Double Dog Dare IPA
This is the first brew day I attempted solo. Like I’ve said, I love IPA’s so why not try and make a double IPA. I was still doing extract boiling at this point so this recipe consisted of pretty much double the extract syrup of the Snaggletooth IPA recipe along with a shit ton of hops added at various points of the boil. Part of the extract partial boil recipe has you make “hop tea” where you… make a tea with hop pellets. Kinda fun. I love the smell of hops. I started understanding the hydrometer a bit more at this point so I actually took and kept some readings recorded:
OG: 1.086 (recipe had me shooting for 1.083)
FG: 1.021 (the end result seemed a bit sweet and I think this was why)
I recall transferring this to secondary and dry-hopping on June 26th or 27th I believe. The hop pellets moved around quite a bit, which seemed good. I seem to recall having a busy summer and not getting around to bottling this batch until early August, which was maybe a mistake? August 27th was the big day, the first bottles to be cracked at my buddy Jim’s new house for a BBQ. NO CARBONATION! It tasted pretty good but no bubbles at ALL. So pissed. I worked pretty hard on this batch so I was mad.
Snaggletooth IPA
Dad brewed with me again. We used all spring water this time, not distilled as with the first batch. It turned out
GREAT! This batch was given the name Snaggletooth IPA after Leiny’s snaggletooth.
I’m a big fan of India Pale Ale’s, so I thought I’d try my hand at one. IPA’s have such a distinctive hop character they just smack you in the face. This probably plays well into my personality, as I’m an all-or-nothing kind of guy, most of the time. The recipe I used was Northern Brewer’s Chinook IPA extract kit. Partial boil. I believe chinook hops were used for both bittering and aroma in this recipe. (more…)
