Our first daytime brew day in quite some time, and this time we're making our second version of the Juice Boost Hazy IPA (formerly NEIPA). A slightly tweaked grain bill from the original and some new hop varieties, and our first beer using Lallemand's new Pomona yeast. Can't wait to see how this one turns out!
As always, we started out with collecting our water
25L for mash/strike water in the BrewZilla
And although the recipe only calls for 5L of sparge water, we always do at least 10L, and in this case, did 12
We adjusted our mash and sparge water using calcium chloride, magnesium sulphate and calcium sulphate to get to our target water profile
We also added 3.5mL of phosphoric acid to the strike water for pH adjustment
Next, we mashed in - adding our grains into the BrewZilla and mixing well with our drill stirrer attachment
Coming in at just over 6kg, it's a pretty hefty grain bill which didn't leave much headspace at the top of the BrewZilla, though we have fit in slightly more in the past. We included a bunch of rice hulls as well to help with water flow/recirculation through the grain bed, as it would otherwise get pretty thick and gummy with 1kg of oats in the grist.
We left the grain bed to settle for 10 minutes and proceeded to adjust the pH of our sparge water. Anywhere in the 5.2-5.6 range is desirable, we tend to go for the lower end of this range as we always find our mash ends up at the higher end. 5.33 is good
We began recirculating the wort and after a minute or two, took our first sample. We cooled the sample down in an ice bath before taking our first pH reading
5.50 gets us in the desired range, but still a bit high for our liking, especially with a heavily hopped beer like this one. Hops will drive the pH back up again, so we want to get this closer to 5.2.
We've always erred on the side of caution with mash acid adjustments, typically adding 1mL at a time, but we figured we'd be a little more aggressive this time. With over 6kg of grain, there's plenty of buffering capacity so we're unlikely to overshoot, so we went with 2.5mL of phosphoric acid as a starting point
After mixing in and continuing to recirculate, we took another sample a few minutes later, chilled it and took another pH reading.
5.37 give us a drop of 0.13 with 2.5mL of phosphoric acid. We wanted it a bit lower again, preferably in the 5.2x range, so we added another 1.25mL of acid
Another cooled sample, and pH is now at 5.25 - perfect.
Our mash temperature was at 68°C, a touch higher than the desired 67°C but it soon dropped back to where we wanted it. This RAPT thermometer really is a must have to be able to accurately measure the temperature in the middle of the grain bed
Recirculation was pretty decent, and we stopped it a few times to stir with our drill and ensure there were no dough balls to try and maximise our efficiency. The rice hulls appeared to work and stop things from backing up too much.
At the end of an uneventful 60 minute mash, we raised the grain bed ready for sparging
Water flow back through the grain bed whilst sparging was particularly slow, and we had to get our mash paddle and stir - or more accurately, "lift" the grain off the bottom of the basket to help the water flow through
Eventually we hit our pre-boil volume of 26.5L
Our pre-boil gravity was a disappointingly low 1.049 - well down on the expected 1.055. We should know by now since every time we use oats in the grist, it causes a sizeable drop in efficiency.
Yet another pH reading with the pre-boil wort and we've got a relatively unchanged 5.26
Whilst waiting for the boil to begin, we began measuring out our first hop addition - 10g of warrior hops for an initial bittering charge
We also measured out 5g of yeast nutrient to be added with 10 minutes left in the boil
To make up for our poor efficiency, we decided to add a bit over 200g of dextrose to help make up for some of the lost sugars. We did exactly the same thing with the original Juice Boost NEIPA and it turned out great. (The dextrose bag had a hole in it which made it go everywhere when attempting to pour it into the bowl!)
Next, we measured out our whirlpool hop additions - 30g each of Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo
With 10 minutes left in the boil we added the dextrose, yeast nutrient and our immersion chiller to sanitise it
A quick snap of the combined whirlpool hop addition - 90g all up
At the end of the 30 minute boil, we chilled the wort down to around 90°C then began recirculating the wort with the whirlpool arm attachment
We took our post-boil gravity reading which was 1.055. What our pre-boil reading should have been, and now only a few points lower than the recipe expected 1.058
Yet another pH measurement, and we're at 5.46. Everything we've read suggests that pH should
drop during the boil, but for us it always seems to rise.
So whilst whirlpooling, we added 1mL of phosphoric acid to help drop the pH yet again
Next pH reading and we're back down to 5.33. That will do.
At the end of the 20 minute whirlpool we continued to cool down the wort - some cold break started to form
After 20 minutes of chilling the wort was down to around 30°C so at this point we transferred it to the fermenter and moved it into the fridge cool it down to 20°C before pitching the yeast.
Floating hydrometer reading confirms the digital refractometer measurement of around 1.054-1.055
After a few hours the wort was at yeast pitching temperature so we added our 2 packets of Pomona yeast
To our surprise we had signs of fermentation after just a few hours, and the yeast absolutely ripped through the wort, reaching its final gravity after just a few days.
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