Brew 5 - Gardener's Gloves (Orange and Grapefruit IPA)

Brew 5 - Gardener's Gloves IPA (Orange and Grapefruit IPA)

 Brew day: 20th June 2020
Bottle day: 3rd July 2020

Another brew day beckons and I've been thinking this one over a lot. My dad has wanted to brew a beer again for ages so this is his Father's Day present - a brew day with his son.
I haven't been that happy with the low efficiency I've been reaching after the mash and the resulting low gravities need to be rectified. I've been researching mashing efficiencies and deciding how best to increase my sugar conversion. I bought a new digital thermometer and have decided to insulate my mash tun lid with tin foil as a starting point. The next step is to mash for 90mins (as close to 67 deg C as I can keep it) and then finally, give the brew bag a really good squeeze. 

There seems to be a bit of debate around the need to squeeze the bag - some say do and some say don't. I have squeezed the bag a little before and it hasn't resulted in any issues so I'm going to get some thick gloves on and give the bag a proper squeeze this time. 

The first mash held temperature really well to start, sitting at around 65 deg C before dropping to about 62 deg C with 30mins to go. I took a quick gravity reading at this point at 1.034 (temp adjusted). I decided to reheat a few litres on the hob and reinfuse into the mash tun. This raised the temperature back to 65 deg C for the rest of the mash. 

At 90mins, the mash bag was squeezed really well to get out as much wort as possible. We took another gravity (pre-boil) and this time it came out at 1.055 (temp adjusted) giving a pre-boil efficiency of 74% (using Brewer's Friend Efficiency Calculator) which is excellent and the highest efficiency I have managed with this set up. 

Aiming for the same with the 2nd mash in - this time we heated the strike water a little higher - around 72 deg C. Once the malt was added the temperature sat at around 65 degrees again  and held for about 45mins before beginning to drop to 62 deg C. I think this is probably the limit of my cool box so a new investment might be needed there in the future. We took another gravity reading which came out at 1.051 (temp adjusted) -  slightly lower than the first batch but we haven't squeezed the bag yet. We then reheated about 3 litres and this brought the temperature back to 65 deg C. 

More wort came out of the 2nd mash (about 12 litres - must have added a bit more water) and the pre-boil gravity was 1.046 giving an efficiency of 74.6%. 

The 1st batch boil goes well, using hop bags to infuse them into the wort. We had one moment of panic when we realised the Irish Moss hadn't been added 15mins before the end - so chucked it in 5 mins before gas off instead. We cooled the wort down with a plastic bottle filled with ice and the cold break hits in nicely. 

Measuring the post-boil gravity comes out well above 1.070 which is both above target and the highest I have achieved with this set up. A vast increase in sugar conversion efficiency achieved via a combination of squeezing the bag and boiling for an hour with the lid off.

The 2nd batch at this point is ready to boil and it was definitely lighter in colour so something has changed in the method between the 2 - perhaps the amount of water loss to evaporation. We remember the Irish Moss this time and the hop additions are smelling great. The 2 batches are then combined in the fermenting bin and more frozen water bottles added to rapidly cool. Cold break kicks again nicely. 

Gravity was sky high for the combined batches... we really got the most out of the grain and hit 1.080 (another record with this set up!). I had some room to manoeuvre on wort volume and decided that we would add a litre of water at a time and remeasure gravity until we reached original Target Gravity of around 1.060. We added 4 litres of sterlised water and managed to get close to target OG - 1.057. This is best outcome I've had since my first all grain brew (Alice Porter). I guess the fruit of the method will be evident in the final beer. 

The wort took longer to cool as a result of the added hot water but I let Alice add the yeast when it was ready. She really enjoys getting involved in the process - especially smelling the hops and adding them to the boil. 

Next up at in 4 days when the dry hops and citrus zests...






Update - 24th June 2020: Dry hop day. Added 40g of Orange Zest and 20g of Grapefruit Zest along with 25g each of Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo. The Beer has fermented really well and a decent head has formed on the top. We took a quick gravity reading which came out at 1.010 and gives an ABV of 6.2% at present (top job!). A quick taste and the beer is lovely and hoppy and has a great bitterness. 

The brew sat for another week and a half, undisturbed. Bottling day arrive and the lid came off. The smell was immense. The beer already tasted superb. 

Taste update: 12/07/2020 - We bought some Elvis Juice and carried out a taste test. Our beer was was bitterer than the Brewdog version with less sweetness. The Grapefruit and Orange carries really well in both aroma and flavour. As an initial taste a week after bottling, we were both really happy with the outcome and the beer is almost completely clear (the image doesn't do it justice as the bottle had been moved during transit but the rest are clear!). This is shaping up to be my best brew yet. 

My dad designed the label as he wanted something to remember the beer from. He named it after the gloves I use to squeeze the Mash bag. I like the label idea and will be doing it for my next beer. 


Update: The final beer is superb. Very fresh citrus flavour and the grapefruit kick is prominent - I think we used a good amount of peel/zest. The beer has cleared really well and provides an excellent summer refreshment. This is definitely an American Pale Ale - the hops are huge. On the whole, the most successful brew to date and a recipe that cries out for another run in the future (perhaps with even more zest!). Overall beer rating: 4.75/5.

Ingredients
Malts: Crisp Extra Pale Malt, Crisp Cara Malt. 
Hops: Northern Brewer, Simcoe, Amarillo, Mosaic, Citra.
Adjuncts: Grapefruit Zest (20g) and Orange Zest (40g) - added with dry hop on day 4.  
Yeast: Fermentis Safale US-05 Yeast (Dried yeast) 
Batch size Target: 15L 
Batch size Actual: 13L
Number of bottles from batch: 22 x 500ml bottles
Target OG: 1.049
Actual OG: 1.057 
Target FG: 1.016
Gravity on 24/06/2020: 1.010 (6.2%)
Actual FG: 1.008
Target ABV: 4.8%
Actual ABV: 6.4%
Brew Efficiency: 45.5%

Notes: Based loosely on #211 (Elvis Juice) in DIY Dog Recipe. Replaced Magnum hops with Northern Brewer and added a little more for bitterness. 

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