Batch #3-11: India Pale Ale

A favorite style among home brewers, due to heavy use of hops.

Summary:

2/8 10:30PM :: The malt extract for this batch was very thick.  The aroma of the mash, after the sparge, was wonderful.  After adding the Northern Brewer hops, the batch gained a decidedly bitter aroma.  In the end, the wort has a very hoppy taste.. as an IPA should.  The yeast had a 22 hour incubation period, and was strong, but not as strong as the Alt Bier batch.  Fermentation is using the wick method.

2/12 1:00PM :: The first 30 hours of fermentation was quiet.. no bubbling. Around the 36-hour, it started to bubble, and then went into steady 3-second bursts around the 40-hour point. As of now, it has slowed to 10-16 second intervals, so it still has one or two days left to ferment.

I’ve learned a lot about the effect of temperature and preparation time for the start over these last three batches.

2/16/2010 10:00PM :: Bottling yielded 1x 1L snap-top, 2x 34oz Ikea snap top, 1x 16oz Grolsch snap top, 1x 24oz, and 43x 12oz bottles.  The ABV is about where I like it.  The wort is very smooth, and was foaming slightly when I filled the bottles.  The taste is quite hoppy.  This is a good batch.  I am hoping to have better success with carbonation than with the last two batches.  I used pure, uncooked corn sugar, at about 1/8th teaspoon per 12oz, to feed the yeast.

3/2/2011 10:00PM :: Sampled a bottle after two weeks.  The bottle has decent carbonation: an improvement over the last batch.  And the beer is smooth… very smooth, and rich in flavor.

3/18/2011 6:00 PM :: At release time, the taste was wonderful.  This is definitely the best batch of the year, thus far.