Belgian IPA

Brewer’s Best Belgian IPA (The Belgian Julie)
January 5, 2013
5 gal.

6.6 lb. Pilsen LME
1 lb. Soft Candi Sugar
8 oz. Caramel 40L
4 oz. Flaked Wheat
0.5 oz. Millenium Hops (Bittering)
1.0 oz. Nugget Hops (Flavoring)
2.0 oz. Chinook Hops (Aroma & Dry)
1 pkg. Sachet Belgian Style Dry Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/5/13 - Brewing with new 7.5 gal pot. Raised 5 gal of water to 156 to steep/mash. Mashed specialty grains for 45 min. Wrapped sleeping bag around kettle. Only 3 degree drop over mash duration! Removed grains and brought to boil. Taking a long time to boil, may reduce batch size in the future. Used calibrated wooden dowel to measure final yield of just over 5 gal. Took an hour to cool to 85 in sink full of water. Rehydrated and pitched yeast at 85. OG is 1.060. Total brew time 5 ½ hours...

1/12/13 - Dry hopped with remaining Chinook hops. SG reading was 1.020. ABV 5.3%. Had a super thick krausen, had to punch through with wine thief. Tastes pretty good, very Belgian-y. Fermentation smell is thick with sulfur. Slight smell in sample pulled for gravity reading. Hopefully will dissipate over time.

2/3/13 - Bottled today. FG: 1.006, 7.2% ABV. Collected 5 gal. from fermenter and exactly 50 bottles. Used 3/4 cup of priming sugar. Lowest finishing gravity of any beer I've made yet. It did set in primary for a month so maybe that's why. Tastes reallly good, like a bitter Belgian. Can't wait for this one to carb.

2/8/13 - Cracked one open today and it tastes wonderful. Like a bubble gummy Belgian with an extra bitter finish. Not much of the Chinook dry hopping coming through but definitely some hop bitterness. Designed a label based on Julie's favorite wedding photo.