Single Hop IPA #4: Galaxy Brew Day

I already covered the mash and sparge of this brew in my post about my Saaz IPA. The original gravity on this batch 1.072. Slightly lower than the Saaz portion, but still much higher than expected. This put my efficiency around 85% which is by far the highest I’ve gotten. It definitely looks like I’ll be sticking with batch sparging.

The real difference, I think, is just that I stirred the mash a lot more. Before draining it and then after refilling with all the sparge water, I gave the grains a good stir beyond what I normally do. I’ve already determined that I’ve always been getting conversion so I think the main problem with my poor efficiency was just that all the sugar was still stuck to the grains. The simple solution is sometimes the right one. Just stir more to wash the sugar off the grain.

There isn’t much to add about the brew day that I haven’t covered earlier this week, all that’s left now is to talk about Galaxy hops. I have used them once before, adding an ounce to an IPA I made last Summer. That beer had a mix of all kinds of American and Australian hops and the Galaxy was not prominent. I planned to use more originally, but could only find one ounce at the local homebrew shop.

Most of my experience with this hop comes from Tröegs’ Scratch 122. The Scratch series is their experimental small batch program. Number 122 was all Galaxy hopped IPA and I loved it. I got a lot of pineapple flavor from the hops. The classic American hop grapefruit character was also present, but the pineapple really made it’s mark on me. Online, passionfruit is the main flavor people bring up. I’m not actually very familiar with passionfruit, so I’m not sure about that.

I know there are a lot of commercial beers out lately with a lot of these hops, but I haven’t been able to try many of them yet. Hopefully this will be a good showcase and hopefully my memory of pineapple hop goodness is not inaccurate. This stuff, along with the Saaz version, is fermenting happily. It should calm down soon and I plan to rack it to secondary early next week as I have a plan for the yeast cake…

Single Hop IPA #4: Galaxy
Style: 14B. American IPA
Brew Date: 5/20/2014
Serve Date: 6/24/2014
Expected OG: 1.072
Expected FG: 1.012
Approximate ABV: 7.9
IBUs: 70

Fermentables (Single Mash For Two 4 Gallon Batches):
91% 20 lb Pale Malt
4.5% 1 lb Light Munich Malt
4.5% 1 lb Crystal 10L Malt

Hops (all Galaxy):
.55 oz FWH
1 oz @ 10 min
1 oz @ 5 min
2 oz @ Flameout
1 oz Steep when wort reaches 120º
1 oz Dry Hop for last five days of secondary fermentation

Yeast:
Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast

Single Hop IPA #3: Saaz Brew Day

I already explained the process I was planning in my post yesterday. As I begin writing this, the wort has just reached a boil and so far, everything is going as planned. I think that batch sparging is going to be my new normal process.

While the mash was underway, I added sparge water to my boil kettle and heated it on the stovetop. This is the only part of the process that I use the stove for, all other heating is on my propane burner outside. The mash is long enough that there is no hurry in heating the sparge water, though so I do this to save a little bit of propane and because once I reach the temperature, I can just turn the heat down to keep it there. The propane burner does not go low enough to maintain the temperature needed for sparge water.

In an ideal batch sparge you will collect the same amount of wort from the mash and the sparge. I collected four and half gallons from the mash and was nervous that I wouldn’t have enough wort as I was planning on ten gallons total. I ended up getting the five and a half gallons I needed from the sparge, though. As I am planning to use this wort for two separate batches that I want to have the same gravity I had a little extra complication.

I used a half gallon pitcher to add about half of each to my boil kettle after collecting the mash and sparge worts in two different buckets. Not the most scientific method, but I think I got close. The pre-boil gravity of this first wort was higher than expected, about 1.067. I guess we’ll see where the two batches end up at the end of the day.

Before adding half of each bucket to the kettle, I added four ounces of Saaz hops in a hop bag. I mixed what was left of the two buckets together, put a lid on it and stuck it inside to wait until I’m ready to start the second batch.

Now that we’re all caught up I have some time to explain why I’d want an all Saaz IPA. Four ounces of first wort hops in 6% ABV beer is a little ridiculous. These hops have less than four percent alpha acid. Why use them this way? They’re delicious. Some of these single hop beers I want to do to try to learn the character of the specific hops. I’m already very familiar with Saaz, but I love them and the reasons I just talked about for not doing this are the same reasons I want to. Won’t all that hop matter make the beer grassy and even vegetal? Maybe. I already know what Saaz hops smell and taste like, I don’t know what a four ounce first wort hop charge does to a beer, though.

If you aren’t familiar with Saaz hops, they are the classic Czech Pilsner hop. Pilsener Urquell is hopped exclusively with Saaz as are a lot of classic Pilsners. My personal favorite, Victory Brewing’s Prima Pils probably uses some other Noble Hops for bittering, but it definitely gets most of it’s character from Saaz.

This hop is revered as having the finest aroma of the Noble Hops, which are all known for their elegant bouquets. It is spicy, earthy and distinct. This hop is used in a lot of Belgian beers and various European lagers, but as I mentioned, it really defines the character of classic Pilsners. Using it in an American IPA is not standard, but the style is defined by hop flavor and aroma and Saaz is has one of the most prized flavor and aroma profiles in the history of brewing, so why not bring them together?

It is just about time to add the wort chiller and get ready for all those late hop additions. I’ll be back to finish this post once I get the beer into the fermenter and have started the boil on the Galaxy hopped batch.

…

Okay, the Saaz batch is in the fermenter. There were a couple hiccups, but everything is going to be okay. The obvious thing that I should have planned for is that there was a lot of lost volume from putting nine ounces of hop pellets in what should be a four gallon batch. I don’t have the carboy the beer is in marked, but I’d guess I ended up with closer to three gallons. Too bad, but I’m betting these three gallons will be worth it.

The other hiccup is that the original gravity is much higher than expected. I already mentioned the pre-boil gravity, which I checked with my refractometer. Going by the trusty old hydrometer, the OG is 1.076. I’m going to have to take a sample with the refractometer now to see if it on the fritz somehow.

Nope… the refractometer matches up. Now I just hope that I didn’t inadvertently use too much of the higher gravity first runnings and that I won’t end up with one 8% IPA and one 4%. In fact, I better get back to tending that Galaxy IPA. Check back on Thursday to see how that goes and come tomorrow to hear about my experience as a first time hop grower last Summer.

Single Hop IPA #3: Saaz
Style: 14B. American IPA
Brew Date: 5/20/2014
Serve Date: 6/24/2014
Expected OG: 1.076
Expected FG: 1.012
Approximate ABV: 8.4
IBUs: 70

Fermentables (Single Mash For Two 4 Gallon Batches):
91% 20 lb Pale Malt
4.5% 1 lb Light Munich Malt
4.5% 1 lb Crystal 10L Malt

Hops (all Saaz):
4 oz FWH
1 oz @ 10 min
1 oz @ 5 min
2 oz @ Flameout
1 oz Steep when wort reaches 120º
1 oz Dry Hop for last five days of secondary fermentation

Yeast:
Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast

Single Hop IPA Batches 3-6

I brewed my first two attempts at single hop IPAs a couple Summers ago. I was still early in my recipe formulation days and while the beers turned out enjoyable, they did not have anywhere near the hop kick that you expect from an IPA.

That time, I brewed two two and a half gallon batches of extract with specialty grain beers, one with all Cascade hops and one with all Simcoe. I planned the beers to end up with the same number of IBUs but did not understand how integral to the flavor and aroma of IPAs large, late hop additions were. I hope that all of my experience and research since then has put me in a good place to make a much better effort this time.

I am planning four more single hop IPAs this Summer. Saaz, Galaxy, Nugget and Nelson Sauvin are the hops I plan to utilize. I will do a large mash to collect enough wort for two four gallon batches each on two different brew days. Tomorrow, May 20, I’ll make the first two and then some time in the next month or so, I’ll do the last two.

The rest have fairly similar, high alpha acid contents, but Saaz is extremely low in this essential bittering component. So how can you get a comparable beer using these vastly different hops? I’m not sure, but this is my plan: I will use identical hop charges at ten and five minutes from the end of the boil, plus at flame out and once the wort has been chilled to under 120º. I’ll calculate the bitterness achieved from these additions and then use a first wort addition of whatever size is necessary for each hop to achieve the same bitterness level.

That means that there will be a huge first wort hop charge for the Saaz batch, which brings its own set of changes to the character of the beer, but I think this is still the best plan to make a true single hop IPA with this super low acid hop.

I have a recipe worked out for all four beers, but I plan to do the second two around the time I’ll be bottling the first so I can get a good idea of how they turned out and I can still make some recipe or process changes if necessary. I have put a lot of time into researching and just thinking about my recipe and procedure, though so I hope to be able to stick to it on both brew days.

There are a few things that I’m trying with these beers that are new to me. I’ve already mentioned first wort hopping. I have done this before, but didn’t really know much about it. Recently, I did some research to decide if it was something I really wanted to do. If you are not familiar with first wort hopping, it is the practice of adding what would otherwise be your bittering hops to the wort as soon as it has been collected instead of waiting for it to come to a boil. Most of the information I found on this practice came from various interviews and writing by Gordon Strong.

He has said in multiple places, most notably in his book, Brewing Better Beer, that when calculating IBUs, you can basically count your first wort hops as being boiled for five minutes longer than your total boil, normally sixty five minutes. If you are using software to work on your recipes and it doesn’t have a first wort hop setting, this is how you can figure out how bitter you’re making your beer.

Strangely, by steeping the hops in the hot, but not boiling wort in this manner, you get a less harsh bitterness and more of the hop flavor remains than you would otherwise expect from hops boiled for this long. Expect to get flavor from your first wort hops more in line with a twenty minute addition. All this makes first wort hopping an obvious choice for almost any IPA recipe. You get more flavor and more bitterness while avoiding some of the harshness that can come from too many IBUs.

Another new procedure that I’ve been researching is adding hops while chilling the wort. I normally add a big hop charge at flame out, when the boil is over and I’ve just turned off the heat. This gives some great flavor and tons of aroma, but while the wort is still that hot, you are losing some of the oils in the hops. 120º seems to be the closest to an agreed upon temperature at which hops can be added without losing too much character. By steeping the hops at this temperature, you are getting much closer to the character gained by dry hopping your beer. As a result, I will dry hop with only one ounce in each of the beers. Some will tell you that this is way too small of a dry hop for an IPA, but I think with everything else, I will have all the aroma I need. I plan to leave the dry hops in for the last five days of secondary before bottling. This is less than I have done sometimes in the past, but is more in line with the current research.

The next new procedure I’m trying out is batch sparging. I normally conduct a fly sparge, meaning I continually add a small amount of water to the mash tun as I slowly run off after the mash. Using this method, you are counting on the water being added to rinse the converted sugar from the grains as you run off.

By contrast, batch sparging calls for you to run off all of your mash water before adding all of your sparge water. Once the sparge water is added, you stir the mash up again and then let it sit for ten to fifteen minutes before running it all off again. With this method, you’re pulling all of the converted sugar off the grains while stirring the mash and putting them into suspension so you can run off very quickly and hopefully not lose any efficiency.

The main reason I’m planning to try this method now is because it is faster. Since I’m boiling two batches, this is going to be a long brew day and I can, in theory save about forty five minutes by batch sparging. There is a risk of losing some efficiency with this method, but my efficiency has already be bad lately. I’ve been doing a lot of work to figure out what the problem is and the next thing I am planning to try is to simply stir the mash more. I think I’m getting conversion, I’m just not collecting as much of the converted sugar as I should be. While batch sparging is in theory less efficient than a perfect fly sparge, my fly sparges are far from perfect and the extra stirring that this method will force me to do should help.

I still have one variable that I’m not quite sure about in my recipes. I usually add a small amount of sugar to my IPAs to dry them out a bit. This isn’t necessary with regular IPAs but I think it is essential in big Imperial IPAs. I’ve gone back and forth on whether I want to do it this time and it’s basically come down to a “wait and see” plan. I’m shooting for an OG of around 1.06. If I hit it, I won’t add any sugar, if I don’t then I’ll correct the problem with the appropriate amount of corn sugar during primary fermentation. Considering my new sparging method, this seems like a logical idea, although I’ll admit that I don’t like going into brew day with this undecided.

Beyond the corn sugar, I spent an absurd amount of time considering my grain bill, for how simple it is. A bit of Munich and a bit of light Crystal along with a whole lot of Pale Malt is what I landed on. I was originally planning on more Munich and no Crystal as I don’t like a lot of character gained from Crystal Malts in my IPA. At least that’s what I thought. Upon looking into the recipes of some of my favorite commercial IPAs, Tröegs’ Perpetual IPA and Bell’s Two Hearted Ale being the two that jump to mind, they all use some Crystal. I decided to cut back on the Munich and throw in a little Crystal. Then I cut the Munich even further and added some more Pale Malt to keep it extra clean.

I will break down what I’m hoping for from each hop and why I’ve chosen them in the posts for their brew days. Tomorrow I’ll be brewing my unconventional Saaz IPA and one with the hot new Galaxy hop. I will post my basic recipe below and fill it in specifically with those hops in their own post.

Single Hop IPA Batch 3 and 4
Style: 14B. American IPA
Brew Date: 5/20/2014
Serve Date: 6/24/2014
Expected OG: 1.060
Expected FG: 1.012
Approximate ABV: 6.4
IBUs: 70

Fermentables (Single Mash For Two 4 Gallon Batches):
91% 20 lb Pale Malt
4.5% 1 lb Light Munich Malt
4.5% 1 lb Crystal 10L Malt

Hops:
FWH to 70 IBU (with other additions)
1 oz @ 10 min
1 oz @ 5 min
2 oz @ Flameout
1 oz Steep When Wort Reaches 120º
1 oz Dry Hop

Yeast:
Nottingham Dry Yeast

Procedure:
Mash at 150º for 75 min
Batch Sparge with water at 170º to collect 10 gallons of wort
Split into two boils to collect two 4 gallon batches
Rack after primary fermentation and hold for one week
Dry hop for five days and bottle