Bayou Beer

All about beer brewing and drinking in South Louisiana.

American IPA Brewed with All Simpsons Malt

June 19th, 2017

So I have all this Simpson’s pale malt now. I will brew this IPA and then I will brew a third run at the Fuller’s Golden pride in which I’ll reduce the Crystal by half again.

Used Brewer’s Friend to try and further rehabilitate my water since I got my report back from Ward labs. My IPAs are always hit and miss. They’re always pretty good but sometimes they’re phenomenal and win awards at Dixie Cup or Clash of the Carboys. Generally the same recipe but now I’m paying closer attention to total oil content on hops as well as trying to remove water as a somewhat unknown. The hop additions will be all whirlpool. All that being said this beer is very much a new approach.

In addition to the recipe below I will be adding an ounce or two of Ariana hops which are said to add a big fruity note as a dry hop.

Update 6/22/2017

So I’m not going to trust my memory for hop inventory anymore. Ended up having to sub out hops. All whirlpool. 2 ounces each of Centennial, Mosaic and Citra. Still going to stick with my dry hop plan. Brew day went well overall.

Update 8/5/2017

This beer got overall “meh” marks at the Clash of the Carboys. 33 isn’t terrible. I would agree with that to a degree. Don’t care for Arianna. Wish I’d added some Simcoe. But the beer was nice and the keg did float. It did score better as a New England IPA which is what I would call it based on how it tasted compared to other NEIPA I’ve had. That wasn’t intentional here and likely had to do with the hopping schedule which will be noted if I want to brew that in the future. I am interested to see the judging notes.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	60 min	40.1 IBUs	7.2 SRM	1.058	1.011	6.1 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	21 A	1.056 - 1.07	1.008 - 1.014	40 - 70	6 - 14	2.4 - 2.9	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt, Best (Simpsons)	12 lbs	96
Crystal, Light (Simpsons)	8 oz	4

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Galaxy	2 oz	10 min	Aroma	Pellet	14
Centennial	1 oz	60 min	Aroma	Pellet	10
Mosaic (HBC 369)	1 oz	10 min	Aroma	Pellet	12.3
Citra	2 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	12

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	9.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Lactic Acid	6.00 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Safale American (US-05)	DCL/Fermentis	77%	59°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	150°F	75 min

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Pound Town IPA

February 16th, 2017

So it’s time to brew for Zapp’s beerfest. I’ve decided to brew a beer with 5 pounds of hops per gallon. I have a newer hop called Ariana I want to try out. Supposedly it’s an excellent dry hop for big fruity aromas.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min	45.6 IBUs	9.1 SRM	1.062	1.012	6.6 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	14 B	1.056 - 1.075	1.01 - 1.018	40 - 70	6 - 15	2.2 - 2.7	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	8 lbs	54.24
Munich Malt	5 lbs	33.9
Cara-Pils/Dextrine	1 lbs	6.78
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	8 oz	3.39
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L	4 oz	1.69

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Centennial	2 oz	15 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Simcoe	4 oz	3 min	Boil	Pellet	13
Mosaic (HBC 369)	4 oz	0 min	Boil	Pellet	12.3
Ariana	2 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	10.2

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Lactic Acid	8.00 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	7.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	5.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Safale American (US-05)	DCL/Fermentis	77%	59°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	150°F	75 min

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May American IPA

May 24th, 2016

Brewing up a small IPA / Big pale ale. Hopefully going to be a great drinker. The last one I brewed with 50/50 munich/pilsner was decent but not great. Brew day went fine with around a 1.058 OG. Had a short boil so we’ll see if the whole DMS thing comes to fruition. I doubt it with this beer.

Update July 4, 2016
Although this beer came out great I didn’t get near the hop aroma I want out of an IPA. So research research research and I came upon an article from BYO on hop aroma. Well I realized I’d been creeping my dry hop additions up further because of an article I read in Zymurgy concerning Sierra Nevada adding dry hops during fermentation to get more fruitiness and less grassy. Pro brewer advice from a few notable breweries(Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River) in the BYO article seem to indicate that you lose a lot of oil that way and can in fact hurt your aroma.

So the beer is half gone and I enjoy it. So I bottled a few and now I’ll be dropping some dry hop in to the keg. I figure 1 ounce of Citra for roughly 2.5 gallons should do fine. Using these tea balls I have hanging around should keep them from stopping up the out on the keg. Will update this again around July 15th!

The BYO article was “Advanced Dry Hopping”. Google it. I don’t link to outside sources because they tend to go away over time.

Update 7/5/2016
So I went ahead and dropped a tea ball with one ounce of Citra in my Hippidy Hoppidy rebrew from a couple of months back. The beer was just meh on hops likely due to the same reasons posted above. Well give it roughly 24 hours and the beer is much better and now something I like to drink. The Citra is very pronounced in the aroma and the front of the flavor. It smooths out in to that hop flavor that was there from the late boil additions pretty nicely as a transition. That beer like this IPA exhibited little hop aroma despite getting a nice charge of dry hop and knockout hops. I’m currently convinced a post gelatin fining addition is necessary to produce maximum aroma and flavor. I added the one ounce to the Citra IPA and we’ll see what it’s like in a few days.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	30 min	57.1 IBUs	9.4 SRM	1.058	1.015	5.6 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	21 A	1.056 - 1.07	1.008 - 1.014	40 - 70	6 - 14	2.4 - 2.9	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger	7 lbs	58.95
Munich 10L (Briess)	3 lbs	25.26
Carapils (Briess)	8 oz	4.21
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	2 oz	1.05
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L	2 oz	1.05
Special B Malt	2 oz	1.05
DME Golden Light (Briess)	1 lbs	8.42

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Galaxy	1 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	15.2
Centennial	2 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Amarillo	2 oz	3 min	Boil	Pellet	9.2
Amarillo	2 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	9.2
Centennial	2 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	10
Simcoe	1 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	13

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Lactic Acid	8.00 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	6.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	6.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	153°F	75 min

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Hippidy Hoppidy Rebrew

May 1st, 2016

Floated the rest of the last keg I had. I really enjoyed the brew for Zapp’s so we’re brewing it again. Adding a tad more crystal 40 and made minor changes to the hop schedule. Basically a little less simcoe and more mosaic.

The brew day was April 30 and went fine. Beer came out around 1.048 original gravity. Pitched and was bubbling well within 24 hours.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	30 min	43.9 IBUs	8.5 SRM	1.048	1.010	4.9 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American Pale Ale	10 A	1.045 - 1.06	1.01 - 1.015	30 - 45	5 - 14	2.3 - 2.8	4.5 - 6.2 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Munich Malt	5 lbs	45.45
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger	5 lbs	45.45
Cara-Pils/Dextrine	8 oz	4.55
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	8 oz	4.55

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Galaxy	1 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	15.2
Centennial	1 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Citra	1 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	12
Simcoe	1 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	13
Centennial	1 oz	0 min	Aroma	Pellet	10
Citra	1 oz	0 min	Aroma	Pellet	12
Mosaic (HBC 369)	2 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	12.3

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Lactic Acid	11.00 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	8.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	6.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Safale American (US-05)	DCL/Fermentis	77%	59°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

Notes

Didn't have as much pilsner on hand as I thought I did. Luckily I had pilsner DME at the houes. Original plan was to use Magnum for bitter but ran out so used Columbus instead.

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Cascade and Simcoe IPA

June 29th, 2013

Out of beer around the house! Time to try out some of this Simcoe and Cascade. Also been interested in putting a little wheat in an IPA since I’ve had some issues with body. We’ll see how it goes. Brew day is 6/30/2013

The brew day went very well. I think I have the new brew system all squared away. Hit a gravity of about 1.058 and did end up using Simcoe instead of Chinook since I didn’t have Chinook.(mistook citra) Looks great, smells great, pitched an active 1.5 liter starter.

Update 7/1/2013

fermentation was going quite well at less than 24 hours with an ambient temperature of 60F.

Update 7/3/2013

Fermentation about done. Adding dry hops on July 4.

Update 7/13/2013

Fermentation was not done! Upon transferring on July 5 the fermentation kicked back up. I transferred the beer to pitch barleywine on it’s yeast cake. It’s attenuation was pretty low and it instantly kicked up again. Should be interesting to see how this beer comes out.

Update 7/28/2013

Turned out to be a pretty darn good beer. Very tasty, good body and nice overall impression. The bitter on the end is a little harsh but I will probably submit this as an American Pale Ale entry in a competition.

Update 10/26/2013

This beer did quite well as an American Pale Ale at Dixie Cup in Houston. It scored 37 and was in the second round. No beers in that category scored over 40 so it was a little stiff on judging. Will brew again 10/27/2013 albeit with slightly different hopping and water adjustments for the sake of getting it a little better and less harsh.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min		13	1.059	1.014	7

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	14 14B	1.056 - 1.075	1.01 - 1.018	40 - 70	6 - 15	0 - 0	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	12 lbs	80
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	1 lbs	6.67
Munich Malt - 10L	1 lbs	6.67
Wheat Malt, Ger	1 lbs	6.67

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Simcoe	1.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	13.5
Cascade	0.5 oz	15 min	Aroma	Pellet	5.5
Simcoe	0.5 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	13.5
Cascade	0.5 oz	0 min	Aroma	Pellet	5.5
Cascade	1 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	5.5

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Lactic Acid	282.19 oz	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	35.27 oz	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	17.64 oz	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	17.64 oz	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
California Ale V (WLP051)	White Labs	73%	66°F - 70°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
New Mash Step	153°F	60 min

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Mosaic Amarillo Late Hop IPA

May 9th, 2013

So I will brew two beers tomorrow 5/10/2013. For my first beer I’m going to do an IPA. The second beer will the the Weizenbock further down the blog.

How it went on 5/11/2013

After getting rained out on Friday I finally got to brew on the new system on Saturday. It was a lot of fun but I’ve got to admit I really didn’t know what the Hell I was doing and was basically flying off how I thought it should work. I did have a few issues.

1. My efficiency ended up being pretty bad on both batches. I’m not used to working with a pump nor am I used to sparging with a auto-sparge which was a little clumsy for me. I think I ran off the wort a too fast and I think I mashed with too much water per pound at 1.5 quarts per pound. Additionally I think I need to adjust the mill and try a finer crush. My crush suspicion is due to efficiency dropping on the old system as well.

2. I’m going to bail out on the Blichmann therminator and go with the whirlpool chiller. On the first batch it cooled fairly quickly but I had to use a hop bag for my hops to prevent clogging. I don’t like having to use hop bags as it’s another variable. I already own a pretty good immersion chiller and I can buy a $30 addition for whirl-pooling which I think I’ll prefer. I got pushed over the edge when I forgot to use the hop bag on the second batch and ended up clogging the chiller some as it’s speed slowed. After I test and confirm whirl-pooling tool someone will end up with a plate chiller at a deal and i can re-invest on a second pump.

Why a second pump? Well I’ve figured out with two pumps, the hoses I have and the whirl-pooling tool I can boil/chill/recirculate/mash a second batch all in circuit without a whole boat load of hose switching or waiting for other processes to finish.

Despite very low gravities(1.05 for the IPA and 1.06 for the weizenbock) the wort was spectacularly clear, clean and fermentation took off quickly. They’ll be unbalanced but they’ll be very hoppy which most of my beer friends love so it’ll drink for certain. Next time I’ll do better on the system.

Update 5/16/2013

Dry hopping ended up being .9 ounces of Amarillo as I’m now out. I also didn’t have enough Mosaic to hang on to so there is about 1.4 ounce of Mosaic in this dry hop. I guess we’ll see how this little botch beer turns out!

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min		0	1.06	1.015	6

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	14 14B	1.056 - 1.075	1.01 - 1.018	40 - 70	6 - 15	0 - 0	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	12 lbs	92.31
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	0.5 lbs	3.85
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	0.5 lbs	3.85

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Amarillo	1.5 oz	20 min	Boil	Pellet	9.5
Mosaic	1.5 oz	20 min	Boil		12.5
Amarillo	1 oz	1 min	Aroma	Pellet	9.5
Mosaic	1 oz	1 min	Aroma		12.5
Amarillo	0.5 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	9.5
Mosaic	0.5 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	12.5

Miscs

Name	Time	Use	Type
Calcium Chloride	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
California Ale V (WLP051)	White Labs	73%	66°F - 70°F

Notes

4 gallons of water in the mash.

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Centennial and Amarillo Pale Ale

December 30th, 2012

So the big hit lately has been the IPAs. The Simcoe/Centennial was a big hit so now on to the next popular hop for IPA. This will be a tad of a kitchen sink beer since I’m using what’s left of some ingredients.

Update December 31 2012

I ended up using 1/3 pound Crystal 45 and 2/3 pound Crystal 60. The brewday went fine. Mashed at 151F, ran off 7 gallons, boiled 70 minutes and gravity was hit. Pitched a one liter starter and fermentation was going great within 12 hours. The beer looks very bright and beautiful. This should be quite a good IPA.

I am a tad concerned about the phosphoric acid. It seemed to take quite a bit to get the PH down. The concentration on the bottle I have is apparently only 10% where I read others using it at 85% concentration. More research is apparently required on this and I may go back to the lactic acid which has served me well.

Update January 17, 2013

After a fine fermentation that finished out perfectly this beer is carbonated and ready to drink. It’s quite good! I’ve definitely got a nose for the pineapple/tropical/mango character of this Amarillo and the Centennial continues to be my favorite secondary character for a beer. It just makes it taste more lovely. However there’s definitely an aftertaste with Amarillo hops. It lingers on the back of the tongue! I don’t know if it’s my preferred hop. I think the Simcoe/Centennial hop is a little better but I’ll reserve judgement for two weeks until this beer brightens.

Update January 23, 2013

Well….the beer has brightened and it tastes absolutely wonderful. There’s a complexity presented by Amarillo that really brings things together for taste. The beer looks wonderful, great head retention, great clarity and beautiful smell and taste. Amarillo can make a beer taste a little sharp in initial weeks. It should be used carefully in beers involving darker malts. This beer is bright, it’s tasty and probably my favorite American ale I’ve brewed.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American IPA	14 14B	1.056 - 1.075	1.01 - 1.018	40 - 70	6 - 15	0 - 0	5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	12.5 lbs	80.65
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	2 lbs	12.9
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L	0.5 lbs	3.23
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	0.5 lbs	3.23

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Amarillo	2 oz	60 min	Aroma	Pellet	9.5
Amarillo	1 oz	20 min	Aroma	Pellet	9.5
Centennial	1 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Centennial	0.5 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Amarillo	1 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	9.5
Centennial	1 oz	0 min	Dry Hop	Pellet	10

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
California Ale V (WLP051)	White Labs	73%	150.8°F - 158°F

Notes

This is a bit of a kitchen sink beer to finish off my sack of American 2-row. My wife absolutely loves this sort of beer. Water modification will be the same as project Nathan. Modify 6 gallons of water with 3/4 teaspoon gypsum. 1/3 teaspoon calcium chloride. Put 5 of that in the mash. Will try phosphoric acid in this beer instead of lactic. Will probably make up gravity with a couple of pounds of Belgian pilsner. I love that sweetness anyway.

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