Punch Bowl IPA - brewday

The Brew

I’ve been brewing for almost 10 months. My brother introduced me to the hobby back in January and I was immediately hooked. He and I have continued to brew together when schedules align and when they don't I'm usually solo.  I’ve only made one IPA; attempted to anyways. The one attempt was a Blind Pig IPA clone last February. That batch was tragically lost when the airlock clogged with hop debris after 24 hours in the fermentor. Was I lucky enough to have it blow the bung and spray down the room? Nope, this one pressurized and blew out the bottom of the glass carboy sending 6 gallons of sticky young hoppy beer all over the entryway and hall closet. Since that batch, I haven't really desired to brew another IPA. There are so many commercial IPAs available that when looking for a hoppy beer it was never a challenge finding something far better than I could brew.

On a recent vacation to Tampa, FL I had the opportunity to drink (quite a few) Jai Alai from Cigar City Brewing. One of the things I really liked about that beer was the tropical fruit character mixed with the caramelly malt notes. Then I ended up ordering a vial of White Labs WLP644 Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois through my LHBS for a Gose that didn’t work out. So, in looking for what to make with the vial of Brux Trios I found numerous references [1],[2],[3] to IPAs who used this formerly classified as Brett strain for primary fermentation. Most all of those noted the tropical fruit, mango, papaya, and pineapple flavors.  I was set.

The grist for this brew was inspired by a Can You Brew It? episode of The Jamil Show where the guys worked on Nebraska Brewing Company’s Cardinal Pale Ale. I followed their recipe relatively closely, only bumping up the OG a bit and upping the hops slightly to get closer to IPA range of IBUs.

Reading online many reports of the small pitch size in this variety coming from White Labs, I was careful to use a large started to get my pitch rate up. Built up to a 2L starter of 1.040 3 days prior to brew-day. The aroma of the starter was in and of itself amazing. It smelt of tropical fruit almost like Juicy Fruit gum. In my limited brewing career I’ve worked with quite a few different yeast strains but never experienced such a different and bright smell from just yeast.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:
10 lbs. 2-Row (US)
1 lb Crystal 10L (US)
1 lb Crystal 20L (US)
12 oz Munich Light 10L

Hops:
0.75 oz. Galena @60. (A: 13.9%, B: 9.4%)
1.00 oz. Cascade @15. (A: 7.1%, B: 6.4%)
3.00 oz. Citra @ dry hop 4 days. (A: 13.65%, B: 4.5%)

Yeast:
WLP644 Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois (2L starter)

Extras:
1.0 tsp Whirlfoc @15m
0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient @15m

Brewday

11/7/2015 - Brewday
The plan was for a fairly normal 'solo' brew-day. Executed as such, with a visit from the neighbor sharing a bottle of New Glarus Raspberry Tart brought back from WI. Good beer, a little too sweet and not enough tart IMO.

Executed the brew plan to a tee. My current system is a BIAB setup in a 15 gallon MegaPot 1.2. Heated strike water to 157F. Mashed in. Stirred in 1 tbsp lactic acid. Covered and wrapped in blankets. Mashed for 60 minutes. Initial temp 152F, ending temp 150F. Lifted bag off bottom for 10 minute mash-out at 170F. Pulled and drained bag and brought to a boil.  Pre-boil volume of 7.7 gallons with a gravity of 1.047. Once boiling, I followed schedule above, Cooled down to 70F, pitched onto the starter and placed carboy in temp controlled water bath.

Fermentation was actively bubbling through the blow-off tube in less then 4 hours and was rolling by morning the following day. After 2 days of fermentation, it appears to be slowing a bit.

More to come on this batch!

Complete brew details here.