Hop Juice

[Beer-lord]

I vote Vladimir Putin!

[Brewbirds]

Sounds like you guys have a winner there. I'm betting all y'all will turn out great beers but the only way to tell will be to have an independent judge taste all three side by side.

Now who could that be.......?

Kealia I think they are going to be to dark for you so it should probably be me.

[Beer-lord]

Even the blow off tube can't contain all the yeast action. My new SS brewbuck has yeast coming out the sides! Yikes, I know I filled it rather high but this Giga Yeast is definitely living up to its name.

[BlackDuck]

So today was dry hop day:

image.jpg (102.91 KiB) Viewed 915 times

The gravity came in at 1.012, which is right where BeerSmith said it should be, but i'm a little confused. As I don't think it's quite done yet. There was no action in the airlock. But when I opened it up, I could see some small bubbles breaking the surface. So I wonder if it will drop a little more. It's in a Brewers Best Ale Pail and the lid that comes with it doesn't have the rubber o-ring under the lip and I always wondered if it's really air tight. So I replaced it with a sanitized lid from my other bucket, which has the o-ring. And as soon as I closed it up, I had some slight action in the airlock. Guess I now know it's not completely air tight. We will see. I will take another gravity reading next week before I cold crash. I can't imaging it's going to drop much more. Maybe down to 1.010 or 1.011 if it goes any more.

Now...on to the good part. As you can see in the picture, it's still quite cloudy. I'm not real concerned with that, I've had other beers look like this at this stage and the cold crash always takes care of that. The color was awesome, I wanted a really light colored beer, and once this clears, it's going to be right where I want it. The bitterness was there, but to be honest, it wasn't as pronounced as I thought it was going to be. It was a mild to medium, quick bite on the back of the tongue. The overall flavor was pretty darn good. I just thought it would have been more bitter. But, it's also not the finished product yet, so a lot can change from now until it's drinkable.

[JimH]

Lookin' good Chris!

[Kealia]

I love the picture with all the soldiers standing at attention in the background.

[Beer-lord]

With both FWH and a 60 minute addition, I would be surprised if it's not bitter but it's still early and if it's not finished, maybe the sweetness that's left is in the way.

Mine is still bubbling away and usually by, it's done. I opened the top tonite and I have tons of thick yeast still on top. This one is far from finished. If I could have saved the yeast that came out of the blow off tube, I could brew with it for a year!

[Inkleg]

Looking good Chris. Brewing mine this weekend, I may play around with my recipe (actually yours) and change mine from FWH to 60 minutes, I'll let ya know.

I've noticed taking the top off a Ale Pale will disturb the trub and release Co2 trapped in it causing bubbles, so it might be finished. I'm intersected to see if it drops lower.

Paul, I love you man. That's about all I've got. Except for, love you too Chris and Ron.

[BlackDuck]

You are right Paul...it's still early. I don't have any yeast or kraussen on the top anymore, just a few bunches of bubbles. I'm sure it will be fine.

Ron...as for the soldiers at attention, they are guarding the carboy of Pinot Grigio that is on the left.

Jeff...good point on disturbing the trub and releasing Co2. I'll take a look at the airlock in the morning and see what it's doing. Are you just going to do all the bittering at 60 minutes? I did both FW and 60.

[Beer-lord]

Jeff, don't go to the dark side, hit it with FWH & 60 minute hops. You be THAT rebel! Man love right back at ya! I've actually done this before but not with this much hops. I've done maybe 1/2 oz at FWH and 1/2 oz at 60 then killed it at 20 and below.

I am seeing tons of recipes where nothing is before 20 and they blast it from 20 to 0 then whirlpool and hop stand for 30-45 minutes and then nuke it again with dry hops. I have a recipe in the works with just that and I'm doing it this summer as a session IPA.

[Kealia]

As far as you guys are concerned, IPA should stand for I Pee Alpha-Acids!


( I can't take credit for that, I saw it somewhere else)

[BlackDuck]

Jeff...I think you were probably right on the Co2 being released. I looked at the airlock this morning and there was absolutely no action what so ever.

[Beer-lord]

First casualty of hop juice........rubber bung in the newish SS brewing bucket fell to the bottom. Glad I had another one but I hope it doesn't give it a rubbery taste. No way to fish it out as there's still 2" of krausen at the top. It was clean and sanitized so it is what it is but now I have an excuse if it sucks.

[BlackDuck]

AND.....it will no longer be my fault!!!

[Inkleg]

Don't you two have jobs?

Since you mentioned that the bitterness was not where you thought it should be, was why I suggested moving the FWH to 60 minutes or maybe do them at 90. Haven't played with the #s in BeerSmith yet to see what that changes, if anything. Just wondering what you guys thought.

The IPA I'm kegging has 2oz FWH and it does smooth the bitterness.