Return of the Black Mamba

The hops for this beer.

I was digging through the deep-freeze a few weeks ago and came across the tightly vacuum wrapped remains of 2014's hop harvest - 270 g (~9.5 oz) of Cascade hops. Not to sure what to with my unexpected bounty, I looked back to see what I did with the home-grown Cascades last year. Turns out last years beer was an Black Imperial Rye IPA - The Black Mamba IPA. Tasting notes (and memory) revealed that this was one of last years better beer, so I thought "what the hell, lets do it again".

Last years beer ended up being under-gravity (more a BRIPA than a BIRIPA) as I  had begun experimenting with wet milling my grain and had over-whetted the grain. I've now optimized this method, so I hope to hit the desired gravity (1.071) instead of missing it like I did last year (1.059).

But what to do with all those hops? The answer - add them all to one beer! For accuracy, the 75 minute bittering addition will be 34 IBU's of Northern Brewer, but everything else is the home-grown cascade.

My (hopefully temporary) $10
3-tier mash system

How do you work in 270 g (over a half-pound) of home-grown hops? The answer is lots of additions - 57 g (~2 oz) at 20, 12 and 5 minutes, plus another 57 g in a 15 minute hop stand (half added at flame-out; half added 7.5 minutes after flame-out). But that leaves 34 g (~1.5 oz) unaccounted for - that would be the prime hops; the ones I put aside into their own little pack as they had the most resin and aroma of the harvest. Those are being held back for a 3-day dry-hop after primary fermentation is complete. Estimated IBU's are 67; maybe lower or higher depending on just how bitter the home-grown hops are.

Grain bill is pretty much unchanged from last year - good quality Canadian pale malt as a base malt, 25% rye for that refreshing rye crispness, some carafa special II & victory malt to round things out. Again, I am trying Conan, but will coax more ester flavour out of it by under-pitching (50% the recommended rate) and minimally oxygenating the wort. Fermentation will begin at 18 C (65 F, AKA my basements temperature) and ramp up to 22C (72 F) to finish. I'm going all-out, and even altering the water to up the sulphate and magnesium to make the hops pop.

Full Recipe & Brewday Notes Below The Fold

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Brew-days Notes:

Lines are run

The in-laws are coming over for lunch, so the brewday started early (6 AM). Everything was measured out last night, so I simply plugged in m HLT and started heating water while making SWIMBO & I some coffee. Mash & sparge went without error, giving a pre-boil gravity of 1.052; just one point short of the predicted 1.053 and I have about  half-litre more volume than planned, so I'm probably dead-on. Boil started at 9AM, putting me ahead of schedule (2 pots of coffee helped), so taking advantage of my extra time I got the lines strung for this years hops.

For the first time this year I actually got a full-length boil without my propane burner crapping out mid-brew - I'm guessing that's because the polar temperatures are finally gone. The vacuum-packed hops were like giant plugs and took some work to break-up, but I got them all in. Before I knew it I was cooling the wort - I barely missed my target gravity (1.070 instead of 1.071), good enough for government work!

I hope the taste of this beer is as flawless as the brewday!

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Crowns are starting to send
up bines!

Return of the Black Mamba

American IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 25 April 2015
Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l	Boil Size: 31.32 l
Boil Time: 75 min	Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 0.10 kg Rice Hulls (Briess) (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 1.4 % 4.60 kg Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 63.5 % 1.81 kg Rye Malt (Weyermann) (3.0 SRM) Grain 3 25.0 % 0.45 kg Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.2 % 0.28 kg Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.9 % 33.25 g Northern Brewer [9.30 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 6 33.8 IBUs 56.70 g Cascade [4.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 13.1 IBUs 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 - 56.70 g Cascade [4.00 %] - Boil 12.0 min Hop 9 9.0 IBUs 56.70 g Cascade [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 4.7 IBUs 56.70 g Cascade - Garden Grown [4.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 11 5.9 IBUs 1.0 pkg Conan (Headdy Topper) Yeast 12 - 36.00 g Cascade [4.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.071 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.2 %
Bitterness: 66.5 IBUs	Est Color: 28.6 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 7.25 kg
Sparge Water: 19.67 l	Grain Temperature: 18.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 18.0 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 19.15 l of water at 72.4 C 64.4 C 75 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.89l, 15.78l) of 75.6 C water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI	Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C
Notes
Water Adjustments: Mash (19.5L): -7.3g gypsum -0.7g NaCl -4.3g epsom Sparge (18.6L): -7.1g gypsum -0.6g NaCl -4.2g epsom Mash: -Very close - 63.5, instead of 64.3; added 1.7L boiling sparge water to compensate -conversion complete by 50 min
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