Kit 'O Beer #25 - Centennial IPA

[Glass]

Have not brewed in a while. I still have a fair amount of beer in bottles but the empties are also stacking up. Seeing as it's a 2 week ferment + condition time we might be running low by the time this is done. Thought I would take the Coopers IPA and add some Centennial to it. I'm sure I've got some of these. I want to do this as a Cascarillo as well at some point but it will be a few brews down the line.

The hop schedule could change between now and racking time. Also need to get a new tap for the fermenter. The seals on this one are looking a bit worn out now. Dry. I have some keg lube around somewhere but could not find it.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers IPA Traditional Range
1.25 kg Brew Booster - from the preferred LHBS
1 x 15gms LHBS Ale yeast
630gms Centennial pellet hops dry hopped

Changes:
Centennial hops. LHBS yeast.

OG 1.039
Volume: 23L
Fermenter: Coopers

Brew temp: 25C - ambient
Pitch temp: 24C
Current temp: 26C

Notes: The last time I used this malt extract I added an extra 200gms of Dextrose which bosted the OG as 1.046. With out the extra fermentables we hit 1.039 OG. Strong bitterness. Very malty biscuit flavours and aroma. I don't like the malty flavour on it's own but when there are still some hops in there its very nice.

I also did a yeast starter on this one. I have only done this once before and I said then I would do it for all future brews. Not being able to get it together I've only done it the once before. I have realised that most, if not all the beers I've brewed do have some amount of Diacetyl in them. From the Muntons IPA I did, which I said had a nice caramel flavour. Underlying that is this butter scotch taste.

While the beers are nice and cold it is not noticeable but as the beer warms up it becomes obvious. Some of the beers it's quite strong.

More Diacetyl is produced if the yeast is stressed during it's start up phase after pitching. It has to do extra work to get going and as a result produces more Diacetyl. One way to deal with that is to rehydrate your yeast before pitching and give it some time to get started. I did this for this brew and it worked well. 12 hours later and the beer has a nice ~1" krausen on it. It smells good and in fact it was smelling good after a couple hours. I keep checking on it to make sure the lid is sealed ok because the aroma is a bit too strong IMO and makes me suspect a gap somewhere. The lid just sits on top. Gravity does the work.

The cat seems to be interested in the smell as well and keeps going into the room and having a good sniff in the air.

[Glass]

Racked this to secondary and dry hoppage. I took my sweet time getting there. I was holding out for a cooler day but no dice. So we hit it this morning. Accident ridden beer apocalypse ... almost. Much spillage and a hop bag explosion.

Anyway about 60gms Centennial went in. We will think about it maybe Sunday or Monday for bottling.

This is the first time I've smelt Centennial on it's own. Very clear aroma that is part of the Centennial Simcoe combo of the American IPA's I've had. I like it. That combo pushes the pine aromas and some taste to the limit IMO. Will be an interesting one to experiment with.

[Glass]

Bottled today. 14 days on dry hop. Clear oh so clear. It's up there for clarity. Smells great. Flavour is more on the bitter side than cascade. You can see how they compliment. If you added Amarillo I think you would be as bitter as you need for an IPA. I think its pretty dry now. It could be very different if it was sweeter. Motueka Centenial and Cascade would be interesting. Not sure it would be great but it would be worth doing.

Lets see how it drinks. Week or so.

[JFN111]

2 batches ago I tried my first dry hopping. I think I over did it with the hops because it was a little to "hoppy" for my taste.
I've got 2 batches going now but I am going to try it again with a little less hops.

[Glass]

Hi JFN111. haven't seen you post in a while. Glad to hear you are still brewing. How much hops did you use when you dry hopped them? And what sort? Curious to see what kind/style of brews you have been making.

[JFN111]

Hi JFN111. haven't seen you post in a while. Glad to hear you are still brewing. How much hops did you use when you dry hopped them? And what sort? Curious to see what kind/style of brews you have been making.

I've been doing mainly Amber or pale ales, knockoffs of Fat Tire and Moose Drool. The dry hopping was a recipe called Black Magic. (I Can't find the recipe to see what hops I used).
Here's a review:
Brewed for 6 weeks; 2 weeks primary, 3 weeks in secondary while on vacation, then dry hopped for 1 more week. Been in the keg I think 3 weeks now. The bitterness has worn off quite a bit, leaving a very mellow brew. Little bit of chocolate comes through and then a bit of spice/fruit I'm assuming from the dry hopping. Was expecting a bit more malt and chocolate flavor given the dark color, but overall very good. Would brew again. (Posted on 11/29/14)

[Glass]

I was going to reply earlier when I read but had to get organised for the day. I find that the dry hopped beers do mellow fairly quickly. Maybe in 2 months most of the intensity is gone.

Apart from the clones I did which required to boil the hops, the only way I have been adding to these kits is dry hopping. I see a lot of people do a short boil with the kit malt extract of maybe 10 minutes, for flavor and aroma.

I might try this soon and also add some dry hops and see what differences there are.

[Glass]

Well its friday and as we know any day ending in Y is a good day for a beer. I thought I would try this one. It has some carb. It's fairly clear. toffee colour. The taste is pleasant. It is dry and a bit tart but no signs of any off flavours. The centennial is there in the flavour but it is not strong. You can identify the hops but they are not in the face. The aroma is centennial when you open it but it goes quick and you are left with something that smells like new rubber, neoprene kind of. Not smelt this before. In the past I've said a beer smells like old sneakers. This smells like new sneakers.

I think I need to start doing some 10 minute hop boils. See how that goes.

[BrewTech]

Well its friday and as we know any day ending in Y is a good day for a beer. I thought I would try this one. It has some carb. It's fairly clear. toffee colour. The taste is pleasant. It is dry and a bit tart but no signs of any off flavours. The centennial is there in the flavour but it is not strong. You can identify the hops but they are not in the face. The aroma is centennial when you open it but it goes quick and you are left with something that smells like new rubber, neoprene kind of. Not smelt this before. In the past I've said a beer smells like old sneakers. This smells like new sneakers.

I think I need to start doing some 10 minute hop boils. See how that goes.

Ever heard of hop bursting? It's basically how I make my double IPA, very popular here in San Diego. You might have one small bittering addition as first wort hops, but the majority of the IBU's are derived from massive late hop additions. Not terribly efficient, but the bitterness is a lot smoother and the aromatics and flavor coming from the hops is huge. I have 12 lbs of hops in the boil, 10 of those are added in the last 20 minutes, 6 of those 10 in the last 5 min. In a 90 minute boil, the first hops don't even go in until 50 minutes.

16 lbs of dry hops post-fermentation... yummy!

I would recommend somewhat less in a 5 gallon batch... ;)

[BrewTech]

The rubber/neoprene aroma is a phenolic compound. Sanitation issues or wild yeasts are usually the cause of that. High fermentation temps can also promote the development of these compounds.

[Glass]

The rubber/neoprene aroma is a phenolic compound. Sanitation issues or wild yeasts are usually the cause of that. High fermentation temps can also promote the development of these compounds.

Could be all/any of those. Long ferment opens the door for sanitation to get compromised. wild yeasts are possible. I've heard that mentioned a lot just recently by the brewtubers. Lot of hot days in 4 weeks and I'm sure we were up mid high 20's in the wort. I think high temps more than once is most likely culprit but I'll pay attention to all of them. I want to get a new tap on the fermenter. Been thinking about replacing it with a pail style.

Still looking for a fridge to ferment in. Dont really have the readies to pay what people are asking right now. Looking for a clean bargain.