Yesterday Philip, Liz, and I got together and brewed our first IPA.
We threw 15.5 lbs of Malted grain into this bad boy, along with a whopping 8 oz of Hops. We made sure to get fresh, whole leaf hops shipped down from Steinbart's in Portland and picked up the rest of what we needed over at MoreBeer in Los Altos. Then it was on to brewing!
We mashed in at 154 degrees F to bring out a good supply of sugars, both fermentable (for that delicious alcohol) and unfermentable (for the body and sweetness in the beer). The color was perfect, the sugars were plentiful, and it was on to the boil!
Rather than bitter up this IPA like most, we put most of our hops in towards the end of the 2-hour boil to try to bring out more aromatics and flavors.
The result should be a beer with a very floral aroma and flavor with a nice strong malt body to back it up. And don't forget the alcohol! Our O.G. was a whopping 1.073 (right on target!). We're hoping to get the alcohol level up to around 8 or 9%
Check out this album to see pictures of our brewing process (and one cute picture of our brewing mascot, Lydian).
Thanks to Liz for taking pictures all day!
Thanks to Liz for taking pictures all day!
