A few months ago we had the idea to brew a special beer for the Metafest. It’s a big party that Frank throws some years gathering a whole bunch of people from all the way back to highschool. Anyway we talked about it… then whe kinda forgot.
Then it came back to me… and the timing wasn’t bad. Our kit turned out cheaper than expected so we went with a kegging system quicker than planned… and we also ordered about 5 pounds of fancy hops from Yakima!
So the plan was to brew a big fruity tropical American IPA like the Yakima IPA from the brewery “Le Castor”. I started looking at the info on the bottles but it was lacking… so I started to stalk the brewery on Facebook ;o) They are very open and basically gave out all the info except for specific ratios.
Here’s what we know:
- American IPA – 6.5% – 75 IBU – 14.6-14.9 brix
- Hops: Magnum, Cascade, Palisade et Citra (lots)
- american yeast
Our kit came with 2 kegs, and the party is pretty big so it made sense to brew a double batch (10gal). But since we don’t have huge fermenters, it still had to ferment in 2 batches of 5 gallons. So we decided to experiment with the dry hopping and to create two differente flavor profiles.
Here are the two batches:
“Samus” – American IPA
This part contains the unmodified wort. This one is pale and fruity. The dry hopping is made with Citra hops.
“Ridley” – Brown IPA
This part was combined with a decoction of roasted malt to darken it… The dry hopping is done with Simcoe.
Brewing so much beer at the same time meant we needed lots of yeast. Time to whip out our trusty stirplate!
I made 2.2 liters of WLP060 American yeast blend.
Everything went fine during brewing. The extraction was a bit lower than usual but I guess it’s normal with so much grain. I really want to make a partigyle next time and make a small beer with the other runnings.
When I was cleaning my carboys… one exploded! Guess she was due ;o) So we dry hopped in the first two kegs we had. The hops only stayed 4 days and the beer got transfered to other kegs to rest and await their second hop shot.
The party is on July 6. I’ll post some news then!