I just had a similar issue with crush seeming oddly larger than normal, usually get 65% and ended up getting around 45%.... Guess I should have only pitched one of the packages of yeast I used
Stone Ruination and Bell's Two Hearted are both essentially all Centennial (the bittering additions are not Centennial in the Ruination if i remember), but they are both amazing beers despite being all citrus hops.
Yeah, the process should be the same:
1) Wait until fermentation is complete, chose your form of bottling sugar (i use table sugar, a lot of people use corn syrup)
2) Dissolve sugar in boiling water and cool
3) Add sugar to your bottling bucket
4) Rack your beer into your bottling bucket...
I have a rough recipe for the 395 IPA, I emailed their brewmaster and he actually gave a lot of details about the recipe, here is the response:
Hi Stephanos,
We use local sage we pick off of great basin sage plants. This is different than culinary sage. Not to say you can't make a nice beer...
Just wanted to let you guys know how this was shaping up as I just bottled this last night.... the final recipe was as follows:
OG: 1.061 (1.050 pre honey) FG: 1.012 IBU's: 19 Mashed @ 152
Malts:
4lbs Vienna Malt (36%)
3lbs 8oz White Wheat Malt (31.5%)
1lb 2oz Flaked Barley (10.1%)...
He transferred it into secondary with the vanilla beans and some oak and aged it on them for a week (not really aging it that long but the vanilla and oak chips had reached their optimum level so he needed to bottle). You can age beer either in bulk (before bottling) or in bottles. The flavor's...
I second using whole beans. My dad made Denny's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter which he aged on two vanilla beans and the vanilla came through really well. Just make sure you check the beer often so the vanilla doesn't overpower the beer as my dad only kept it on the beans for 1 week!
I am pretty sure 10lbs of grain is not going to fit with the mash water in a 3 gallon cooler. Beersmith says even mashing at 1qt/lb is going to take a 3.28 gallon cooler. Also how big of a batch are you aiming for as you will need more than 5 gallons of capacity in your pot to account for boil...
Which yeasts came with the kits? For me personally, US-05 is my favorite yeast that I have used. I have used it in everything from Russian Imperial Stouts to American Pale Ales....
Hey congrats on your first beer.
For you first question check out this thread, basically you dont have to secondary unless you are dry hopping or adding fruit etc
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/
As for your second question, there are...
Dogfishhead actually does an IPA which they add lemon zest to help add some more citrus flavor. I had it on tap at their restaurant and it was pretty decent, so i'm sure that yours should come out well!
Yeah I have not used candi sugar before, but after having this beer it might find its way in to some stouts, maybe I will probably send Ed an email and ask him what he would recommend or if for some reason the dark candi sugar is just not on the website...
So I was looking to brew this, but at brewmaster's warehouse the darkest candi sugar they have is the D-180 Dark Candi Syrup http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/product/0102156/D-180-dark-candi-syrup
Do you think that it would work, or if not do you have some suggestions for alternate candi...