Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Brooklyn Homebrew American IPA


Hey fellas,
I spent today brewing (and fucking up) a batch of IPA from a recipe I got from Brooklyn Homebrew, a cool brew shop in my neighborhood. I did a lot of things wrong: I mashed too hot (about 165 ˚) for too long before I was able to cool down to my target 152˚, I added my clarifying tablet at the end of the mash instead of the boil like a total bonehead, and I had a spillover when I added my first round of hops. This was my second brew, and a good learning experience in terms of what NOT to do. Hopefully the beer will turn out okay. My OG was pretty close to the OG listed on the recipe, so things might not turn out too bad. We'll see. Anyway, here's the recipe. I bet if you don't fuck it up like I did it'll be pretty good.


6/28/11 - Brooklyn Homebrew American IPA (a.k.a. "Idiot IPA")
Recipe O.G.: 1.062

11 lbs American 2-row
8 oz. CaraHell
8 oz CaraVienne
1 oz Columbus hops
2 oz Cascade hops
1 Whirlfloc Tablet
Wyeast #1056 American Ale
Orange peel from my tree

Instructions: 
Heat 14 quarts of water to 160˚, then add American 2-row, CaraHell, and CaraVienne malts. Cook for 60 minutes at about 152 ˚, and seperately heat 4 gallons of water to 170˚. After 60 minutes, heat mash to 170˚while stirring constantly. 

Pour mash through sparging bag into bucket, clean brew kettle, and collect wort. Slowly and evenly pour heated water through mash grains until you have about 6 gallons of wort. Re-circulate wort through grain once.

Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding Columbus hops at the start of the boil and 1/5 of the Cascade hops at 15, 30, 45, and 55 minutes, add orange peel at 55 minutes, then turn off the heat and add remaining Cascade hops. Cool wort to 70˚ in ice bath. Transfer to sanitized carboy, pitch yeast, and shake vigorously. Insert one end of sanitized blowoff tube into carboy and the other in a bowl or cup of sanitizer. Replace blowoff tube with airlock after 2-3 days, or when vigorous bubbling subsides. Wait two weeks, then siphon beer through sanitized bucket containing 1.5 cups honey and 1.5 cups water and into bottles. Wait 2-3 more weeks. Get shitty.

I'll let you know how mine turns out. Let me know if you give this one a try!

Much love,
RD