Better Late Than Never

One of my brew partners came up with the first version of this recipe last year, and today is the third version. I don't usually do a recipe twice within a short time, but the recent version of this one disappeared so quickly, I don't feel like I really had a chance to appreciate it, so I'm brewing 10 gallons to myself this time (last one was a split batch with 10 gal each of Hefe and the Better Late than Never APA, split between the two brewers).

Anyway, the brilliance of this recipe is the total lack of bittering hops... We don't add any hops in until 45 minutes into the boil, and then we add 3 ounces, then another 3 at 50 minutes in, and another 3 at flame out.

The first version was an ounce of each; Citra, Cascade, and Centennial at each of the 3 additions, and a dry hop of an ounce of Citra. Version 2, the last one we did was 1.5 oz of Mosaic and Amarillo at 45 and 50, then 3 oz of Citra at flame out, no dry hops. So far the popular opinion is that the second version was better. 

Recipe:

1 tsp Gypsum in the mash (should have been in the water, but I forgot until about 10 minutes in...)

18 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)

1 1/2 lb Munich Malt

1 lb Crystal 60L

1/2 lb Biscuit Malt

45 Minute Hop Addition

1.5 oz Cascade

1.5 oz 2013 Mosaic

50 Minute Hop Addition

1.5 oz Cascade

0.5 oz 2013 Mosaic

1 oz Citra

60 Minute Flame Out Addition
3 oz Azacca

US-05 Yeast

Flame on at 4:40
Mash in with 75 C water at 5:30pm
Mash temp 67.5 C
Ambient temp 26.8 C

Volume of Mash water is approximately 27 L... Need to dial in my volumes better for brew day efficiency. Heated approximately 40 L up...

New cooler Mash tun may have more volume than needed... Filled to good soupy level, but still dead space. Better to over fill? 

Added 1tsp of Gypsum at 50 Min's... Will need to measure more accurately and put in earlier... 

Sparge slowed down after I stirred for during the infusion... less and more gentle stirring next time, and don't forget rice hulls. Still ran though, just took an extra 15/20 minutes.

Preboil gravity 1.046/047...

Stopped for dinner and putting kids to bed at about 6:50.

Boil starting at 8:15.
Loooonnngg chilling process, like an hour with a 1/inch diameter 25' counterflow chiller. The water is really warm right now.
Finished clean up etc. by 10:30 pm

Wallace Irish Red

The Wallace West Coast Irish Red or "Red is Best".


Brew Day Notes:
Flame on at about 12:30 pm
Milling with Corey's Mill, really need to get my own
Mashed with 72 deg C water and Mash Temp of about 66 deg C.

Adjusted Recipe
1 lb of Vienna
16 lb of 2-Row
1.5 lb of Crystal 60 and 1/2 lb of Crystal 120
2 ln of German Aromatic
First Wort Hops (i.e. hops added when wort going into kettle)
1 oz. Fuggles
1 oz. Goldings

15 Min hops:
1 oz. Fuggles
1 oz. Goldings

2 Smack Packs of Wyeast 1084 Irish Red Ale
1 vial of Sacch Trois WLP644

Pre Boil Grav - 165 deg F SG 1.26 = 1.50

Boiling by about 3 pm

Not sure how scientific, but I usually skim the protein scum off the top of the wort at the beginning of the boil;

Forgot to get hop-socks, so I'm using a kitchen strainer at flame out to get rid of some of the solids...

Flame out at 4:04 pm

Started chilling at about 4:10

Wrapped up and clean by 5. Good brew day, finished off by a taste of a recently kegged, and still partly flat, late hopped APA.

Note from next morning;

Ferment is a bit warm, need to get a cooling system set-up ASAP. (20.5 deg C)

Ale yeast pitch has a solid head of foam, Sacch Trois pitch has some bubbles (not sure if from aeration or from ferment starting...)

Dry hopped the standard red with 1.5 oz of 2013 Mosaic on Thursday June 25th, and kegged on Sunday. Tasted it on July 2nd during my next brew, and found the dry-hops to be more over-powering than I was hoping for... Hopefully they'll mellow with time.