Ale Industries Rye'd Piper

Last weekend Kevin and I brewed a Rye beer. It looks like it will be quite hoppy. I got the kit from MoreBeer.

Recipe:
11 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 75
1 lb Rye
4oz Carafa II

0.5oz Magnum 60min
0.5oz Northern Brewer 15min
0.5oz Northern Brewer 10min
1oz Williamette 2min
1oz Williamette Flameout
1oz Cascade Dry Hop

Wirlfloc 10min.
Servomyces 10min.

1 tablespoon 5.2 during mash.

WLP002 English Ale - Lot number 1002TLs7157321

Mash at 152F for 60min. Fly Sparge 168F for 45min.
Oxygenate for 1min before pitch.

I made sure to make a starter this time. I used two pints of water and one cup of DME. I made it happen the night before the brew. I'm not sure if this is too much since the John Palmer book claims pint water and 1/2 cup DME. I think maybe I should have done it step up style. I'll look more into this.

The fermentation really took off. It looked great. It had a great krausen for three days and then settled right back in. It is now fermenting in the bathroom in the bathtub.

I really need to start logging the AA units on the hops. A lot of beers come out too bitter for my liking. I need to figure out what amount of IBUs I like.

Also, I didn't give the beer an ice bath this time. I thought since it is December that just the tap water we be enough. I was wrong. We couldn't get that wort down to 70F. So, the yeast was pitched a little warm. Maybe 78F. We'll see if that matters. I think I'm going to use a pre-chiller in the future.

I wasn't as efficient in my sparge this time either. The estimated OG is 1.058-62. We got 1.055. I could tell that though before we ever measured it. The grains tasted a little sweet still after the sparge. What I need to do it sparge until I hit a gravity of 1.012 no matter how much wort I have and then boil down to 6.5 gallons or whatever. I think I will do this next time. Also, the sparge was faster this time. Not sure if that anything to do with it. Last time it was about 90mins. This time it was 45 mins.

We also improved our equipment from last time and bought a hot liqueur kettle. This meant that I could heat up mash and sparge water in one kettle and collect the wort in the boil kettle.

Also I improved my process by siphoning the wort from the boil kettle to the fermenter instead of a rough pour. I did a rough pour in the past to get O2 in the wort. But since we now have an oxygen stone that is not needed. The result it that we were able to siphon in the clean wort and leave the gunk behind.

I also cleaned the crap out of all the brew equipment the night before the brew. And by clean I mean really clean. It took all day. I even wanted to clean stuff that doesn't get used that often. I think I will do this once a year. Around Christmas time.

I think I will dry hop this brew in the keg. This will allow me to purge the air from the head space to keep the beer from oxygenating.

I'm also looking into my house water. I want to use it instead of buying water. Its going to require me to get educated about water and what mineral beer requires and why and how to adjust.