Brew Day - Nico's Hop Experiment

 

Last Friday I received an order from Freshops!  I am a longtime customer and have always been happy with their selection and quality.   Along with 8 oz. each of Amarillo and Centennial, I opted to try a new hop called Citra.  It's supposed to be jam packed with tropical flavor and aroma and is currently all the rage.  Needless to say when I opened the bag, I was not disappointed.  These hops are DANK.  I left the pound ziplock baggie open inside while I was hopping the IPA I brewed today, and when I returned inside, the living room smelled like hops.  AMAZING.

On to the brew day!  I was so excited to get these new Citra hops that I decided to give them a whirl in a single hop IPA.  This way I will get an idea of the flavor and aroma and other aspects of this hop without interference from other varieties.  Here's my recipe.  My online free brew calculator has me shooting for an OG of 1.063.

Nico's Sun Harvest IPA 11/07/2011

5.5 gallon batch

10 lbs. Rahr pale malt

2 lbs. Flaked Rye from Whole Foods

.5 lbs. Crystal 40L

Irish Moss at last 15 minutes of boil

Mash at 148F for 60 minutes. 

.5 oz. Citra @ 75 minutes

1 oz. Citra @ 10 minutes

2 oz. Citra @ 5 minutes

2 oz. Citra @ flameout

Nottingham Dry Yeast rehydrated and pitched into wort at ~60F.

Damn these hops smell good!

I decided to leave the detailed instruction and photographs out of this post and future brew day posts.  If you would like to see more instruction, check out Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat from October 2011.

I cracked the grain and put the water on for the mash.  I wanted a lower mash temperature this time because I like a dry IPA.  I opted for 148F.

The mash sat for an hour as I did some other things around the house.  Andi and I have stripped and painted a china closet (we removed the top).  So I took this time to put on the final coat.  I think it looks good.

Tobey was tired and wasn't much help brewing today.  Between you and me, I think he did too many beer reviews last night.

Once the mash and sparge were complete, I decided to take a pre-boil gravity reading.  It came in at 1.050.  I think I'm right on so far.  With a 60 or 75 minute boil, I should be right around the 1.060 mark.  Andi wasn't much help either today...

NICO TIP

When you place a copper immersion chiller into boiling wort, make sure that the outlet tube ends are pointed away from you.  You may have inadvertently left a small amount of water inside the chiller and steam burns suck.  Use your head.

Anyways, I boiled the wort for about 75 minutes and added a ton of hops during the last 10 minutes of the boil.  Then, I whirlpooled the wort and let sit for about 20 minutes before I drained it.  

Check out how clear my false bottom gets my wort.  Damn sexy.

Once the carboy was full, I carried it up to the fermentation room.  I placed it in an ice water bath to cool it down since it was around 85F.

 

 Damn, that's a lot of spent hops.  I pulled some to the side so you can see the depth!

In the carboy pic above, I pulled off a bit of the wort so that I can test the gravity post-boil.  Below, I am taking a temperature reading and then checking the gravity.  I knew the wort was warm at the time, so it is necessary to adjust the specific gravity value depending on the wort's temperature.  It was 80F.  The OG turned out to be almost exactly 1.060 (adjusted for 80F, it's 1.062).  Dead-on!  BOO-YAH!!!

Nico's Dry Yeast Pitching Treatise

After a few hours in the ice water bath, it's time to rehydrate and pitch the yeast.  My equipment is below.  

Nico's Dry Yeast Pitching Method is the best.  Nico says so.  If you don't like it, don't do it.  You'll just be making inferior product.

Get one bottle of spring water, swab the top with rubbing alcohol, dump out (and drink) 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottle, alcohol swab the dry yeast packet and scissors, cut the packet and dump into the water bottle.  Put the cap back on, tighten, and shake.  Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes, shaking intermittently.  Pitch into your wort.

It's just that simple and that bad-ass.  Check out some action shots below.

I'm really looking forward to this IPA.  Updates to follow!

Kegging Time!

Well, it's been almost a month since I brewed Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat, and now it's time to put it in the keg!  I carried the full carboy down from my fermentation room to the kitchen and placed it on the counter top.

All that I need to siphon the beer out of the carboy and into the keg is an autosiphon, tubing, StarSan sanitizer and a keg.  Check it out.  In case you're wondering, the metal thing in the left hand lower corner is the top hatch removed from the keg.  I also have a bag of Centennial hops in the pic.

Looks like it's time to remove the empty keg from my kegerator, clean, and sanitize!  Below you can see the guts of my kegerator.  I will be removing the black keg.  In the pic I have already disconnected the grey gas line and black beer line from the keg.  The CO2 cylinder is in the right of the pic and attached to that is my pressure regulator which allows me to control the pressure in the kegs.

Now, it's time to clean the keg.  First, I remove the lid and spray in some water with my garden hose.  This loosens up any sediment at the bottom of the keg.  I'll dump out the water and repeat a few times.  Next, I fill the keg with one gallon of hot water and one tablespoon of One-Step Cleaner (a powdered no-rinse cleaner).  Seal the keg up, pump in a few pounds of CO2 to ensure a good seal, and shake for about a minute.  Then, I hook up the keg to the kegerator and pump out the dirty cleaning solution.  See below.  The Erlenmeyer flask is under the faucet to catch the dirty solution once I pump it out of the keg.

I repeat the process but use StarSan solution (sanitizer) once more.  Seal, shake, and drain baby.

Here's a Nico Tip: after shaking the keg up with StarSan, go work-out or have sex, then drain it.  This extra time will allow the StarSan's foam to dissipate and not remain inside the keg.  Now, for what everyone has been waiting for!

SIPHON TIME!!!

Remove the airlock from the carboy and place the autosiphon into the beer.  Pump it once and the siphon should begin.  Make sure the other end of your tubing is in the keg, or you will have one hell of a mess on your hands.  Also, your autosiphon or anything that touches the beer at this point should be sanitized (gotta love StarSan in a spray bottle).  Remember to spray the inside and outside of the tubing and autosiphon because Nico says so.  Check out the whole process below!

After a few minutes, the siphon is complete and the keg is ready to seal.  But first, I decided to "keg hop" this batch.  Keg hopping is a version of dry hopping where hops are placed inside the keg (rather than the carboy) to increase hop aroma and perceived hop flavor. 

I could just throw some hops into the keg and be done with it.  But, the keg would probably clog and Andi would get mad with all my swearing.  So, I decided to fill a tea ball with an ounce of Centennial hops.  First, I boiled the empty tea ball to kill any nasties.

Then I stuff an ounce of hops inside the tea ball, seal, and place it inside the keg.  The tea ball will keep the hops from creating havoc with the keg's inner workings.

Since I opted to keg hop this batch, I think it will benefit from a few days at room temperature to allow the hops' aroma to infuse better into the beer.  Otherwise, I would just crank up the regulator's pressure to around 30 psi, shake up the keg, place it all inside the kegerator, and wait a day.  The keg is now resting comfortably in the kitchen corner for a few days.

A few more days and Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat will be ready to drink!  BOO-YAH!!!