Brewing Day #7: Ladies Day IPA

By scot in Home Brewing on Monday, March 29th, 2010

Let me start off by saying that I find myself very fortunate to have a wife that puts up with my home brewing and allows me to play brewer about every three weeks. So brew day #7 was back to the beer I brewed as my third beer. IPAs are probably my favorite recipe but I am not brewing because my first go around was so outstanding. I am brewing because of how terrible it turned out.

This brings on the one difficulty I have with home brewing: the waiting process. I am not by nature a patient person but somehow, someway, I have found the intestinal fortitude to keep my beers in primary for four weeks and, if need be, throw them in a brite tank for a while longer. After that, the beer needs to go to bottling: at least another two weeks. Waiting almost two months or more (based on the beer) is not an impatient mans cup of tea.

When I brewed this beer the first time, I pitched my yeast, by the end of the second day nothing was happening. So by the end of the first day, I was on the forums, contacting friends, and researching why yeast doesn’t start. I impatiently came to the conclusion it was my yeast, so on my way home from work the second day I picked up a new package of yeast. Since it was only my third brew I made sure I followed directions precisely. Much to my shagrin, the yeast failed a second time and on the evening of the third night day, I was a mess. I thought the beer was doomed.

I called a brewing friend, who had some yeast. He did let me know the yeast was used on a different beer and wasn’t sure if the profile would come throuhg in my beer. Well, to cut this story short, it did. I didn’t like it and I have had a hard time choking it down.

Fast foward to yesterday: I made the same recipe but this time the yeast is working fine and I will not be injecting some crazy yeast this time around. I can’t wait for it. Eight weeks is a long time to wait.

I still have one dilema: I orginally dry hopped with one ounce of Amarillo hops. I found some cheap hops so I have an ounce of Amarill, Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook laying around. Would this cause hop aroma overload in a regular IPA or just the right amount? Enjoy!