Mocha Porter: Disappointing Brewday

Today's brewday was a new version of my mocha porter recipe. Unfortunately, nothing really went very smoothly. For one thing the sparge got stuck. It's the second time it's happened but I'm pretty sure I know why. It's probably the flaked oats causing it to stick, but for some reason the last time I used this quantity of oats nothing went wrong. Well, lesson learned. I'll always use rice hulls in a batch like this from now on.

The next problem was that the grain extraction efficiency was awful. The final gravity came to about 1.065, when it should have been closer to 1.075. I'm going to take a look at the spacing in my grain mill, I have a suspicion that I'm not cracking the grains as much as I should be. This makes two batches in a row that have been lower than expected in efficiency. I'm thinking that because I haven't added the chocolate or coffee, I may just leave this as a standard porter and try brewing the recipe the right way in another week or two. Not sure yet.

Thoughts on the Amarillo IPA

The American (Amarillo) IPA in my chest freezer was tapped before I left for a wedding in Connecticut this past weekend. This was my first IPA that I've ever brewed, which is weird considering how much I love IPAs.

Pulling a pint tonight, it looks like the sediment has finally settled out, giving the beer a lightly hazy and light amber color. The aroma isn't as plentiful as I'd hoped, meaning I need to not be so paranoid about over-hopping next time. Only one variety of hop was used for this batch: Amarillo. It's a nice high alpha acid American hop that doesn't have the grapefruit character that Cascade does.

The beer could probably use a little bit more hop bitterness and a lot more character from finishing hops. I'm pleased with the recipe, especially for a first attempt at the style, but I'm looking forward to tweaking it and making it better.

Brewday: English IPA

Today was quite productive. Kegged my Brown Ale from a few weeks ago, tapped my American IPA that was kegged earlier in the week, and brewed an English IPA. My recipe for the English IPA, and notes on the brewday:

English IPA
Malt:
-10.00 lbs Maris Otter
-01.00 lbs Crystal 60L
-01.00 lbs Munich Malt

Hops:
-1.00 oz Northern Brewer (10.1% AA, 60 min)
-0.50 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min)
-0.50 oz East Kent Goldings (30 min)
-1.00 oz Fuggles (4% AA, 10 min)
-1.00 oz Fuggles (0, min)
-1.00 oz East Kent Goldings (dry hop)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 London Ale Yeast

I mashed this one around 156F to give it some body. In the end, the gravity came out about 5 points low at 1.055, when I wanted it around 1.060. I'm starting to suspect that my grain mill needs to be readjusted so I can get a finer crush.

Sampling the IPA

This evening I took a sample of the American IPA I brewed last week. Without carbonation and sitting around 72 degrees, it has a nice mild malty flavor that lets the Amarillo hops shine through nicely. The taste is pretty close to what I was going for... definitely a nicely balanced IPA, though it could probably use some dry hopping, which I think I can handle. I have a feeling it's gonna go down like water once it's chilled and carbonated. It's at ~6.5% ABV, which is pretty much what I was going for, and shouldn't be painful to pound on a hot day. :p