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.