Sippa's English IPA - 3rd brew

[Sippa]

Hey all,

This is my 3rd brew, thought i'd try and design my own recipe using the kits and extracts spreadsheet here on the forum. I called it Sippa's English IPA.

1x Coopers IPA can

2kg light DME

0.4kg Crystal specialty grain

0.2kg Caramunich specialty grain

approx. 20g of Galaxy at 10 min and a steeped hops bag, 15g of fugglies added to the fermenter.

pitched safale s-04 at approx 25 degrees.

Put it together tonight and OG came out at 1082?! the spread sheet predicted 1060 so I'm thinking I must have gotten a lot of sugars from the specialty grains, so now its more like Sippa's Imperial IPA. You think I got more sugars from the grains then the spreadsheet indicated?

Anyhow think it's going to turn out alright, just get me singing with the ferries a bit quicker. I enjoy intense flavours!

Oh yeah I have never used or smelt hops pellets/bags before tonight, how awesome is that smell?!

 

[Khellendros13]

With extract, there is not going to be much variance in OG from the predicted OG...I would say you didn't stir enough or dissolve all the malt. It will still ferment out fine though. I don't think 600gm of specialty malts will add 20 gravity points either...

Many people have said dry hopping fuggles is a bad idea, grass city apparently. Same with Galaxy if it is more than a few days.

Hops smell awesome

 

[Sippa]

Having undissolved sugars would decrease the SG not increase the SG right?

 

[Khellendros13]

Having undissolved sugars would decrease the SG not increase the SG right?

Sorry you are right. Did you have any chunks in the hydro tube though?

 

[Sippa]

No chunks, all seemed dissolved fine, the DME took a little to get all dissolved but I'm confident it was all dissolved.

 

[Alex.Tas]

I've had a few instances too where the actual og is higher than the predicted. But also lower too. Ill be interested to see why this occurs

 

[Rocker1986]

Is it 23 litres? I just plugged the recipe into the spreadsheet and it predicts an OG of 1063 in 23 litres, 1060 at 24 litres.

I'd be checking that hydrometer in 20C water - it should read 1000. That spreadsheet is usually pretty accurate at predicting OG's; you could understand variance of a few points but 22 points out is ridiculous. I doubt chunks in the hydro tube would affect it because they'd just sink to the bottom anyway. I also don't think you'd notice a 15g dry hop very much in that recipe, maybe it's just me :lol: but it has to be at least 30g even in a standard pale ale before I really notice any effect from it.

 

[Sippa]

Yeah its 23L, I had checked the Hydrometer when I first got it and it was reading correctly with water but I may just have another look at it tonight.

I still feel the specialty grains had impacted the total fermentables because there was a fair bit of sticky candy left in the steeping pyrex container after emptying into a pot for boiling.

OG aside it was bubbling away quite ferociously yesterday, had emptied my airlock and is forming a nice....... um...... what do you call that scunge that forms at top of the liquid? is it Kruesens or something?

As with the hops it is the first time I've used em so just imparting some bitterness with the Galaxy and some aroma with the Fuggles, Chose these as they are described as English style hops and I was going for an English IPA. Will see how it turns out but the spreadsheet indicated that it would be quite hoppy with those amounts.

Cheers

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah the specialty grains will affect the gravity reading, no doubt. But I reckon you'd have to use a lot more than 600g to get it up that high. The spreadsheet calculates the OG prediction based on any malt/grain/sugar whatever additions so these grains would be included in that calculation.

That sludgy foam at the top is called a krausen. B)

Fair call on the Galaxy addition, you don't want to go overboard with bittering to start with, I reckon it's a good idea to start small and build if you want more in a future batch. Fuggles is a good choice, I'd say at this point, stick with the 15g dry hop - I wouldn't notice it, but it's not my brew :lol:. Everyone's different and you may well notice the effect of it. For some reason I never seemed to be able to notice dry hops in kit brews, but as soon as I started doing it with AG brews it was very noticeable. Maybe I wasn't sure what I was looking for back in my kit days. :unsure:

Look forward to hearing how it turns out though mate!

 

[Sippa]

Hey all,

So the brew is finished fermenting, Final SG came in at 1021 from the 1083 OG, that gives me around 8% ABV :blink: . There was a fair bit of sediment and suspended particles but the taste of the sample seems promising. I will decant into another fermenter and add finings to help clear it up a bit before bottling.

Can't wait to taste the final product, I did notice however alot of that hop aroma has dissipated quite considerably from when I put it down fresh.