Hopsteader

Our Garden on Brew-Day

So its nearly 10C below freezing, and I’m stuck in the garage.  That is the bad new; the good news is I’m brewing an American-style IPA.  Big hop flavour, and enough bitterness to make my Merlins Mild crawl into a corner and fear for its life. SWMBO’d named this beer Hopsteader – a name I hope it lives up to.

This beer is brewed slightly differently from most IPAs and other high-IBU beers.  Instead of hop additions for the full 90 minutes of the boil (to get the maximum bitterness from the hops), all hop additions in hopsteader start at 60 minutes into the boil – a mere 30 minutes from the end of the boil.  This means a lot of hops go into this beer to get the desired 65-67IBUs of bitterness – the four hop additions (30min/15min/5min/dry) amount to nearly 200g – almost a pound – of hops.  By adding this huge amount of hops late in the boil, this beer will have a tonne of hop flavour and aroma, while having a strong (but not overpowering) bitterness.

Recipe below the fold.

Recipe Specifications
Boil Size: 26.10 l
Post Boil Volume: 21.84 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 19.50 l
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 6.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 66.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt         Name                                        IBU         
4.75 kg     Pale Malt (2 Row)
0.50 kg     Crystal Malt – 20L
0.35 kg     Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.35 kg     Munich Malt
0.10 kg     Wheat, Flaked
28.35 g     Cascade [6.40 %]           Boil 30.0 min    16.4 IBUs     
28.35 g     Chinook [11.90 %]          Boil 30.0 min    30.5 IBUs     
28.35 g     Cascade [6.40 %]           Boil 15.0 min    10.6 IBUs     
14.17 g     Willamette [6.00 %]        Boil 15.0 min     5.0 IBUs      
28.35 g     Willamette [6.00 %]        Boil  5.0 min     4.0 IBUs      
1 flask     Packman Yeast (from bank)
42.52 g     Cascade [5.50 %]           Dry Hop 14.0 Days

Mash Schedule: 
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 6.05 kg

Name        Description                      Temp     Step Time     
Mash In     Add 16.03 l of water at 75.4 C   66.7 C   60 min        

Sparge: 
Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.20l, 13.17l) of 75.6 C water

Brewing Notes:
I collected ~5L less wort during the sparge than expected – so I’ve reduced the boil to 60min in order to avoid loosing too much volume.  Luckily, the worts’ S.G. is spot-on, so the final beer should have the desired gravity.  Because all hop additions are late ones, this shortened boil will not affect the final flavour of the beer.