Brew Day - 4/14/13 - Double IPA

So, today's Brew Day (which was actually over a week ago...) involves several firsts. The first first (heh) was this is the first beer that I am brewing in my new facilities (i.e. our new house). We moved in last October, and with the garage being a total mess, I have been putting off making any beer just for sheer logistical reasons. Well, 6 months later, and the garage is still a mess, but a little bit more of a controlled mess. I was really itching to make something, so I set aside some space and some time and away I went...

That brings us to the next first (second first?). My new Mash tun!!

I've finally got a proper 10 gal MT and now I can start making full 5 gal All grain batches. Cool!

I need to focus a little bit better on my calculating because my mash temp was higher than I anticipated. I think I assumed that my grains were colder and adjusted too much. I'll be sure to get a better read next time.

Now I just need to get a bigger boil kettle because it's REALLY hard to prevent boil-overs with this "7.5" gal turkey fryer. I say "7.5" because that's how it's advertised, but I measured it and it's closer to 6.2-6.5 gal. If you look closely at the next picture, you can see the residuals of the boil-over... Oh well, one more piece of equipment to look for. This will make a nice HLT some day. BTW, I have found some great deals for 10 gal kettles over at http://www.homebrewfinds.com/ .

Ok, so the next first for this brew day is this is the first time I've used the super-hyped Mosaic hops. I was surprised at how fruity these smelled. A lot of pineapple and mango. I was expecting more citrus and pine for some reason. I don't know why. In any case, they smelled AMAZING before and after throwing them into the boil.

So that's pretty much it. I also used my new refractometer for the first time this day, but I didn't get any pictures of that. For the most part the brew day went pretty well. My OG was a little bit lower than I was shooting for, I think that is because of the higher temp in the mash. Not too bad for a day of firsts!

Recipe:

The recipe is based on a Ruination clone I found on homebrew talk. I used the same malt bill, but replaced the hops with what I had on hand.

Malt bill

14 Lbs Pale Malt (2 row)

1 lb. Crystal 20L

Mash - 152 Est OG - 1.077 (I hit closer to 156 and my OG was 1.071)

Hops

1.75 oz. Cascade hops (60 min boil)

1 oz. Citra hops (30 min boil)

1 oz. Citra (10 min)

1 tablet Whirfloc (15 Min Boil)

1 oz. Citra (1 min)

1 oz. Mosaic (1 min)

1 oz. Citra (dryhopped)

1 oz. Mosaic (dryhopped)

Hydrated US-05

14 days ferment @ 62

Then DryHop 7 days @ 65

Est FG - 1.013