Hops, Hops, and more Hops + East of Monaco IPA

I dedicate this article and brew to my buddy Phish who just dusted off his kegs and picked up his mash paddle.  It's brew time!

I have spent the last year really diving into yeast and malt, now its time to get my bones in gear and start rippin' out some serious hop-centric brews.  In a couple weeks the Brew Farm Group is going to be hosting a SMaSH Beer tasting and I think it's perfect timing for me to get started into this next chapter in my brewing.

Granted there have been plenty of IPA's, but there has to be many, many, many more!  So let's begin.  I have done two iterations of what I dubbed, CO Tribute IPA.  It's a very pine-based hop beer.  I want to expand on that with a few tricks and ideas I've picked up since I last put this down.

The beer I am setting out for on this brew is the baby version of what later will be a Piney DIPA and ultimately a pine hop based American Barleywine, but we must crawl before we walk.

In an attempt to avoid spent hop bag flinging, I must preface what I am about to write with these words; When reading below keep in mind I am simply trying to "simplify," an extraordinarily complex ingredient of which can and will exhibit any number of characteristics when utilized in an indefinite series of processes, quantities, crops, etc etc etc.  The sky is truly the limit, and this ingredient can not be perceived in a vacuum (or while vacuuming for that matter.).  Ok, the preface is complete, let's see if we can get a foothold on the universe that is HOPS!

Elementary School of Hops

To begin, I have broken down this glorious gift of the beer gods into several overlying categories:

Pungent - High Alpha: Zeus, Columbus, Tomahawk, Challenger

Clean - High Alpha: Horizon, Warrior,

Piney: Simcoe, Chinook, Northern Brewer

Citrus: Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo,

Fruity (passion fruit, gooseberry, melon, etc): Citra, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin

Earthy/Floral/Spicy: EKG, Styrian, Crystal, Fuggle, Willamette

Noble: Saaz, Spalt, Tettnanger, Hallertau

High School of Hops

Ingredients
As you may be thinking, there are many, many, many other hops with names, and with no names (like ADHA-527) out there, but these are pretty famous in their own right and fairly easy to come by at your local HBS.  So, if you want to learn hops, this is a great place to begin, but you can take it to the next level and visit the amazing resource below and get the full monty:

University Level of Hops

• Process by Mike Tonsmeire and JC Tetreault of Trillium
• First Wort Hopping
• Dry Hopping
• Cohumulone 
• Double IPAs - Brewing Pliny the Elder

Graduate Level Hops

• Hop Chem Basics
• Hop Chem - Advanced

Regarding IPA grists I have two "go-to" grain bills I will be working from on standard IPA's.

The Non-fruity IPA grist:  

2-row, sugar (5%), carapils (3%)

(for color add dark munich, Marris Otter, dark wheat or a darker sugar)

The Fruity IPA Grist.  

2-row, Crystal 40, sugar (5%), carapils (3%)

The premise here is based on a great philosophy I'll paraphrase here: IPA's are a hop-centric beer, so let the hops shine!  Dry out the beer, and keep the grist as simple as possible especially\ if the hops are not fruity.  Now, if the hops are fruity, we humans perceive fruit and associate that with sweetness, so by adding crystal (perceived sweetness) you are reinforcing that sentiment in your mind.  Conversely, you are not "confusing," your mind and as a result, helping the beer to be perceived as a complete idea.

And that is what I call, an overview.  There are books written on the subject, but I am not here to re-create the hop wheel. I leave the details to the great men and women who came before me, but I do have enough to make a beer, so....

Let's begin.

East of Monaco IPA

The profile:

Grist: non-fruity

ABV - Sessionable - >5%

Hops

Bittering "bite" -  medium - Chinook for bittering hop and majority of IBUs

Flavor: Pine and Citrus 

Resulting Flavor Hops: Simcoe (Pine/Citrus), Cascade (Citrus) 

  

Aroma: I am going to target a big piney and citrus aroma and not hold back.  I want folks to know this beer is coming as it approaches their beach chair! 

Resulting Aroma Hops: Chinook (Pine/Citrus/resin), Simcoe (Pine/Citrus), Cascade (Citrus)

Batch - after hop loss: 4.5G estimated

Stats

OG - 1049

FG - below 1009

ABV - 4.9%

IBU target - 55 (40ibu's from 60 minute charge)

BUGU - 1.0ish

Grist (non-fruity)

2-row - 8 lbs (91%) or 6.6lbs LME (for best results do a full boil)

White Sugar - .5 lbs (6%)

Carapils - .33 lbs (5 oz) (3%)

Hop Schedule
FWH - .25oz Simcoe and Cascade
60 - Chinook (11.4%) - .5oz
0 - Simcoe (13%) - .75oz
0 - Cascade (7%) - .75oz
0 - Chinook - (11.4%) .5oz (just finishing the oz:)
DH1 - 4 days each - I'm starting with the schedule below and will repeat it after the initial DH if I want more.
Chinook - .5oz
Cascade - 1oz (has twice the essential oil content of the others.)
Simcoe - .5oz
Keg DH - 1 oz Challenger, .5oz Simcoe

Post DH Experiment - Split batch to a grapefruit rind, peeled and twisted, DH'd to compliment citrus notes.

Yeast - 001

Keg, carb and enjoy!

Brew Day - 3/29/15
Brewed at NF during workshop
Mash 154
FWH hops in. Dig it.
60 in
0 in. - no boil overs.

D0 - 1046. pitched 72, 150ml medium thick slurry, second gen 001 off Chinook SMaSH. Couldnt chill there so if there is any issue, it could stem from the long ride home (3 hours from flame out to pitch..)
D3 - 5/5 - 73 degrees
D4 - 2/5 - 67 degrees (61 degree room)

4/5 - FG 1006.  Added DH

4/10/15 - purged bucket and keg. Added 1oz challenger (the pine/citrus wasn't juicy enough) and .5oz simcoe to keg in bag.

4/22/15: Tasting Notes
Appearance

S - Beautiful bouquets of citrus, orange, rinds, and resin.  This is definitely the highlight of the beer!
T - a little lacking here.  It took a week of cold conditioning for the taste to come around, but I will say it doesnt have quite as much hop character in the flavor as I'd like.  I thin the chinook was a good choice on bittering but I couldve been a bit more aggressive there.  The bitter bite is nice, but not overpowering.  The fruity aspect of the hops are coming through mostly, but there isnt much in the form of ;layering or complexity here.  A little muddled.  It is growing on me but its not mind blowing.
M - dry and highly sessionable
O - a good IPA.  I can drink more than one, so I will rate it "good," on my scale.  Needs more hop flavor, and I feel ike the chinook could have been a little more upfront.
Next Time - Go with 1oz on each of the FWH, up Chinook at 60 and keep the rest the same,  The 0 and DH portions of this beer seem to be very well done.

Bottom Line  - I feel like Im being a bit too restrained.  The IPA's I enjoy blow my mind with hops.  If IM going to do this, i just have to go big!  I would go so far to say that this IPA would make it to the tap at some breweries, but for me its gotta be huge.  I'm thinking the FWH is cool and all, but for now I want to roll with a solid 60 min add for the bite I enjoy then go Hop_tastic on the 00 and double DH.

Case closed.

The Mill Run (Devils Purse Mystery Grist)

Ah ha, a new challenge on my brewing hobby, the mystery grist.  DP tested their mill and had spent grains of various origin and amount.  They didn't keep track in the least and added a whole smattering of grains, including but not limited to crystal, rye, wheat, smoke, 2-row and so on.  I couldn't just let that all go to waste!

The plan was to just go with a Nordic style as Mike thought it made sense from what he remembered in the grist, but I had to know where that smoke landed to really be able to gauge what this mystery grist was all about.  Simple solution, mash it!  So that's what I did.


2 quarts of water, 1 pound of the grain in a steeping mesh and landed at 146.  I sparged with .1G hot water and got right back to 2 qts of runoff and an OG of 1043.  It has a very earthy feel to it, the caramel is medium with hints of dark caramel, maybe toffee and dark caramel character, and a low level of roasty notes.  The smoke really didn't come through.

I can't help but peg this as an English style wort and am going to go that route.  I am thinking I'll mash at 154 as I plan to add date sugar to add to complexity in the aroma and flavor. Hops will be EKG or Fuggles to balance at .5 BUGU with just a 60 minute charge.

Ferment with London Ale yeast, but Irish Ale or 001 would be fine as we have no idea where this is headed.  That is the original concept based on the wort, will the beer be awesome or terrible, time will tell.

I have 30 pounds of the stuff so I split it into 3 batches of 10 and included samples of the wort to two other brewers to get their mind wrapped around the wort they will get (generally speaking).  Also planning on sending second runnings to Eric to work his own Mild Magic.  He has gotten into tea infusions and this wort will work well for that effort.

The one big takeaway for me is I plan to do a Mystery Grist Challenge with the homebrew club.  I think it would be critical to have samples of the wort on hand for folks to taste, so they can start working the remainder of their recipe right there in the shop!  Maybe we just do a single mash and throw the unfermented wort in a keg and pressurize for samplings at the shop...I like it! It would be really interesting to see where people take the wort just from tasting it in the boil or after!  Just one more notch in the belt of folks trying to find new reasons to test their skills, senses, and see where the brew takes them instead of the other way around.

Brew Day: 3/18/15

Logistics: Bottle SMaSH beers, arrogant to keg of LH SMaSH with 1oz bag chinook, clean arrogant yeast, DPMG to Arrogant bucket.

So I found date sugar at whole foods, pricey stuff!  At $12/lb I just went with a half a pound and bought an additional pound of pitted dates as well.  Within a mini-brainstorm this AM as I stared out the window into a Spring that is begging to appear, I figure I'll take a qt of the first runnings of what will be a fly sparge process and add that to a pot with all the sugar and dates.  I'll do a low slow simmer of that during the hour boil to sanitize the dates, dissolve the sugar and reduce a little wort, further adding to the dark caramel character of the brew. The name of this game is earthy, dark and not so much rich as just flavorful on the dark fruit, dark caramel complexity side of the brew flavor wheel.


Brewing Water: Target Edinborough (malty) -
2tsp Gypsum and Baking Soda, 1.5tsp CaCl to mash.

Strike: 5G at 164 - landed at 152

Lauter:
1. Boiled 3.5G water, mix, vorlof, run out (still only got to 162).
2. Collected .5G first running to pot and added .5 lbs date sugar and 1.25 lbs. pitted dates, put on low, uncovered simmer for 60 minutes.

Boil: 45 min addition of 1oz EKG whole leaf hops targeting .35 to .45 BUGU.  I guessed I'd hit about 1060 with the reduced wort and dates...got 1063, so the 23 IBUs I got from the 45 minute addition worked out to .37 BUGU.

Cooled and added reduced/chilled wort and date concentrate direct to fermenter, racked chilled wort on top.

Yeast: Mix culture 001 and 007 from Barley Bastard, washed. Measured 150ml clean slurry was where I landed from the wash. Not quite large enough for a cool fermentation, but just a little over for a room temp fermentation, so we roll with it at room temp (65).  A little low for the 001, but it will free rose to optimum for both. They each have highly attenuation abilities and 007 will lend  some English character, why not.  I could see this brew being badass with a Scottish Ale yeast, but that's for another day.....Wee Heavy with Dates....Oh man, that might have to happen!

The mashed wort went from muddled and without direction to incredible with the reduced wort and date sugar/date mixture.  In the end, I feel like the muddled character of the "mystery grist," was tied together well by that process.  Time will tell if we pulled something off that's worth talking about, but in the meantime it has left me with plenty of learning, and fun ideas for the future. 

Pitched - 65 - 1056

Lag 12-18 hours at 63.

D3 - 5/5 - 68

3/26/15 - 9.1 Brix - 1023 - 67 - swirled. Will check back next week and split batch.  Taste is a hodgepodge and Date didnt come through as much as I would have liked to this point.  Time will tell.  I think oak and port is the best move for now.  Brett is not worth it in this wort.

4/3/15 - solid now.  Earthy aroma with some caramel sweetness.  Slightly bitter.  Time to oak and carb the rest.  Fg terminal - 8.9 brix - 1022

4/10/15 - bottled.  Light oak character is nice and complimentary.

Tasting Notes - Delicious. Ive since oaked the brew and carb has settles in. Deep caramel, and earthy aromas. To me the Dates come through as the characteristic stone fruit, dark fruit character.  

Nice off white head doesnt fully dissipate throughout the pour. A deep brown hue all the way to the edges.

A very malt forward beer, with a nice low-low roast charcter, hints of chocolate and dark caramel. Medium body and medium residual sweetness.

Of course this is all for not s there is no way to know what the grist is, but nonetheless, it was an experiment in reverse engineering which is the jumping off point for more fun challenges to come!

27 Old Ale

3 yeasts

3 wild strains

3 fermentations = 27 Old Ale

Reading through Zymurgy I came across the recipe for a Yorkshire Stingo and knew immediately I wanted to brew this beer for my first Dark “Sour.”  Having just come off a couple successful Brown and ESB brews, holding a few fun buggy mixes and being a month or so overdue for my next sour/funk beer, it was a perfect fit.  So let's see where this beer takes us.

Historically this is "most like" an Old Ale per the BJCP style guide.  Highly drinkable, low roastiness, smooth Caramel character, stone fruit (on this one), some variable funk (or sour) and your traditional English Earthy hop notes.  Im imagining a tasty, funky ESB and I love that this puppy has C120 and Special B...my two favorite specialty malts. Now this particular recipe gives you a little leeway as to whether you want to go more funky or less, below I outline several approaches to fermenting this wort, and I am happy with the result of this mini-brainstorm.

Final Batch - 6G

Stats

OG - 1063

FG - 1015

ABV - 7% (ish)

IBUs - 37

BUGU - .44ish

12 lbs - Maris Otter

1.5 lbs - dark invert candi sugar (make ahead of time!!!)

6 oz - C120

6 oz - Special B
6 oz - Wheat malt (long term bug food and attempt at head retention)

Mash - 154 for 60 minutes - I think with the low specialty malts and all that candi sugar we should get solid attenuation from the main ferment.  High end of 007 gets us to 1012 with 80% attenuation and the funk portion will go lower, so we should be close to or beat our 1010 target for bottling.

Boil - 60 min

Hops - Targeted just under balanced (.5 BUGU). I want it to be malt forward and am assuming at least 3 months of aging which will reduce hop character and bring the beer to my malt forward target when it is ready, and still allow some room to run.

For the funky batch, I must account for the fact that Lacto is restrained above 8 IBU so I will pull from the tail end of first runnings (pre-hopping) and boil on the side for 10 minutes before transferring to fermenter to cool. Pitch bugs directly on top with only a low amount of aeration and nutrient.

1oz - 60 min - English Hop (I used Fuggles)

1oz - 30 min - same

Yeast (Most English, least funk - Zymurgy recipe)

Primary - 2L starter - Yorkshire Square Ale (WLP 037) - Utilized for its lower attenuation and more pronounced English character.  Pitch at 70 then chill to 64 at first sign of activity.

Secondary - pitch bugs and age 4 months to a year.

*I'd use a high mash temp here (158 - 60 min).  The recipe says 149, but in this case (bug in secondary) I’d want to leave the added unfermentables to allow for additional bug food.

Yeast (a more funky alternative)

Primary - Pitch lacto-only. @ 36 hours pitch mixed culture 2L Yorkshire starter and bugs (brett and pedio) in secondary. This will result in the most funky version of the beer the soonest, but will have less English character.

• Use low mash temp here (148 - 90 min) - There will be plenty of food for the lacto by pitching the bugs during primary so there is no need for the additional dextrins/carbs associated with a high mash.

Yeast (more English, moderately funky, less control)

Primary - 1L pitch Yorkshire to drive esters and reduce its attenuative ability.  At first sign of activity pitch the bugs and let the good times roll. Straight-forward, but you have no control over the souring process.

Yeast (Proper fermentation, max control)

Primary 5G - 2L West Yorkshire per recipe.  Pitch at 70 and chill to 64 when activity begins

Blend in...

Primary 1G - 200ml slurry BW bugs (East coast Ale, Brett, Lacto)

or

Primary 1G - 200ml slurry Belgian Sour 1 (Belgian Ale, Lacto, Brett, Pedio)

or

Primary 1G - smack pack Pedio and a pitch of Brett

Yeast (My Plan) - I have a Rosaleare slurry which started as a simple pitch of a WLP vial.  That beer was racked off and an identical wort went on top and has been fermenting for 3 months.  That slurry is relatively buggy compared to my other wild slurries so Im going to use that here in order to reduce the belgian yeast character of this blending beer.

Therefore:

1. 48 hours prior to brew day start a 2L of 007 (500ml). Chill and decant before pitching. This will get pitched once the main batch has started.
2. Mash 154 for 60 minutes and boil 60 minutes.  I believe the sugar and 007 will get me close to if not beyond 1010. By blending later I can focus the main brew on finishing low for wild bottling which requires the beer to be below 1010... or I kill the bugs, which would be like killing a friend.  I want this beer to evolve.
3. Primary 5G - London Ale single vial, warmed up with 250ml of wort day of.  This will stress the strain and get a big English character at the onset.  Pitch at 70. Anticipating a long lag of around 24 hours for such a big under pitch keep an eye for that activity. Immediately pitch the 007 pitch.  Secondary in Barrel once gravity is terminal.  If FG is above 1010 then Tertiary in wild fermenter and add some slurry from the blending portion, aging until FG is below 1010.  If FG does get below 1010 then Tertiary in a non-wild fermentor and wait for blending portion to properly sour.
4. Concurrently with the above, pitch 250ml of super buggy Lambic slurry to 1G of unfermented wort.
5. Once buggy wort is properly soured and the main wort is below 1010 blend back in wild bottling bucket to main batch to taste.  Carbing will have to be a game time decision but, adding priming sugar to lightly carb to say 1.5L may be the way to go.  This way you dont rely on the bugs to carbonate the beer fully.  Then as it ages, and inevitably taste, if  you start to get into an overcarbed situation then just boil the remaining bottles in water for 10 minutes killing your bug buddies and stopping refermentation.

I like this approach best because I will get my English character from the Primary, the attenuation from the staggered pitch, the oak from the barrel without getting it buggy, then the ability to pitch a huge amount of buggy slurry to a relatively small amount of wort with max bug food/funkability for later blending.  In fact, if it gets sour enough I could do 2 blends!  Glorious.  This bottling process will keep my new Blichman beer gun away from the bugs and give me some flexibility in not having to rely on the bugs to do all the work, just in case.  It would be tragic to pop a bottle after 3 months and to have nothing to show for it.  So lets not let that happen!

Starter 

3/9/15 - 1 vial of 007 which had originally been built up in a starter then swirled and poured back into vial and chilled. Less slurry than in original vial. Started 250ml at 1040 to stir plate.
3/10/15 - Solid activity. Stepped up to 2L. 
Brew Day: 3/11/15 - Starter is at high krausen.

Brew Day
Water adjustment to London profile on brewersfriend.com
Baking Soda - 2.75, Gypsum - 2, CaCl - 1.25 to 9.5G water

Strike - 5G to 169, Mashed 154. Sparged 4.5G at 200 to mash out.

Collect 250ml second runnings, boiled 5 min, cooled and pitched 1 vial London Ale.

Collected 7.5G, just under 1G of stirred wort to side boil. Preboil - 1048
60 minute add Fuggles.

Boiled .75G wort and chilled. Pulled 250 ml from bottom of lambic. Very yeasty. Added that and 2g Warrior.

Boil 60 to 5.5G. 1oz Fuggles in at 60 and 30.

Chill to 68, aerated and added Belgian candi D90. Hit OG on the money. 1063

Pitched warmed up 013.

Next: Upon airlock activity pitch 2L 007.

D1 - krausen first thing in the AM. Decanted and warmed up, aerated 007. Pitched at 66

D2/D3 - bubbling 5/5 at 64 ambient. No activity on side ferment yet.

3/20/15 - moved side Stingo from 80 degree bath to room temp. Main ferment still moving (1/5). Will rack to barrel next week.

3/26/15 - 8.4 brix - 1015 - to the barrel - tossed yeast. Keeping side ferment at room temp - 67.  Nice cake at bottom, swirled.
4/8/15 - barrel tasting.  Very liitle oak.  Once again, as was the case with the quad, I'm getting the booze first, and this tells me that is barrel character as this beer is not big and was pitched cool.  Leave another 2 weeks.
4/23/15 - barrel tasting - its ready!  Also tasted the funky batch.  There I am getting some medium-plus on the sweaty socks character (isovoleric acid, if im not mistaken), but the funky brett character is highly apparent.  I did a mini blend and I like it!  Blending this weekend with MoBigs.

4/30/15 - blending day - barrel is terminal at 1015.  40:1 blend of the bugs gives a mellow funk aroma but doesnt detract from the barrel too much.  Im going with this.   Doing some small bottles and some bombers, no sugar add as fg is above 1010, so we will have to watch these bottles over time and heat them to kill bugs if they start to over carb.  Added half an eye dropper of buggy side pot to bombers and a quarter an eye dropper to 12oz bottles.  Check this link on Bottle Conditioning w/Brett.

7/12/15 - the side pot has lost the butyric acid note (vomit), which is nice.  Very classic lambic characteristics of balanced funk and a very slight tang (not tart). So we blended too early.  Would have been nice to get this full gallon back to the main batch. 

8/18/15 - added 2lbs cherries to side pot

11/7/15 - bottled with sugar tabs.

SMaSH and Barley Bastard 2015

Ok, it's time to roll into the first experiment of The Brew Farm Group.  It has been decided to do a club-wide SMaSH experiment and I picked Chinook to give myself a chance to make a batch of my beloved Arrogant Bastard.  Haven't been able to bring myself to purchase the stuff out here on the right coast as I know far too well just how far that brew has to go to hit my parched lips. It's a bit of an undertaking and my first real attempt at a parti-gyle, so here's to jumping in head first, but I figure what the heck.

Solution - Brew It!  Ok, lets begin.

The plan is to do a Parti-Gyle triple batch, including a partial mash, and a split boil. Ya, that's happening, now I just have to figure out how.

The goals.

Arrogant Bastard "Clone" - Recipe from BN Can You Brew It

5G batch, 90 min boil

2-Row - 12.2 lbs. (90%)

Special B - 1.2 lbs (10%)

OG - 1061 (unless I figure my parti-gyle all wrong:)  Which I did:)

FG - 1015

IBU - 91

BUGU 1.5 :-)

Hops - Chinook (@ 13% alpha) 

90 - 44 ibu (.7oz)

45 - 37 ibu (.7oz)

15 - 11 ibu (.7oz)

0 - 0 ibu (.7oz)

Yeast - 007 - 1L starter needed

Standard SMaSH

Batch - 1.5G

OG Target - 1045

FG - TBD

IBU Target - 30

Hopping - 60/30/15/0
Yeast - 001 -  500ml starter needed

Late Hop SMaSH

Batch - 1.5G

OG Target - 1045

FG - TBD

IBU - 30

Hopping - all at 5
Yeast - 001 - 500ml starter needed

Second, the grist.  To quote, Doc, "if my calculations are correct," (which they were not - 3 seconds and a smart Google search would have been helpful - Parti-Gyle Calculator)  I'll be using 12.2 lbs for the Bastard and 6 lbs for the SMaSH in the main mash.  Off to the side I'll mash the Special B separate with 1 lb of 2-row for conversion.  So that brings us to a grand total of 17.2 lbs 2-row in the main mash.

Mash Plan/Boil

1. Dough in and target 148 for the main mash with 2 qts/lb. (2x17.2 = 34.4qts or ~8.6G).  8.6G - 2.2G {absorption (1.7)/ + tun loss (.5)} = 6.4G of first runnings

Dough-in targeting the same for the "side partial mash."  Keep the side mash on the heat to stop it from dropping, you want a mash, not a steep.

Side mash details: 2.2 lbs grain x 1.5 qts/lb = 3.3qts strike...use 1G. Then - .25G (absorption) = .75G back to boil.

After Mash complete: First runnings + side mash (6.4 + .75)  ~ 7.25. to kettle.

Boil 90 minutes.

2. While above is mashing prep Parti-Gyle Req:  Parti-gyle water requirement = 4.5G (volume target, absorption has already been accounted for), plus .5 for tun loss = 5G req.  In conclusion, heat 5G sparge water to 180. Once first runnings complete add the 5G to the mash tun, mix, vorlof and run to second kettle. 

3. Once second runnings are in the kettle stir and split to two kettles and place on stove.  At boiling begin hopping with one batch getting an equal IBU contribution via a 60/30/15 addition and the other getting only a 5 minute addition to target 30 IBUs.

Starter

2/26/15 - starer vial 001 in 2L of 1040 with nutrient and calcium. SMaSH - Come to find out today (brew day) that my rare earth magnets had come loose and stuck together overnight, throwing my bar.  Oh well, intermittent shaking from here.  Only need half the starter anyway so Ill just pitch to the vial for next storage and toss in the rest.  It'll be more than enough for these small half batches.

Arrogant Clone - Today, Started fresh 007 vial in 750ml wort. Ball jar, intermittent shaking.  It'll have 8 hours.

Brew Day: 2/27/15

Strike target 157 - mash 144 to main mash, 158 to partial mash.  Why i didn't use muslin bags I'll never know.  Purest???  Shmuck...

--------------------------------Surgeon General's Warning-------------------------------

Parti-Gyle calculations are not straightforward at all.  I realized the mistake while running off, and ended up over, so now I got me a Bog Arrogant Bastard. , More hops, same BUGU.  Keep brewing!  Of course, as I write this I ask myself, "Self, there must be a calculator out there, yes?"  4 seconds later - http://www.astrocaver.com/java/Parti-Gyle.html - indeed there is.  Doh!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brew on!  PS.  Today is Devil's Purse first batch brew day!

Arrogant Pre-boil - 1062

Smash - preboil 1037 (with a little DME love)
Each got .5tsp gypsum and .25 CaCl

Smash 60-30-15-0 got adds as planned.
Smash late hop got all hops at 10 min as OG was showing high.

All got nutrient at 10.

Arrogant OG - 1075

Smash Late Hop - Glass fermenter - 1053
Smash standard - plastic 6G - 1052

Pitch

Both starters are moving, slowly, but moving.

Arrogant - pitch temp 65 - 850ml warm up starter 007 plus 500ml 001.
Each SMaSH - 750ml 001.

Done - It's steak time!

D4 - 3/3/15 - The brews have all been high krausen and ripping along this week. All brews free rose to 65-66 and are now @ 62.  Arrogant is still a 3 on my fermentation meter.  Moved to a warm water bath of 70 to finish.

D5 - 3/5/15 - Arrogant landed at 73, leaving it alone.  Still at a 3/5 on the airlock activity.

D10 - 3/9/15 - all airlock activity finished and Krausen dropped on smash beers.  Final temp 61.  Late - 6.5 brix - FG - 1009

60/30/15/0 - Brix: 6, fg 1006

Arrogant finished at 70. Brix - 9.4, fg 1014 (stoked)

3/10/15 - 2oz chinook to dry hop.  Hop Bag.  Pull at 5-7 days.  70 degrees.
3/11/15 - Harvested yeast
3/18/14 - Kegged and carbed.  Initial tasting is too green to really say.  Slightly metallic and overly bitter when warm with improper carb.  She needs at least a week to settle in. Aroma is pungent, no additional keg-hopping needed. Smash beers bottled with 4 as a 50/50 blend. Done.

SMaSH 60 min - garbage.  I mean its fine overall, but the hopping schedule didnt bring out the hop as I would have hoped.  I shouldve just stuck to a 60 min add and seen how it performed as a sole bittering hop.

SMaSH Late - Awesome!  The characteristic Chinook bite is right up front, but not overdone.  Surprosing to say the least.  The aroma is resiny, slight pine, but more citrus than pine on this iteration.  Very good and in fact with just a little ove this beer could be a recipe unto itself.

4/8/15
Barley Bastard - She has a slight off white head, which is stable throughout the pour.  She smells like described above, resiny, dry with slight pine notes but more citrus.

Taste - Initially the bite was too much and almost had a slight metallic tinge to it, but after two weeks in the keg that has mellowed.  It is a well attenuated beer with a nice malt backbone and the accnet of dark caramel is hiding behind the hops.

Mouthfeel is medium with a moderate to low residual sweetness.

Overall - I like this for a Fall IPA grist, but likely I wont brew it again.  I fee like the taste comes very close to arrogant and I am satisfies with the effort.  Had the numbers worked out to targets I think the recipe is pretty darn close, if not spot on.  In anther two weeks the beer could dtand a traingle test of arrogant and I'll have some fun there and report back if its worth the time, but brew it!