Camping hop monster

At the end of August I'm taking the family on a camping trip to a lovely place by the sea in Dorset. There'll be a campfire, there will be singing, there will be ball games. There will be beer. Last year I made an underwhelming IPA with some stale Centennial hops - but I completely underpowered it and it just wasn't any good.

This year I've decided to make a proper monster IPA. I'm using Apollo hops, described by my brewing buddy as "a really big hop" and Ahtanum for a really nice mix of aromatic and full on piny American hop flavour.

The other change is that I'm making this as a wheat malt based IPA. This is mainly because I have a few kgs of wheat malt that need using up, and because I wanted a light bodied pale beer that would let the hops shine through but give some pleasing body. Well, it is a bit of an experiment.

 I made this as a brew in the bag (BIAB) beer - using my temperature controlled boiler as the mash tun. You can see the mash hops bobbing along the top as the mash reaches 65C. Its a bit counter intuitive, as BIAB feels like a bodge rather than rigorous method. Yes, using a converted picnic cooler somehow feels more professional. But now I'm practiced at BIAB it gives a bit more control than the cooler box method. 

Running off the mash liquid. It's a very nice pale straw colour, and it has a very subtle hop flavour from the mash hops. The sweetness of the malt disguises the hop flavour quite significantly. 

 One thing with BIAB is that its tempting to try and get as much of the wort from the grains as possible. This is just a small batch, so I popped the bag in a colander over a jug and managed to get about half a litre further wort out. It's worth it even if that just gets lost in the dry hopping phase.

And here's the wort a mere 12 hours after the yeast starter has been added. There's loads of activity and the bubble lock is bubbling away and looking very healthy. Also smells amazing!


In the mash
2.008 Kg Wheat Malt
0.204 Kg Rolled oats
0.104 Kg Caramel Malt (124 ECB)
10 g Apollo hops
10g Ahtanum hops

Mash in at 65C for 110 minutes, then raise temp to 75C for 10 mins (i figured a longer mash wouldn't hurt with all the oats)

Boil for 60 mins

Hop Schedule

10g Apollo @ 20 mins

15g Apollo @ Whirlpool for 60 minutes @ 70C falling
45g Ahtanum @ Whirlpool for 60 mins  @ 70C falling

Dry hop 15g Apollo and 45g Ahtanum for 10 days.

OG 1050 (higher than intended - i might weaken the wort a bit, I was aiming for 4% abv)

Yeast - Cry Havoc WLP - using yeast starter