Cascade Session IPA

This recipe was inspired by The Mad Fermentationist. I had been wanting to do a "small beer" for a while and though that doing a single hop micro / session IPA would be a good way not only to get a good sense of the particular hop but also to get a good flavorful beer without a lot of alcohol.


Cascade Session IPA
Batch Size: 3 Gallons
3.5# Vienna Malt
1.0# Briess 2-Row
0.25# Briess Crystal 20

OG at 70% efficiency: 1.036
FG: 1.009
IBUs: 40
Boil Length: 60 mins

.25oz Cascade, 6.8% AA- First Wort Hop
.25oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - 20 mins
.25oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - 15 mins
.50oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - 10 mins
.50oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - 5 mins
.50oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - 1 min
.50oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - Flameout
.75oz Cascade, 6.8% AA - Dry Hop

Windsor Ale Yeast - No starter.

Mash at 151F for 60 mins, raise to 167F, batch sparge.

6/10/12
Mashed as per schedule, had to add a little bit of hot water to get it to stay at the right temp. But still got good efficiency since both batches were of approximately equal volume.

Pre-boil OG: 4.1 gallons of 1.030 wort, or 72% efficiency. Probably resulted in post-boil OG of 1.038, at least according to this calculator. In a batch size of 3 gallons I hate to pull enough wort to fill the hyrdrometer jar. One day I would like a refractometer. 

Cooled wort immediately after flameout and additional hops. Wort got to 78F, then I stopped the IC, transferred to fermenting vessel, aerated and placed in 65F ambient air temps.
 
Pitched rehydrated yeast at 68F, fermented around 65F ambient air temps and in a bin of 62F water. (Approximately, since my temperature control is primitive.) Pitched around 8PM since my brewday started late.

6/11/12
Fermentation was active and bubbling by the afternoon. Smelled good.

6/25/12
Bottled with 1 3/8 oz table sugar, aiming for 1.75 units of CO2. Pulled a small sample. The sample had a strong grapefruit smell, good bitterness, but kind of raw hop character. Down to 1.010. 

6/28/12
Bottles were sitting in ambient temps of 66F. Still some yeast in suspension but some yeast was flocculating at the bottom of the bottles. Comments online by people who have used it before suggest that this yeast tends to stay in suspension, sometimes event when chilled. Fine by me as long as the beer looks and tastes good.

7/3/12
Tasted this beer. OK but not what I was going for in terms of smooth hop taste.

Introduction

This blog will serve as my homebrewing journal. I have been homebrewing since May 2011, with a stove-top all grain process that I use to make 3 gallon batches. I consider myself a new homebrewer still learning the basics of creating high-quality beers. As of June 2012, most of my beers have been decent but not great. In my view and that of my wife (hardly impartial experts) none of my beers have been terrible and a few have been really good. Most have been kind of middle of the road.

I feel that my record keeping, note-taking, and general organization about brewing has not been good enough to really help me in refining my process. So, this blog will be a place for me to take detailed notes on my brewing, tasting, equipment, process, or anything related to my homebrewing career. I hope that by taking these notes I can increase my skill level. In my experience writing my thoughts down is important because otherwise, with my busy life, I would forget them.

In any case, I plan to post about my recipes, my brewdays, my brewing technique, equipment, the results of my brewing, or really anything relevant to my homebrewing habit. I've created a couple of fixed pages to describe in general terms my equipment and process. As these things change I will update the pages appropriately.

An American IPA from Brewing Classic Styles

Janet's Brown Ale from "Tasty McDole" and Brewing Classic Styles. My wife and I really liked this brew.

An attempt to clone Oaked Arrogant Bastard. Not quite hoppy, oaky or aggressive tasting enough.

The Saison from Brewing Classic Styles. This was a really good one.

An attempt at cloning Alaskan Smoked Porter that wasn't smoky because the LHBS sold me the wrong malt. But still it scored a 35 in a competition in the Robust Porter category. My first ever entry into a competition.

Stoffla, a smoky, slightly sour Franconian style brewed from the book Smoked Beers (brewed as an ale rather than lager). Not sure how it was supposed to taste, but I liked it.

A stout from Brewing Classic Styles