Brewed: If you can read this, you don’t need glasses

By scot in Beer, Beer Recipes, Home Brewing on Sunday, August 20th, 2017

2017 is turning into the year of tough to find time to home brew. Outside of brewing If you can read this, you don’t need glasses five days after Honey Pot Pale Ale with wet hops, second annual, it has been three months since I brewed up Schlap!.

Busy life and falling back to old hobby, fishing, has taken up a bunch of my time an enthusiasm. Jotting over to the local pound or river takes minutes, while the time duration of the act of fishing takes minutes to hours and anywhere in between. I don’t have to plan to go fishing. Hell, it can be a knee jerk reaction. Perfect for aforementioned craziness of life.

Formulating the recipe for If you can read this, you don’t need glasses

If you have been following along, Northeast India pale ales have been my obsession over the past year, if not longer. If you can read this, you don’t need glasses tries to quell the obsession.

The recipe is inspired by a recent article in Zymurgy magazine on the home brew winners. I looked through them all, multiple times, but the IPA section kept pulling me in (back). I noticed that the winner used two pounds of oats in his recipe, over 15% of the grist, something I have wondered about but never attempted.

As for the hops, I was shooting for fruity while attempting to use up more of the cheap 2015 hops I purchased at the beginning of 2017. I wanted to use up the Eureka and Equinox as I never liked the hops on their own but found them better in support and as late additions. The Mosaic is quickly becoming a NIEPA classic, while Galaxy packs a wonderful tropical punch.

I still have not graduated to treating my water (although I have picked up some small vials of chemicals at the local home brew shop). When making an IPA, or similar, I use about 60+% reverse osmosis water with tap water. My tap water is very hard. I have felt it has helped with the perceived bitterness of the beer. That could be the way I am adding the hops as well. Enjoy!

Recipe for If you can read this, you don’t need glasses

General Information:
Brew Date: Friday, August 25, 2017
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-04 and S-05, not hydrated
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.067
Finishing Gravity: 1.010
IBU: 47.8
Color: 4.3 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69.12%
Alcohol by Volume: 7.48%
Primary Fermentation: 8 days @68*F

Grain Bill:
7.25 pounds Pilsner
6.00 pounds 2-row
2.00 pounds Oats

Mash:
Saccharification @152.7*F

Hop Bill:
0.50 ounces 2015 Eureka @ first wort
1.00 ounces 2015 Eureka @10 minutes
1.00 ounces 2015 Equinox @10 minutes
1.00 ounces 2015 Mosiac @whirlpool for 20 minutes
2.00 ounces 2015 Equinox @whirlpool for 20 minutes
2.00 ounces 2015 Galaxy @whirlpool for 20 minutes
2.50 ounces 2015 Eureka @whirlpool for 20 minutes
2.00 ounces 2015 Galaxy @4 day dry hop
3.00 ounces 2015 Mosiac @4 day dry hop

Extras:
1.0 tsp Irish Moss @15 minutes
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient @15 minutes
1.0 pounds table sugar @15 minutes
4.0 quarts of rice hulls
~5.25 gallons of reverse osmosis water used

Updates:

• 2017-08-20 (morning): @68.5*F, added 2/3 packet, each of S-04 and S-05.
• 2017-08-27 (morning): @67.8*F, good fermentation.
• 2017-08-29 (morning): @69.7*F, add dry hops.
• 2017-09-02: cold crashed to 37*F.
• 2017-09-03: Bottled with 3.50 ounces of priming sugar and 2.0 cups of water. 26, 22 ounce bottles. Bottle crown label: If.

Useless Fact: After the death of her husband, poet Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) kept his heart wrapped up in silk until she died.