Greetings from Pennsylvania.

[Conestoga]

Hello, great site you have here! It seems to have a good flow of activity, which encouraged me to sign up.

I found this place through BIABrewer, and liked the overall content/demeanor relative to other popular sites based in my own country.

I've been brewing 23L batches BIAB style for about 4 months now, all of the IPA/APA variety. To say I am consumed by this new hobby would be an understatement. I never expected my beer to be this good, this quickly.

I've been quite taken by Galaxy hops as well, although I'm sure they are commonplace to most on here? I wish the US could get a steady flow of them, so I don't feel compelled to hoard what I have.

I look forward to picking your brains as well as contributing something positive to the community.

 

[Bizier]

Pennsylvania is in Romania, right?

Welcome.

 

[Conestoga]

Pennsylvania is in Romania, right?

Welcome.

Heh, can't tell if serious. You may be thinking of Transylvania? I'm in the Northeast of the USA, about a 90 minute drive west of New York City.

 

[lukiferj]

Welcome! I spent a couple of weeks in Philly 2 years ago. Beautiful city and great food. The beer situation was strange though. Liquor stores only sell spirits and wine and was hard to find many stores that sell beer. Yards make a few decent ones though.

 

[Conestoga]

Welcome! I spent a couple of weeks in Philly 2 years ago. Beautiful city and great food. The beer situation was strange though. Liquor stores only sell spirits and wine and was hard to find many stores that sell beer. Yards make a few decent ones though.

Yeah, our laws are still from the prohibition era. It's really stupid the way things are set up here, and it takes some scouting to know where the good beer distributors are. Although, there is a chain called Wegman's that have added a whole section to their supermarkets just for craft beer. It's built around the laws, and they have a fantastic selection. If you ever come back, look to Wegman's! Well, for 6 packs anyway ... you'll need an actual distributor for full cases and kegs.

We almost got the laws changed a few months back, as our Governor was gunning for it ... but it didn't get legs in the state Senate. Ugh.

Our state liquor stores are actually using tax money to produce cheap table wine that is sold in its own stores. That's pretty infuriating.

 

[spog]

Welcome to the site Conestoga,those liquor laws are bloody weird. Cheers ....Spog.....

 

[fletcher]

welcome mate! plenty of great BIAB info here.

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the Forum. Anywhere near Allentown / Reading? I'd love to go to Pa - if I ever manage to get to the USA I'll be going to cities that tourists never visit - no interest in Disney World or the Statue of Liberty, I'd rather hang around real places.

Apart from brewing, one of my more nerdy interests is architecture, Pa must have the most amazing examples of colonial architecture on the planet and largely unacknowledged.

With my Welsh Connection it's interesting that along with other migrant groups of course, much of inland Pa was settled by the Welsh (coal and steel) and they took their architecture with them:

Houses in Cardiff, capital of Wales (former coal and steel capital)


Houses in Allentown Pa (former coal and steel capital of Pa)


Typical Welsh Village Pa, they even have a Welsh Chapel on the left



BTW I also BIAB, I'm beachbum on the other forum and your'e in the right spot here as well. :super: :super:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Heh, can't tell if serious. You may be thinking of Transylvania? I'm in the Northeast of the USA, about a 90 minute drive west of New York City.

Yeah, I think it's a joke.

Welcome Conestoga.

Galaxy is fairly plentiful, but I would love more Citra. It's always the way that you want what someone else has.

 

[Conestoga]

Welcome to the site Conestoga,those liquor laws are bloody weird. Cheers ....Spog.....

Indeed my friend, and thank you!

welcome mate! plenty of great BIAB info here.

Excellent, I have so many questions. I really like this brewing method, and I think you Aussie's really have things figured out.

Welcome to the Forum. Anywhere near Allentown / Reading? I'd love to go to Pa - if I ever manage to get to the USA I'll be going to cities that tourists never visit - no interest in Disney World or the Statue of Liberty, I'd rather hang around real places.

Apart from brewing, one of my more nerdy interests is architecture, Pa must have the most amazing examples of colonial architecture on the planet and largely unacknowledged.

With my Welsh Connection it's interesting that along with other migrant groups of course, much of inland Pa was settled by the Welsh (coal and steel) and they took their architecture with them:

Houses in Cardiff, capital of Wales (former coal and steel capital)

Cardiff Wales.JPG

Houses in Allentown Pa (former coal and steel capital of Pa)

Allentown Pa.JPG

Typical Welsh Village Pa, they even have a Welsh Chapel on the left

Welsh village in USA.JPG

BTW I also BIAB, I'm beachbum on the other forum and your'e in the right spot here as well. :super: :super:

Hey Beachbum! I haven't conversed with you over there as I'm relatively new (I'm simply "Rick" over there), but I know exactly who you are. I'm currently building a kegging setup and have been referencing your tutorial for the past couple days.

As for Allentown, yes .. I live just Southwest. My girlfriend lives just on the city line, and I spend a majority of my time up that way since my hometown basically sucks. Also, one of my best friends is an officer of the law there.

My favorite beer bar is a place called Tavern on Liberty. I've developed friendly relationships with the employees/owners there, and have given them samples of my homebrew already. Heh, once I get licensed to sell I hope to get tapped there one day. That's my ultimate goal.

The neighboring city of Bethlehem is nothing to sneeze at either, as far as architecture, but I'm no authority on the matter. My girlfriend is into it though, so I'm sure she knows many sights as far as that is concerned. She has lived in both towns, and points buildings out to me all the time.

It truly is a great state to live, and I'm proud to call it my home! Welp, minus the liquor laws of course ...

 

[Conestoga]

Yeah, I think it's a joke.

Welcome Conestoga.

Galaxy is fairly plentiful, but I would love more Citra. It's always the way that you want what someone else has.

So true, always want what we can't have. I have 1lb of Citra right now, and used it as an aroma hop in an APA. Now I know how Firestone Walker's Wookey Jack gets that pheromone aroma!

I can't say I'm too crazy about what it's doing in my APA, but it's still early yet. It seems to have overpowered even the Amarillo. I hear it dies out quick, but I'm trying to shoot for a "house APA" that is ready to drink quickly.

I'd gladly swap Galaxy for Citra as long as I can keep getting it! It can be a pain to get here as well, but yakimavalleyhops.com currently has it in stock. They have been weird on shipping lately, though ... and they really suck at vacuum sealing. 1 out of 3 bags are breached by the time they get to me, and I have ordered tons from them. :/

(recipe to shed light on above comments)

edit: for 21L into fermenter.

The Grain Bill (Also includes extracts, sugars and adjuncts)

Note: If extracts, sugars or adjuncts are not followed by an exclamation mark, go to http://www.biabrewer.info (needs link)

88.2% 2-Row USA (4 EBC = 2 SRM) 4510 grams = 9.94 pounds!
4.9% Crystal 40L (79 EBC = 40.1 SRM) 251 grams = 0.55 pounds!
3.5% CaraPils (2.6 EBC = 1.3 SRM) 177 grams = 0.39 pounds!
3.5% RedWheat (4.6 EBC = 2.3 SRM) 177 grams = 0.39 pounds!

The Hop Bill (Based on Tinseth Formula)

19.2 IBU Columbus Pellets (14.6%AA) 12 grams = 0.423 ounces at 90 mins (First Wort Hopped)
10.5 IBU Amarillo Pellets (8.7%AA) 28 grams = 0.988 ounces at 0 mins (30m Hop Stand)
8.5 IBU Citra Pellets (14.1%AA) 14 grams = 0.494 ounces at 0 mins (30m Hop Stand)
7.8 IBU Simcoe Pellets (13%AA) 14 grams = 0.494 ounces at 0 mins (30m Hop Stand)

Mash Steps

Mash Type: Pure BIAB (Full Volume Mash) for 90 mins at 65 C = 149 F

Mashout for for 10 mins at 77 C = 170.6 F

Miscellaneous Ingredients

1/2 Tab Whirfloc (Boil) 5 Mins - Clarity

Chilling & Hop Management Methods

Chilling Method: Immersion Chiller (Employed 30 mins after boil end.)

Fermentation& Conditioning

Fermention: Safale US-05 for 11 days at 19 C = 66.2 F

Secondary Used: Y
Crash-Chilled: N
Filtered: N
Req. Volumes of CO2: 2.25

Condition for 21 days.
Consume within 6 months.

Special Instructions/Notes on this Beer

Phase #1 Dry Hop - 28g Amarillo, 21g Citra, 15g Simcoe one day after fall of high krausen in primary for 3-4 days.
Phase #2 Dry Hop 28g Amarillo, 21g Simcoe, 15g Citra in secondary for 4 days

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Citra will dominate. It's a little like Nelson Sauvin (a NZ hop), go light with it, if you don't want it to be #1, #2 and #3.

YVH might be at the mercy of US customs, hence the breach. It happens here as well.

Have you tried Niko hops over there? Nikobrew.com and they have galaxy.

I tend to use Citra at 10 minutes, and I have recipe that has a few likes called Lord Nelson Citra, Cascading out of this galaxy pale ale. Sort of similar to yours as a Pale, but I've melded citra and galaxy with cascade to balance out the fruitsalad notes.

The other thing I've noted is that having a 'non-fruity' hop (like Chinook) helps in balancing those fruity hops out and giving a different dimension to the beer.

 

[Conestoga]

Citra will dominate. It's a little like Nelson Sauvin (a NZ hop), go light with it, if you don't want it to be #1, #2 and #3.

YVH might be at the mercy of US customs, hence the breach. It happens here as well.

Have you tried Niko hops over there? Nikobrew.com and they have galaxy.

I tend to use Citra at 10 minutes, and I have recipe that has a few likes called Lord Nelson Citra, Cascading out of this galaxy pale ale. Sort of similar to yours as a Pale, but I've melded citra and galaxy with cascade to balance out the fruitsalad notes.

The other thing I've noted is that having a 'non-fruity' hop (like Chinook) helps in balancing those fruity hops out and giving a different dimension to the beer.

Excellent, I did score some Amarillo and Simcoe from nikobrew a few months back, but I haven't looked there in a while. I did recently get a kilo of Galaxy from YVH, so I may be good until next season at least. I'm still going to hoard them, though.

Also, I think you also just gave a good answer as to what I'm trying to achieve in an IPA with Galaxy. I'm looking to round it out, and your advice here seems to apply to a question I just posted in another thread as well. Thanks!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

And I replied in that thread too. Should give you some food for thought, at least.

 

[Lincoln2]

Welcome Conestoga, one of my mates and fellow brewers married a Pennsylvanian. Her parents just came and stayed intown for 5 weeks. We gave the old man a tour of the brewery but he is an avowed Bourbon man. His name is Jack and he likes guns, you probably know him?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-some-people-live-in-pennsylvania,34527/

 

[Conestoga]

Welcome Conestoga, one of my mates and fellow brewers married a Pennsylvanian. Her parents just came and stayed intown for 5 weeks. We gave the old man a tour of the brewery but he is an avowed Bourbon man. His name is Jack and he likes guns, you probably know him?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-some-people-live-in-pennsylvania,34527/

Of course I do ... In the suburbs, every street has a guy named Jack who likes guns!

Haha, I'd go as far to say that most of us don't even say that much. It's "I live in PA" in most cases, I guess we just feel the need to spell it out if the person/people are ridiculously far away? Perhaps it's a Freudian slip reflecting notoriously poor knowledge of Geography, and we assume others are equally terrible at it?

Philadelphians might say "Sou-Phiwwy" or "Senner Siddy", for South Philly and Center City, as those people like to segregate themselves from one another for whatever reason.

As an American, this is how I find Australia on the map ...

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Sweet, I live in cat food.

Usually i'm referring to King Island and Flinders Island as the ovaries.

 

[MaltyHops]

Oh sheeit, now I can't stop thinking dog head and cat head when I look at the map - thanks a lot! :angry:



I'm in the cat's furry neck.

 

[ben_sa]

90 minute drive... how many miles is that? Im interested because i just saw a 2.5mill house which was only 2 hours out of Washington... heck... here in Adelaide 2.5 mill you could buy victoria square in the dead centre of the city...

 

[spog]

Of course I do ... In the suburbs, every street has a guy named Jack who likes guns!

Haha, I'd go as far to say that most of us don't even say that much. It's "I live in PA" in most cases, I guess we just feel the need to spell it out if the person/people are ridiculously far away? Perhaps it's a Freudian slip reflecting notoriously poor knowledge of Geography, and we assume others are equally terrible at it?

Philadelphians might say "Sou-Phiwwy" or "Senner Siddy", for South Philly and Center City, as those people like to segregate themselves from one another for whatever reason.

As an American, this is how I find Australia on the map ...

Ha! I'm neither ,that line runs through Port Lincoln,hmm,decisions decisions. Cheers. .spog..