My second brew day, partial mash/extract English IPA

[alcaponejunior]

OK. Here's the ingredients

Columbus Bittering Hops, 13.9% Alpha, 5% Beta, 1oz
US Northern Brewer Flavor and Aroma Hops, 8.6% Alpha, 3.8% Beta, 1oz each
Nottingham Ale Yeast, 11g (0.388oz) Saccharomyces cerevisiae top fermenting yeast
Briess Dried Malt Extract, Golden Light, 1lb
American Crystal Malt, 40L, 1lb
Briess CBW Non-Diastatic, Unhopped, Pilsen Light, 3Kg (2 3.3lb jars)

The entire detailed procedure/checklist, with notes and concerns and musings can be found here

My apologies for linking if it's not allowed. Checked the rules didn't see anything, but if there's an issue please PM me.

The main concern was that the mash got up to 164 on the thermometer for a very short time. Hopefully I caught it in time and the critical 168 didn't get reached. It was probably only a minute or two, and mostly at the bottom of the pot.

Also, OG was lower than expected. The recipe said it was supposed to be 1.067 but actual OG was 1.052.

[Bugeater]

You are fine about for the temperature on this since you are steeping and not trying to mash anything.

You OG will be slightly low if your volume into the fermenter was slightly high but this won't cause as much a discrepancy as what you think you measured. It is very common for the measured OG of extract beers to be lower than expected. This is due to the difference in viscosity of the boiled wort and the top up water used. It is extremely difficult to get it completely mixed. It may look mixed, but trust me, it isn't. Go by the OG listed in the recipe instead of what you measured. If you had boiled the entire volume in a single pot, your measured OG would be correct due to the stirring and convection currents getting the mixing done for you.

Hope this helps understand what is going on with your brew. Be sure to let us know how it came out.

Wayne

[alcaponejunior]

Thanks for the reply, and the advice!

Actually I hadn't thought about it when I wrote the post, but they altered the recipe from what was on the paperwork because they were out of a few things, so it's likely the paperwork was off from the ingredients they actually gave me. It's quite likely that my "target" OG was not what was listed on the paperwork.

I would like to think that the mixing was sufficient when I took the OG reading but I will take your advice into account and make very sure it's completely mixed next time. That could account for a slight drop in OG.

A friend commented on my blog saying he plugged the numbers into beersmith and they came up with an expected OG of 1.057.

And yes, I'll let you know how it comes out! I think it will be good.

[BDawg]

Sounds good overall, but the hops don't strike me as particularly "English". It will be a good beer, though.
NB lends a unique hop character. It has an herbal, almost minty character.

[alcaponejunior]

Sounds good overall, but the hops don't strike me as particularly "English". It will be a good beer, though.
NB lends a unique hop character. It has an herbal, almost minty character.

Minty hops are good. I'm going to have some extra centennial soon, might try dry hopping a gallon in my old mr beer keg, just for kicks. Heck, I'm learning, might as well experiment a little. Anyone care to comment on centennial and dry hopping?

[spiderwrangler]

Sounds good overall, but the hops don't strike me as particularly "English". It will be a good beer, though.
NB lends a unique hop character. It has an herbal, almost minty character.

The most "English" thing about the recipe is the Nottingham yeast selection, and even that's pretty clean. I see this less as an English IPA, and more of an American type IPA without a huge citrus hop character. That being said, if you dryhop with Centennial (which is a fine hop for doing dry), it will nudge it even more towards an American IPA.

[alcaponejunior]

Sounds good overall, but the hops don't strike me as particularly "English". It will be a good beer, though.
NB lends a unique hop character. It has an herbal, almost minty character.

The most "English" thing about the recipe is the Nottingham yeast selection, and even that's pretty clean. I see this less as an English IPA, and more of an American type IPA without a huge citrus hop character. That being said, if you dryhop with Centennial (which is a fine hop for doing dry), it will nudge it even more towards an American IPA.

To update, I went ahead and dry hopped for a week with 2 oz cascade. Bottled yesterday. The beer seems like it will be a little dry and quite bitter with a wonderful aroma and overall good flavor. We'll see what happens in a few weeks after bottle conditioning is completed.

I diverged quite a bit from the recipe by dry hopping with a full 2oz of hops, but what the hey, I like it hoppy!

Brewed my third batch today as well,a sweet stout.

Biggest difference in general technique was pitching the yeast. This time I aerated differently. I put two gallons of cold water into the fermentation bucket by letting it fall into the bucket from about three feet up. That should aerate nicely. Then I vigorously stirred again after adding the wort and bringing up to 5.5 gallons. After oxygenation, I pitched the yeast, waited about 25 minutes, then gently stirred.

Last time someone on another forum said I had "murdered my yeast" by stirring vigorously after pitching, so I'm trying it differently this time. Don't know if they were right or not, but if there was any truth in what they said, this time should be better. However, last time the beer seems to have come out fine anyway. FG was 1.012 on the English IPA (that's more like an American IPA).

All comments welcome.

[spiderwrangler]

You didn't murder your yeast by stirring. Your conscience can be clear.