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Posted 2012/03/25

Homebrew - Mac IPA

I brewed this because my football game got cancelled and it was what I could put together from our local homebrew shop. Made to cheer myself up and not with a lot of thought. I called it MAC after MacGyver because we was always making things up on the spur of the moment. I was interested in the inclusion of oak chips since I had never tried that before. I was also super excited to dry hop with whole leaf hops since I had never had access to the before, a benefit of buying from the local homebrew shop.

Brew day was pretty straight forward with nothing interesting to report. Sanitizing oak chips was an extra step but was easy to do. When I racked it into the secondary you could really taste something from the oak chips but sadly but after dry hopping the hell out of it it was hard to pick that flavor back out. When it came time to rack it into the bottling bucket I sanitized some cheese cloth around the racking cane to try and keep some of the floating hops out. This worked well and did not clog the cane.

Ingredients

  • 1lb Crystal 2 Row Barley
  • 6.6lb Amber Liquid Malt Extract
  • 1oz Pilgrim Pellet Hops
  • 1oz First Gold Pellet Hops
  • 2oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops
  • 0.5oz Heavy Toasted Oak Chips
  • 1 pack Muntons Dry Ale Yeast

Method

  • Boil 1/2 pint of water in a kettle and put it in a pint glass to cool.
  • Start with 2 gallons of tap water in a 5 gallon pot and heat to 165.
  • Steep 1lb Crystal 2 Row Barley 25 minutes using a grain bag.
  • Add 1 gallon of tap water and bring wort to the boil.
    • Once boiling add 6.6lb Amber Liquid Malt Extract and 1oz Pilgrim Pellet Hops.
    • Boil for 35 minutes.
    • Put the wort chiller into the boil (to santize).
    • Boil for 5 minutes.
    • Add 1oz First Gold Pellet Hops.
    • Boil for 5 minutes.
  • Steam sanitize 0.5oz Heavy Toasted Oak Chips in a colander over a pot of boiling water.
  • Cool wort to 65 degrees and pour through a strainer into a fermenting bucket.
  • Hydrate your packet of Munton Dry Ale Yeast by putting it in your 1/2 pint of (room temperature) sterile water.
  • Top off the fermenter to 5 gallons using tap water.
  • Stir your rehydrated yeast and pitch it into the fermenter, add the steamed Oak Chips, add the airlock and ferment at 65 degrees for 2 weeks.
  • After 2 weeks rack into a secondary and dry hop with 2oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops and leave at 65 degrees for 1 more week.
  • On bottling day dissolve 5oz of dextrose in some boiling water and add it to the bottling bucket for carbonation.
  • Store at 65 degrees in the dark and drink after 21 days.

Brew:        25 Mar 2012, OG 1.058
Rack+Hop:    08 Apr 2012 (14)
Bottle:      15 Apr 2012 (7), FG 1.018, ABV 5.3%
Ready:       05 May 2012 (20) 
Summary:     Primary 14 days, Secondary 7 days, Condition 20 days

I did not get round to writing a review until August after I had drunk most of them so the one I am drinking today had been in the bottle for 3 months. It came out a bit lively, you could really hear the CO2 when the cap popped,but the beer did not gush out of the bottle. The head retention was good with bubbles a mixture of big and small. Had a good balance of hop to malt and smelt quite malty. Had no 'green beer' or other weird homebrew taste. Over all it is a very nice IPA but I think it could do with more malt and more hops during the boil. The dry hopping amount feels about right and you can pick that flavor out. I don't think I will use wood chips again if I am going to dry hop, I think I'll try and keep wood chips as an alternate for dry hopping and try it not with an IPA.

Brew

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Rack+Hop

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Bottle

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Ready

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