IPA

After waking from our food coma this morning we brewed another IPA. Compared to previous batches of IPA, this recipe was much simpler and had only 2 other malts. Other recipes have had up to 5 different types of grain and as a result the beers were too malty and sweet and the hop flavor was not as prominent as it should have been. I did make a slight mistake when I was shopping for the grains and switched one of the caramel malts with the amount for the biscuit malt. The beer will probably be a little sweeter and darker than originally planned but it shouldn't be too bad. This will probably be the last batch of beer before we make a lager at the very end of December/early January. When making lagers, after primary fermentation has been completed at ~49F, you raise the temperature of the beer to ~60-65 to perform a diacetyl rest. The rest allows the yeast to clean up off-flavors (diacetyl, which is a butterscotch type flavor) and then the beer will be lagered at 37F for 4 weeks. We are going to take advantage of the d-rest and brew a porter and ferment it in the fridge while the lager is sitting out. After that we will probably make a doppelbock that wont be ready to drink for ~6 months.


Side note, in 2010 to date we have brewed 94.5 gallons of beer. Legally, as a two-person household we can brew 200 gallons/year for personal conusmption, so we are under that but it is still a lot of beer.