On Saturday 2/18/2017 a Grapefruit IPA was brewed. We used peels from 2 grapefruit in a 10 gallon batch, we didn’t want it to be too overwhelming but also a little bit more than a hint. Full recipe will be posted later. It is best to peel the skins when they are fresh using a filleting like knife. Since we are now brewing using an electric setup, we also follow a very precise Mashing temperature control schedule. Say goodbye to temperature oscillations!
- Mash-in temp at 170F, after grain mixed drops to 150F
- A Re-circulation process is started between two vessels (a march pump is used) and we use the PID controller to maintain a perfect 152 F temp. for 1 hour, so there is no temperature swings like with gas. One vessel is the mash tun and the other the electric kettle.
- After an hour, we move up to 162 F (again using precise PID control) and stay there for 30 minutes
- We move up again to 174 F to mash out.
The Mash takes a solid 2 hours when you factor in the time it takes to move from 152 to 162 and again to 174. Since the entire mash is done while recirculating, the beer is crystal clear by the time it is mashed out.
A video on the setup is below, as you can see you don’t need to have fancy setups to make good beer, most home-brew operations are analogous with custom hacks. We spent very little money to make this stuff together and make it work compared to buying better looking solutions that costs many thousands of dollars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12pyP75YlIA
Yeasts:
For this brew we have decided to use a new yeast from a new company (Portland, Oregon) – yeast used was an Imperial Barbarian. This also seems to be an organic yeast. We did not do a starter like normally we would, to save on time. These cans have enough yeast to support 10 gallons for 5-7% beers.
OG 1.054
FG 1.015
Final ABV 5.1%
more to come later…