Summer IPA

I haven't brewed for a couple of weeks and I've got some free time this Sunday, thanks to there being no Six Nations to watch, so I've put together something hoppy. Kind of a pancake day brew this one. I wanted to use some Summer hops that I've had in the freezer for a while, so I put this recipe together to be a moderate alcohol IPA. I've not found much information about Summer hops other than they're supposed to give an apricot aroma and are suited to dry hopping. Apart from that I've heard that they aren't a very dominant flavour hop and can get a bit lost in the mix.

Today's hops.

 What I've decided to do is go for a simple grain bill of mostly Pilsner malt with a bit of light Crystal and a bit of Munich to add a bit of sweetness and biscuity flavour. This will hopefully give a reasonably neutral base to the beer without being bland.

For the hops I've gone with a relatively neutral bittering addition of Northern Brewer. I'm going to add Summer at all stages to get that flavour throughout the beer too. Other hop additions will be at 5mins, 0mins and dry hop. I was going to use just Summer and Cascade for these thinking that the citrus, grapefruit character of the Cascade would go well with the apricot. I then thought that it might be a bit too similar so I decided on a reasonably small addition of Amarillo at 5mins to give the beer an element of juicy fruit sweetness. So here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Amt Name Type # %/IBU 5.000 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK (7.0 EBC) Grain 1 90.9 % 0.250 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC) Grain 2 4.5 % 0.250 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 3 4.5 % 36.00 g Northern Brewer 2012 [9.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 35.7 IBUs 10.00 g Summer [6.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 6.4 IBUs 20.00 g Amarillo [8.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 3.5 IBUs 20.00 g Cascade 2013 [8.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 3.4 IBUs 10.00 g Summer [6.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.3 IBUs 20.00 g Cascade 2012 [7.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min Hop 9 2.8 IBUs 20.00 g Summer [6.30 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min Hop 10 2.3 IBUs 50.00 g Summer [6.30 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

I will be using my new hop filter for the brew too. I bought this ages ago from Mr Lard (who I can absolutely recommend for homebrew kit), but it was too big for my boiler. Yesterday I finally got around to taking it apart and remaking it at half the size. Hopefully this is the end of standing over the kettle at the end of a brew day, sweeping hops away from the hop filter with my mash paddle, while the beer trickles out. Seriously, this has added an extra hour onto my last few brew days so if I can put a stop to it it'll be a big step forward!

New hop filter ready to go!

The water treatment will be nice and simple today with some acid to bring the mash pH down and some gypsum to bring out the hops:
Lactic acid: 5ml to mash
Gypsum: 2g to mash, 2g to sparge

Predicted mash pH 5.45. I use an adapted version of the EZ Water spreadsheet and I find it fantastic! I actually found a pot of pH test strips that I bought ages ago today. So I got to test the pH for real today. Although they're not the easiest thing to get an accurate value from, I measured it as being between 5.0 and 5.4. This is a bit lower than I was aiming for, but should be absolutely fine. Good to know the spreadsheet is pretty reliable.

Now that's how rehydrating yeast should end up!

 The brew day all went according to plan and was pretty stress free. I'm pleased to report that the hop filter worked like a charm and didn't get blocked up at all. Well worth the money. So I'm writing this at 4:30pm with a cup of coffee having brewed beer, tidied up, and cleaned the mash tun and kettle! I love it when a plan comes together!