Brew'n an American IPA
 

This recipe is curtsey Of Jasper's home brew Amherst new Hampshire..

I'ts a fruity. floral Ipa that I like a lot It uses a ton of flavor hops but very little bittering hops..

I start with R/O D/I water and build my water profile from there, I dont add anything to extract recipes, but all grain need a few minerals put back in,

pictured here is my recipe log book and the hops and grain bill

here I'm dividing and weighing the hops. I use the blue cooler on the right as a hot liquor tank, it has a 1800 watt heating element installed in it and is controlled by an inkbird controller, it also has a pump to pump my sparge water , all calibrated with ice water.I preheat this water before I start heating my brew tank because of the power consumption... once the water is heated to temp I can switch from manual to auto, this unit allows for up to 6 program/stages which come in real handy so babysitting the mash is minimal, as each stage is completed, an alarm sounds and the program switches to the next set up..
this unit has an intregal pump that recirculates water constantly, I've discovered that it needs to be set 4 degrees higher to get the correct temp, due to the sensor being down near the heating element to prevent scorching.

Once I've adjusted my water profile and heated my mash water, I can slowly dough in and start the program, the auto program wont start counting down until the preset temp. is reached

once my hour long mash in is complete,, I then raise the grain tube via a pair of pulleys mounted overhead, the fixed one on the joist, is a one way ratcheting pulley, now using my hot liquor tank and pump I can do my sparge, meanwhile, I've programed the Brewzilla to ramp up my boil, once I get to 6 gallons of wort, I can cease sparging and roll the cart out of the way, and lower the grain tube into a tub to drain before disposal, normally, I'll be close to the boil point by the time sparge is over, once the boil begins, I add my bittering hops, I use a hop spider, I find it keeps the screens from clogging and me having to constantly stir the wort ..

once I reach the end of my 60 minute boil, I hook up he chiller lines and run city water through it enough to get to 160ish.. the program will keep the wort right at that temp for my 30 minute wirl pool hops that I divided out earlier..once the 30 mintues is up, I switch the chiller water from city water to chiller water that is chilled to 40 degrees, that will bring the wort down to 80 degrees in 10 minutes.. from there I aerated the wort, pitch the yeast... the grainfather conical fermenter has heating and cooling capabilities ( via the chiller system I built)… I star this type of yeast at 65, fermentation started bye Monday afternoon(I brewed Sunday).. fermentation had slowed last night so I raised he temp to 70 to finish it off... tomorrow I add dry hop #1while in the fermenter... next weekend, I'll rack to my secondary and dry hop #2 will be added.. I'm going to update this brew as I go through the steps , all the way to bottling… if for no other reason just to post something different.

Active fermentation started Monday during the day, and slowed dramatically Thursday evening.. Saturday night, I removed the air lock and opened the cover to add the first dry hop, I replaced the cover and air lock, the brew is still active enough to build pressure in the air lock... I'll transfer to the secondary Saturday 11/27, then after a week I'll add dry hop# 2 for one week before bottling.

what are your additions to get your water profile? if you don't mind my asking

I add 2 teaspoons of Burtons water salts and a teaspoon of calcium chloride, my R/O D/I has 0 dissolved minerals,this gives the water a little hardness and brings the PH between 5.4 and 5.6, higher than that and the gluten in the grain dont properly bind, your sugar yield is low and it effects the fermentation... it all needs to be in moderation or your final product has a mineral taste.. I dont add anything to extract brews, the concentration of the syrup has enough minerals to make it all work.. I learned alot from Jeff at Jasper's home brew, the guy looks like a computer geek but is a beer and wine nerd extraordinaire..
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Got it, thanks much.

I was overhearing a brewing conversation with one of the guys at Treehouse one day and the conversation was very amicable until the subject of water came up. Abrupt end to said conversation. Very interesting tell me thinks.

Water seems to be the big secret..bevenvwith distillers.. I haven't been doing this long enough to. Be secretive
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