I've done it again!

[LouieMacGoo]

Brewed that is! I had an assignment from a book author to brew a recipe she will be putting in her new book.I can't give a lot of details but the recipe is an Imperial Rye that uses Delta & Bravo hops. I actually enlisted the help of one of my homebrew club buddies and it made the process so much easier. Also since this was for a book I really documented everything we did which actually helped me to think about the process and understand it better.

Anyway it felt good to get the brew pot on flames and cook up some wort!

Cheers

[jpsherman]

Never heard of those hops. Can you tell us what they are like?

[FrozenInTime]

I've also never heard of those. Tell us more?

Glad to hear ya brewed up a batch again. How long before they thing u can have a brew again? Me forgets.

[Inkleg]

Glad you got a chance to put flame to the pot Leigh. Wait.......oh never mind.

[LouieMacGoo]

The main reason I couldn't drink was because of the medication I was on. Now that I'm of the meds I can drink but I'm really going to ease back into it. I did have a couple of small samples while brewing yesterday and boy did it taste good.

Now about the hops! I was able to get the Bravo hops at my LHBS but the Delta hops I could only find at More Beer and they were a little pricey.

Bravo hops: 15.5 AA - A second generation super high alpha hops from the Hopsteiner breeding program released in 2006. Good bittering hop.
Aroma: Fruity and floral aroma.
Substitutes: Columbus, Zeus, Tomahawk

DELTA HOPS: 4.5 to 7.5 AA - A diploid aroma hop. a cross between fuggle and a male derived cascade hop. Mild & present, slightly spicy, hint of citrus. Substitutes: none

[Brewbirds]

Using Delta and Bravo hops are you maybe you should call it Special Forces Imperial Rye.

[LouieMacGoo]

A few more details:

As mentioned above I brewed up a recipe that was give to me by an author who is writing a book about brewing. Basically I have to brew the recipe and give my feed back of the process and ultimately the review the final beer. The beer as mentioned above is a Imperial Rye and it uses both Delta and Bravo hops. This brew is uses a huge amount of Rye, over 40% of the grain bill and the OG is estimated at 1.085 however after following the process outlined by the author my OG was only 1.070. I think it's because I did a 1 hour mash of the grains and rye, especially this much rye I think requires a longer mash time (1-1/2 hr) to convert all the sugars. Or I just had a stuck mash. Either way this looks like it's going to be a pretty good beer that should be in the upper 7% to low 8% ABV range. The recipe did call for 10oz of rice hulls that were added to the mash to help with the rye. Personally I think the amount of rye was a bit too much for this recipes and the flavor profile could have been achieved with less rye and more specialty grains. I'm just really puzzled by the difference in OG, 15 point is a huge difference.

[jpsherman]

This guy probably had this recipe perfected before he gave you the recipe. If his efficiencies were above average, maybe that could account for you difference brewing it for the first time. I bet if you dialed it in to your own equipment, and didn't have a stuck mash you would hit his numbers.