Lessons Learned: In hindsight, I'm really glad I brewed the newbie Light Ale kit from More Beer before jumping into this massive Double IPA from 7 Bridges Cooperative. In a definite case of learning from my mistakes, this brew came right within the target original gravity range at 1.072.
The D-IPA kit's recipe and instructions are also much more clearly written and focused. Twenty-one steps to drinking a strong, malty American style IPA.
Yeast: Since I made the slight mistake of buying this kit two months ago, I feared the yeast might be getting old, so I bought an extra bottle of liquid White Labs California Ale yeast from Mountain Homebrew in order to double my chances of a good fermentation. Note to self: a yeast starter flask has to be one of my next acquisitions. After a few hours at 75º resting atop our toaster-oven, the old yeast was pretty stable, but the newer-fresher bottle was about to blow. As soon as I cracked the seal, foam began to erupt out of the top of the bottle. At least I had the foresight to have it above the carboy so that only a few million yeast cells were lost.
Just as I was running out the door to begin the sparge, two of the neighborhood Mormon Church evangelists came knocking at the door to spread the gospel. I had to tell them I was in a crucial stage brewing a batch of beer. "Is there a better time we should come back?" they asked. Since my love of beer far overrides any inclination I might have in chatting about a religion that bans beer, I told them a simple, "No." Which my wife considers rude, but I figure, why waste their time and mine?
7 Bridges calls the recipe a mash-extract kit. What this means is that you steep a 3.5 lb. mixture of specialty grains 40 to 60 minutes at 150º and then you do a makeshift sparge. Since my brew kettle holds 8 gallons, I steeped in 5 gallons of water, then had my wife pour another 1.5 gallons of 170º water through the grain steeping bags as I held them open. I managed to get only slightly burned in the operation. And the mash smelled amazing! Note 2 to self: either splurge on a larger grain steeping bag, or dive right in to all-grain brewing and get proper mash and sparge equipment.
Hop Schedule: This being a Double IPA, the recipe calls for six different hop additions. The second of my mesh bags came undone and spilled Belgian Admiral pellets into the mash, but they pretty much settled to the bottom and weren't a problem. At the 40 minute mark I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Irish Moss to the kettle. It smells like kelp that has dried on the beach. Very much like the sea. And I noticed the beer in the carboy clearing almost instantly after pitching the yeast. Very visible light brown particles formed a distillate that quickly sank, making a thick layer on the bottom.
The OG test sample I pulled also settled and cleared as it rested on our kitchen counter. Even in this pre-fermented state, the beer tastes pretty good; rich and malty but brimming with all manner of bitter hops. The hop aroma doesn't yet jump right out and grab your nostrils, but I have a plan to fix that.
Dry Hopping: In about a week I plan to rack to a secondary 5 gallon fermenter and try my hand at dry hopping. I enhanced the kit with 2 oz. of American Summit hop pellets for a grapefruit nose.
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