Kit 'O Beer #27 - IPA CascArillo 10 minute boil

[Glass]

I wanted to boil some hops into this beer as well as dry hopping later on. I boiled about 37gms of both Cascade and Amarillo for 10 minutes in 1Kg of DME and 3.5L of water. I had another 1.5L boiled water to rinse the IPA malt.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers IPA
1 kg Might Malt Extract - from the preferred LHBS
1 x 7gms Coopers premier yeast - 24hr yeast starter

Changes:
None

OG 1.036
Volume: 23L
Fermenter: Coopers

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

Notes:
Low OG on this one. I have to remember that LDM is not as strong as the other malt mixes I've used. Needed another 250gms. I actually had half a box of LDE 500gms that I used yesterday to start the yeast off. Should have chucked this in.

I created a starter using about 250gms of LDE, boiled, cooled and yeast added. I tried to keep the temps up to the starter. Had it in the oven with just a touch of heat.

I have not done this before. The result was a decent yeast cake that I swirled into solution and added to the fermenter at 24C. I decanted maybe 1L from this and then used about 1cup 250mls remaining to swirl it around. I hope this is the right way to do it.

The reason for doing this is trying to reduce these off flavours and smells. #26 is a nice beer but the off tastes and smells are pretty intense in that beer. It keeps cropping up so I need to change something.

I added the yeast, it is mostly settled on the bottom, so I hope it takes off ok.

Taste: bitter. very bitter. Could end up being something like Torpedo.

[Glass]

This one is sitting at 1.010. Nicely done. Tastes very good. Great hop flavours. It is bitter though. I am tossing up dry hopping or not. I think I will dry hop with Cascade only. IMO more Amarillo is not necessary. That one tends to be bitter. I'm thinking maybe throwing another hop instead of either of those. Galaxy would be ok. I think there could be something better or sweeter. More fruits. Citrus or the passion ones. Maybe Cascade is the one after all.

Very good so far.

[BrewTech]

This one is sitting at 1.010. Nicely done. Tastes very good. Great hop flavours. It is bitter though. I am tossing up dry hopping or not. I think I will dry hop with Cascade only. IMO more Amarillo is not necessary. That one tends to be bitter. I'm thinking maybe throwing another hop instead of either of those. Galaxy would be ok. I think there could be something better or sweeter. More fruits. Citrus or the passion ones. Maybe Cascade is the one after all.

Very good so far.

Dry hopping won't add bitterness; boiling is required to convert alpha acids to iso-alpha acids, which are the bittering components.

Galaxy is a really good choice... I think you would like Simcoe as well.

[Glass]

Thanks. I know what you mean. I think the Amarillo is a bit drier than Cascade. To me it comes across like bitter. Even though it's only dry hoppage.

I think I will stick to the original plan on this one but line up another one soon. I got 2 other brews already lined up after this one so it could be a few brews down the line before I get back to an IPA.

Racking this one shortly. An hour or so.

[Glass]

Racked this one today.

40gms Amarillo
40gms Cascade

We will let that one sit for 5 days or so. Very very dry. I didn't think much on the hop flavour intensity.

Also noticed that the tap was not properly seated. It was a significant amount. It pushes in and has a hook to retain it. Not hooked. Obviously pleased it did not give way. Need a new tap as the sealing silicone ring is tired. I put some keg lube on it today. It's proprietary design so need to get from Coopers.

Anyway using it again for another brew. About a 4 hour turn around.

[Glass]

Just bottled this one. Some number of bottles. I think more than 60 x 330ml/11oz. A bit of a mix of bottles. Moving away from the brown screw off crown bottles I've been using. Replacing with the proper crowns. I am running green bottles, proper crowns for light ales. Brown bottles for IPA or dark beers. The old brown ones were about 1oz bigger than the ones I'm using now. so you pick up an extra bottle or two.

This is one sweet tasting, smelling beer. At a quick whiff I'm thinking berry smell of some sort. It's a nice combo of hops. Very dry but if it comes out as clean as it went into the bottles I'll be a very happy camper.

You just want to stick your head in the fermenter and suck as much down as you can.

[Glass]

Tasting this one. I've had one previous. It had strong butterscotch flavour at about 10 days. Diacetyl Very bitter. No hop flavours or aromas. Now it is cleaner. No butterscotch. Still no hops to speak of. Is a bit more bitter than straight recipe. It's ok. Great carb. Soft mouth feel. One of the better ones for a clean taste. Hop result a shame.

[BrewTech]

Tasting this one. I've had one previous. It had strong butterscotch flavour at about 10 days. Diacetyl Very bitter. No hop flavours or aromas. Now it is cleaner. No butterscotch. Still no hops to speak of. Is a bit more bitter than straight recipe. It's ok. Great carb. Soft mouth feel. One of the better ones for a clean taste. Hop result a shame.

There was probably enough yeast present in the bottle to reabsorb the diacetyl, which is good for you. Diacetyl in the finished beer is a relatively easy thing to avoid... post-fermentation rest before separating from the yeast(I give my beers up to 3 days, just to be sure) and avoiding O2 pickup, which will oxidize VDKs, the precursors to diacetyl.

[Glass]

This beer turned out really nice. The bitterness reduced a little bit. I thought I had finished this a couple weeks back, then found another small stash which was a bonus.

The 24 hr yeast starter made a big difference in my opinion. I will try and avoid pitching dry yeast from here on out. If I can get the same result from just rehydrating dry yeast instead of making a 24 hr starter I will. Certainly in winter is a hassle to do and keep warm.