Ferocious IPA homewbrew

[757Hokie83]

Will do.

I know I could make one cheaper than buying by just getting about 30-50 feet of copper tubing (depending on how many coils I want) and the right fittings, but I'm just lazy, haha.

lol, I had those same thoughts when I got mine

 

[Sleepy T]

lol, I had those same thoughts when I got mine

I'd like to get (or build) one of the counterflow chillers. I hear they work really well.

Glad to hear the IPAs turned out good. I love IPAs!!!

 

[Cobrabit]

Dry Hop Day

Two weeks after brew day, it's time to rack into the secondary with 3 oz of hop pellets.

 

[Cobrabit]

After cleaning and sanitizing of course.

 

[Cobrabit]

Had a nylon bag, but with 3 ounces of hops, it would be a tight fit into the mouth of the secondary, so I decided to just drop them into the carboy and maybe use the nylon bag around the racking cane on bottling day to help screen out the hop particles then. Next time I may just drop the nylon bag with hops into the primary, but want to use the primary next weekend to brew the hex nut brown ale if I get a chance.

 

[Cobrabit]

Mmmmmmm. Cracked open the primary lid to a great aroma. My wife didn't think so as she ran out of the room back to the bedroom. She's been a little nauseous today from a stomach bug. Oh well, haha.

 

[Cobrabit]

For those of you that don't brew, that foam is from the StarSan sanitizer (not soap) and is perfectly normal and safe. Don't have an auto-siphon, so I started one the old fashioned way, of course after rinsing my mouth out with listerine.

 

[Cobrabit]

All transferred.

 

[Cobrabit]

What's left behind consisting of the yeast cake, hops, and proteins.

 

[Cobrabit]

Which ends up being about a third of a gallon.

 

[Cobrabit]

Hydrometer is reading around 1.016-1.018 which is around 6.25% ABV based on the SG.

 

[Cobrabit]

Now I wait another 7-10 days before bottling.

 

[Cobrabit]

Bottling day

Sanitizing the 16 oz PET bottles.

 

[Cobrabit]

Dry hops floating on top

 

[Cobrabit]

Good amount of hops and yeast sitting at the bottom

 

[Cobrabit]

Prepping the priming sugar. Used all 5 oz with 1 cup of water which is what I've used in every 5 gallon batch, but probably should have used slightly less since I had a bottle bomb last time along with many bulging the bottle out at the bottom. Will keep an eye on them and release any pressure that seems like it's too much to hopefully avoid the bombs and being over carbed.

 

[Cobrabit]

Transferring back into the primary bucket (with priming sugar already in there) using a nylon bag around the racking cane to help filter out the hops.

 

[Cobrabit]

A little over 4 gallons of yield. The missing gallon can be attributed to the yeast cake, proteins, and hops left behind during both transfers.

 

[Cobrabit]

I didn't get any pictures of transferring to the bottles since that required the use of both hands, so just imagine using the same racking cane and tubing to fill the bottles while clamping the tube in between bottles to avoid overflow. Ended up with a little over 32 bottles.

Here's what was left in the carboy after transferring. Looks like I may have been able to get some more out, but even with the nylon bag over the end of the racking cane, it was slow going with clogs and having to restart a siphon several times.

 

[Cobrabit]

Now it's back to the waiting game. I'll check on the bottles every day or so for the next couple weeks checking their carbonation to avoid bombs. Should age nicely between now and Easter and from what I could taste while starting the siphons, it's going to be a good one.