It hasn't been that long since my last brew session, but you can't keep this guy away when he has the brewing bug. I decided to welcome the summer with two beers earlier, one of which was the Bloody Good Hefe (turned out so damn good!). The next one up is for the hopheads, which means I will enjoy this beer quite a bit (I might share...might).
This was a simple beer that I hyped up in two ways, rye and hop variety. I used flaked rye in order to get a bit more of a complex flavor from the malt and to also help with the head retention (rye, rice, corn, etc all have more protein in them than malted barley, so they can help in a big way here). Now, the varieties of hops I selected were all of the US, keeping with the American Pale Ale theme I set for myself, and they all needed to contribute something fun.
Why fun with the hops you may ask? Well, a certain someone that recently posted about a seminar blurted out a particular hop of a piney nature, and I decided I wanted to showcase the US hops for what they really do well: big bitterness and piney & citrus aromas. To accomplish this, we had 1 once of Simcoe up front with a modest 11.8% AA (Alpha acid, or the thing that makes beer bitter when boiled in wort). That was it until we reached the end with 2 ounces of Ahtanum to round out that citrus nose. So, that takes care of round 1 of piney & citrus, but what else can we do to show off?
Those of you that know me, know I love dry-hopped beers, so it was only natural that I would show off with exactly the same thing. We are going to have an extra 5 days of dry-hopping with 1 ounce each of Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe, so we can fully appreciate the aromas of the Pacific Northwest.
Phew, just typing about it made me really excited to just get a whiff of this bad boy when it hits the bottling stage in a few short weeks (honestly, I may have drooled just a bit too, but it just sounds so good!).
So, the boil and everything went really well, as was expected. I had some Pale 2 Row and Crystal 20 L (that is 20 degrees Lovibond, which tells us beer geeks how much color we should get from the grain) steeping and some extracts, but nothing scary. There was a single late addition to help keep the beer balanced and not a hop bomb (hey, it isn't an IPA after all).
I used Wyeast 1272 American Ale II because it attenuates (changes sugar into alcohol) just about the same as 1056 American Ale, but it also is a bit better at flocculation, which is how fast the yeast finishes its work (better flocculation, the less time I wait for beer).
So, that is all I have about this brew day. But stay tuned for updates, per usual.
As always, drink well and be merry. Slainte!
UPDATE 1: Wow, the 1272 is strong to start, that is for sure. That must be why so many people want to use it as a reliable "house" strain. I can detect the hops, obviously, from the blow off bucket, but also a bit of malty nuttiness. Wyeast, you nailed it again. I'm looking forward to seeing this beast in a bottle soon. Check out that krausen (foamy head from fermentation); its crazy!
UPDATE 2: I moved this to secondary yesterday, on top of 3 more ounces of hops (Centennial, Cascade, Chinook) to enhance the aroma. We should be bottling this within a week and drinking it inside of 3. Hoppy goodness here I come!
No comments:
Post a Comment