New ferment process on big IPA - did I do ok?

[flatfour64]

I am getting ready to bottle this one this weekend, so I will know more about how it tastes and looks very soon. Just wanted to know what you all think about my latest process. This is my first time dry hopping in primary and cold-crashing. I used to do the secondary thing, but trying to get away from that to reduce oxidation.

Beer - 1.080 OG, Red IIPA, 124 IBUs (beersmith), 3 oz dry hop (columbus, simcoe, amarillo)

Made a 6 liter starter with a 90% viability smack pack of 1272 (mr malty)

Pitched at 67, fermented at 67 in +/- 1 degree controlled freezer. Krausen at 6 hrs, was into blow-off tube within 24 hrs. Glugged out of tube for 8 days.

Left on cake in primary for 4 weeks. At start of week 5, upped temp to 71 degrees and dry hopped in primary for 6 days. On day 7 of dry hop(yesterday) set temp to 33 degrees to crash hops and yeast to bottom.

I plan to bottle this monster on Saturday!

I have a few observations, questions:

1. Dry hops (2 oz pellet and 1 oz leaf) still have not dropped to bottom, mostly floating on top still, though they all appear to be wet. Should they have dropped to bottom?

2. The blow-off tube water jug froze solid, will this let air into the tube?

3. Does this seem like I did good? The only reason I upped the temp for the dry hop is because Vinny at RR says the optimum temp for dry hopping is lower 70s, and I love his beers.

 

[Catt22]

Looks good to me. Might be a littler over-hopped at 124 IBU's, but it is an IPA, so that would not bother me at all. The six liter starter is pretty big by my standards, but it sure can't do any harm. Ferment temperatures were a little higher than I prefer, but probably won't be a problem. I like to ferment at a slower pace and lower temperatures for most of my beers. I'm wondering why the blow off tube froze at 67*F. By the time you get to cold crashing, you can simply seal up the fermenter as no additional CO2 will be produced at that point. No air should have entered the fermenter if the blow of jug was frozen so long as the tube remained submerged. If not, don't worry about it too much and go on as if nothing unusual happened. I wouldn't worry at al about the floating dry hops either.

Yes, you did good! I purge my secondaries with CO2 when racking to avoid oxidation. I'm still with the old school secondary crowd. I must also confess that I use the airlock or blow off as an indicaiton of yeast activity. Shame on me.

 

[BryceL]

When I use whole hops while dry hoping they never really sink. I just rack from underneath them so it's not really a big deal. When using pellets they will tend to settle with the yeast.

 

[flatfour64]

The blow-off tube jug did not freeze until I cold crashed it. I'm just going to leave it since it will only be a few days.

Yeah, I like my IPAs fermented a tad on the warm side. Maybe I like them a bit estery I guess. Pales and similar beers I ferment 62-65, usually.

I guess the floating leaf hops is normal, thats good. I can't see the pellet hops, so maybe those sank. I will find out soon enough.

I like my IIPAs to be in your face, I took a bunch of the hopping schedule for this beer from the Pliny the Elder recipe. When I entered the Pliny recipe into beersmith, it calculated 227 IBUs! That was the best IIPA I have ever made thus far.

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

[flatfour64]

I bottled this beer on Saturday, man does it ever taste good! One thing that bugs me a bit is that it finished kinda high at 1.017 FG. I know it started high at 1.080, so it's still about 8.1% abv, but I pitched a TON of yeast and was hoping it would get down to 1.012 at least. I think this one will be a bit full bodied for it to be an ultimate IPA for me, as I like mine to finish dry. However, it really tasted good so we shall see when its carbed up. I think it may turn out great for a RED IPA, and age will probably be its friend, though the hops will be best early on.

 

[flatfour64]

An early sample of this one showed it is mostly carbed at one week, but still needs a week or two in the bottles. It smells and tastes SO GOOD. I can't believe it tastes this good so early, this one is going to be one of my best!

 

[runs4beer]

Don't know how you checked the FG but if it was at 33F a hydro. sample reading might be a few points highter then it really is...

 

[flatfour64]

I checked the FG with a 60 degree calibrated hydrometer when the beer sample was about 55 degrees. Not far off enough for me to care.

It is funny, this beer now tastes an awful lot like Arrogant Bastard. I can detect even the very small amounts of black and chocolate malt in the grain bill. The beer is not really red in color, more of a red/orange/brown color with a tan head. I would say this is a miss for my intentions of a red colored IIPA, but the outcome of this recipe has made a monster of its own, more along the taste lines of an Imperial Red. I love this one, but it is a heavy drinker, lots of malt flavor and LOTS of hops! I think as the hop nose fades and the beer ages, it will turn into something different. I will keep several bombers for up to a year to see what happens.