Membership questions? Log in issues? Email info@brewersassociation.org

Author Topic: Mad scientist brewday  (Read 1204 times)

Offline erockrph

  • I must live here
  • **********
  • Posts: 7788
  • Chepachet, RI
    • The Hop WHisperer
Mad scientist brewday
« on: July 15, 2017, 01:32:40 pm »
I had a short smount of time to squeeze in a quick brew last night, so I took the opportunity to try a few new ideas I've been kicking around. It was very seat-of-the-pants, and I felt a bit like a mad scientist as I was going along.

- There were few exact measurements. About 14 ounces of Pilnser DME and almost 3 ounces of CaraHell went into about 3 quarts of water and got heated to about 160F, where I pulled the grain bag. After it started to boil, I took it off the heat and added my hop addition at about 190F.

- Speaking of my hop addition, this is where the real mad scientist part came in. I have several varietal-specific Hop Shots that I've been needing to try, and not having any hop material in the kettle would be helpful for this extra-simple brew. One issue I've always had with the hop shots is that they don't seem to dissolve/disperse fully. I'm always left with a bunch of dark oil drops about the size of a BB even after a full boil and long whirlpool. And since anything trapped inside the oil globules can't get into the wort, I wanted to find a way to decrease the size (therefore increasing the surface area) of the hop extract.

My solution was to reserve about 2 tablespoons of DME and drizzle the hop shot over it bit-by bit, mixing every so often. It got to a play-doh consistency about half-way through, and ended up as a very soft paste. I added the paste and whirlpooled for about 10 minutes. It took almost the whole 10 minutes for the last few bits to dissolve. I ended up with a few dots of resin the size of a ball-point pen tip, and none in the larger BB to pea size that I would end up with in the past. Next time I'm going to go with a bit more DME in the mix (play-doh consisency) to see if that goes in to solution better. Overall though, I think I'd call this one a win.

- After the whirlpool, I poured it into my keg and added about a quart of ice (for a total of 1 gallon or so). The keg was still pretty warm, so it went into my chest cooler set to 30F for the night. The wort smelled very strongly of hop resin. It smelled a lot hoppier than plain hop shot wort, but it didn't have the characteristic Citra aroma I was shooting for (I used a Citra Hop Shot). 5 mL was probably way too much for a 1 gallon batch, so I'm going to pitch a mix US-05 and Windsor at a rather high rate to try to pull out some of that resin. I plan to ferment and serve in the same keg, too.

Should be an interesting brew. I'll keep this updated as I go.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline sn00ky

  • 1st Kit
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Re: Mad scientist brewday
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2017, 02:48:58 pm »
Can't wait to see the angles of comments around the ferment / serve keg! 

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk


Offline erockrph

  • I must live here
  • **********
  • Posts: 7788
  • Chepachet, RI
    • The Hop WHisperer
Re: Mad scientist brewday
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2017, 12:08:31 pm »
I hope to get some tasting notes up on this in the next few days. Last night I blew out the trub and connected it to my kegerator.

One initial impression: This is opaque yellow-white, a lot like white grapefruit juice. It looks like US-05 + Winsor is a good potential dry yeast option for NE IPA's. It also shows that extra protein/beta-glucan isn't needed for hazy beers, since this was just DME and a little CaraHell.

Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer