Checking In: The Anti-Chris (Double IPA)

With the North Shore Brewers Competition less than a month away, I will be bottling my double IPA The Anti-Chris this weekend. I dry hopped the crap out of this beer. Not wanting any of the hop material to clog my siphon or make it into any of my bottles I used muslin bags for both of my dry hop additions.

I barely fit the first hop addition into my carboy. The hops kept bunching up inside the bag but I eventually made it work.

First dry hop addition 14 days. 

My second dry hop addition was even larger. Additionally when the shop was out of Citra hop pellets I had to buy two ounces of Citra hop leafs which take up even more room. The second time around I bought a larger muslin bag. A big enough bag to hold several pounds of steeping grain for an extract batch. I also put a couple of metal screwdriver bits into the bag to make sure the entire thing didn't float at the surface. The idea is to have as much of the hop material in contact with the beer as possible. 

Again I had a heck of a time jamming that bag in there, but eventually it worked

My second dry hop addition

I managed to squeeze all of this in there.

Both bags are in the carboy. 

The volume of the second dry hop addition displaced so much room inside the carboy that it pushed beer to almost the very top. Then the hops started to swell as they absorbed the beer. This pushed beer up through my airlock. I actually had to set up a blow-off tube to channel the beer away.

If beer is being pushed out of my carboy, I'd prefer
it not be onto the floor. 

Moving and lifting this thing on Sunday should be interesting. Not having to unclog my sipohon and bottling wand multiple times will make it worth it.


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Checking in: Thomas Brady's Ale (Specialty Wood-Aged Beer)

Thomas Brady's Ale is a barleywine inspired by the original barrel-aged beer Thomas Hardy's Ale. In the five weeks since I brewed the beer, Tom Brady only added to his legacy by leading the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. If nothing else, my choice in name has been vindicated. .

After brew day I moved the fermenter to the coolest place in my apartment and let my re-pitched 1187 Ringwood Ale yeast go to town. After ten days activity in the airlock slowed down, and I moved the fermenter to a warmer spot to give the yeast a little nudge to keep going and gobble up any diacetyl. Wyeast recommends a diacetyl rest when using Ringwood. 

Four days later I pitched a vile of WLP099 Super High Gravity yeast. When I pitched the vial my fermenter was at 68F. There was also still some krausen on top, but it had greatly receded. Within 12 hours the airlock was bubbling away again as the temperature crept up to 72F. The temperature eventually dropped back down to 68F. From the time I pitched my second yeast, I gave the beer three weeks to sit on the yeast cake to make sure the yeast had more than enough time to clean up chemical byproducts from fermentation. 

As this was an extract brew I did not take a starting gravity reading. Firstly it would not have been accurate because my partial boil was not fully dissolved with the top off water. Secondly without actually mashing grain, there is no reason my beer should have been below the 1.113 SG BeerSmith calculated.

Before I racked the beer to a carboy, I took a gravity reading:

Adjusting for temperature the gravity was down to 1.008! That means the alcohol by volume is over 14%!! Wowza!!

On White Labs' website attenuation for Super High Gravity yeast is listed at 80-100%. Somehow I achieved 92% attenuation. 

With my gravity that low my immediate concern would be that the beer would be thin. When I tasted a sample it actually wasn't. It was quite alcoholic, and had enough body that it tasted a bit like lacquer. In a beer this big, that is to be expected.The only cure is time.

I did decide to age the beer on wood. I went back to the notes and BJCP judges' feedback from the last wood-aged beer I made Pyrite Pistol. The judges liked the beer, but wanted more wood and more spirit character. For that batch I used 24 wood cubes soaked in Islay scotch, and aged the beer on the wood for eight weeks. 

This time around I used 30 cubes, 25% more than I used in Pyrite Pistol. Piggybacking on the caramel rye malt in the beer, I soaked the cubes in George Dickel Rye whisky. When I tasted some of the whisky on the rocks I was taken aback by how smooth it was. Compared to bourbon, the rye had more body and sweetness along with a low spice character I'd expect in a rye beer. It was love at first sip. I rye whisky will be a new fixture in my home. 

Right now Thomas Brady's ale is back on the landing. The chips and leftover rye whisky have been blended in. Now the plan is to forget about it for awhile. I am going to give it at least three months to age, and maybe longer. Even if I bottle it in three months, it will need more time to age. Unlike some other batches I have forgotten about, this one could use some alone time. 

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