CNYBrew.com: Little bottling, little drinking

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Little bottling, little drinking

Tonight I racked over my still unnamed IPA and added the Willamette dry hops to both carboys. I had a taste and was really pleased with the flavor. This is going to be a great IPA. There were a few things about the brew day that I forgot to outline:

Step mashed - I used a step mash instead of a single infusion mash. I did this for more practical reasons of just questioning the amount of water that I could add to the mashtun with that volume of grain. The first step was 135 for 30 min and the second step was 150 for another 30 min. Finally, because we were not able to get up to 168 for mashout (short on room in the mashtun) and because it was so cold out, we sparged out with near boiling water. All day we were losing temp on water because of the extreme man cold that we brave for beer.

Finally I broke out some of the Tripel Nipple that I have been aging since January. It's great. I am really pleased how this beer turned out. It's a little intense on the tongue, but the banana and spices really make this a great example of a tripel. I need to dial down the carbonation a bit, but the recipe is spot on. I am going to need to do this one again.

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