystal & Victory added; steep 30min @ 165 – 180੦F

12:00pm  - added steeped specialty grain wort to 5gal filtered water (@70੦F) in megapot

12:10      - added 6lbs amber DME; heat to boil, keeping lid on for heat retention

12:35      - boil reached; added 1.5 oz Northern Brewer hops

1:10pm      - placed immersion chiller in wort to sanitize

final gravity

1:50      - wort  chilled to 70੦F (15 min); began pouring wort into carboy, using funnel with built-in filter

2:10      - pitched entire yeast starter, without decanting; shook carboy for several minutes to aerate; sealed carboy; began cleanup.

Notes:
——–
- We had some ridiculously hot days following brewday. The fermometer on the outside of the carboy was reading 78F on the 22nd.  It was fermenting at least 6 degrees higher than the recommended temp range for this strain of yeast, so I moved the carboy to the basement after work.
- Moved the carboy back upstairs again when temps dropped after the first few days. I have since figured out some better ferm temp controls.
- I checked in on the gravity and temps far too many times for my own good on this one.
- I found some kind of “off” aroma  that I still can’t quite describe – my notes say “doughy / bready / wet dog”… but I think it may have just been green and smelling of yeast still. I have since noticed a very similar smell in a number of commercial IPAs, including Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo, which is one of my favorites.
- After a full month in primary (04.21), I racked this beer over to a secondary fermenter and dry-hopped it with 1oz of Kent Goldings, hoping to cover the mysterious off-aroma, and / or let it mellow out.
- bottled on  May 11th, after a little over 7 weeks.
- Tasting notes to follow…