Gravity on Space Juice (Juicy IPA) is sitting around 1.018 right now...not what I was hoping but it'll work. See if I can shave s couple more gravity points off in the next day by warming it up a bit. If not...time to dry hope for 2 weeks tomorrow! Only 4 more long weeks till this brew is carbed and ready to be consumed!! #JuicyIPA #SpaceJuice #NewEnglandIPA #GalaxyHops #EquinoxHops #SimcoeHops #DoHomeBrew
Whenever a new hop variety becomes available to homebrewers, everyone here at the shop is excited to get a beer going to see what the new variety has to offer. Right now we have some really fun stuff to experiment with like Pine Fruit, Chocolate, Lemon Drop, Caliente, Equinox, and more. The descriptors for Equinox sounded really unique and like they would make a good edition to a spring time pale ale. According to the description it is a fruity and floral hop with notes of lime, papaya, lemon and green peppers. Jason Sahler of Strong Rope Brewery was nice enough to bring us a sample of Pioneer NY State Malt to try out for ourselves, which made this the perfect opportunity to brew up a smash beer. In true Sahler fashion, I brewed with a clean fermenting Scottish Ale yeast. To make it a simple and quick brew day (and since I was brewing solo) I opted for making this a Brew in a Bag recipe.
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Vernal Equinox Pale Ale
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
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Ingredients
Grains
7# Pioneer NY State 2-Row
8 oz. Table Sugar
Hops
Equinox .5 oz 60 min.
Equinox .5 oz 30 min.
Equinox 1 oz 1 min.
Equinox 1 oz Fermentor
Equinoz 1 oz Dry Hop
Boil Additions
1/2 tsp. Gypsum in the boil 60 min.
1/2 Tablet of Whirlfloc 10 min.
1 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 10 min.
Yeast
1728 Scottish ale
Mash
152ºF for 60 Minutes
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The grains of Pioneer’s malts (as with most local malts) are on the smaller side and because I was doing a *BIAB (Brew in a Bag) I crushed them extra fine to help with extraction.
*If you BIAB often, make sure to let your local shop know so they can crush your grains finer.
When calculating water for a BIAB I try not to be too scientific. Here is my personal calculation:
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6 Gallons (amount of liquid I want before the boil begins)
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1 Pint per # of Grains (this should cover grain absorption)
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112 oz. ( I rounded up to 7 Gallons for simplicities sake)
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Heat the 7 Gallons up to around 160ºF. Make sure to line your pot with your large grain bag and stir in your malts. You want to rest your grains at 152ºF. Add a little heat if the mash drops below that temperature. Let rest for 60 minutes.
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Once the timer is up, I like to raise the temperature of the mash to 170ºF and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes for the mash out stage.
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Once you have finished the mash out, remove the grain bag and let drain into the pot while continuing to heat your wort. Discard your grains and proceed with your boil additions.
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Once the beer has cooled and been transferred to your fermentor, add the first dry hop addition. I have always had a preference for adding a dry hop addition before fermentation begins. This ensures that I am really getting the true character of the hop all the way through the brewing process. If I wasn’t doing a BIAB I also would have thrown in some first wort hops.
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At 3-5 days into fermentation, I will add in the second dry hop addition. I will let this sit for another 3 days or until final the final gravity has been reached. For the final 2 days I will raise my fermentor temperature to do a diacetyl rest (you can never be too safe!). Once the 2 days are up I crash cool for 24 hrs. and transfer into a keg or bottling vessel the next day.
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Final Numbers
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.006
Ferment @ 65ºF 6-8 days
Diacetly Rest @ 70ºF 2 days
IBU: 49
ABV: 5.1%
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The Pioneer Malt’s were great. I ended up getting about 78% efficiency, which is quite good for a BIAB. The Scottish Ale yeast attenuated surprisingly high and finished nice and clean as expected. I was planning on a more sessionable beer at about 4.2%, but finished at 5.1%. More alcohol for the win!
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The malt and hop profile of this beer is really great. This beer came out super light in color and incredibly clear. We have been extremely happy with the malts that are being produced in NY state at the moment. Right now we are carrying the NY State Craft Malt 2-Row and have now done several very successful single malt beers with it all with great results.
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The hop profile is indeed unlike any other hop that I have tasted. It has a smooth and mellow bitterness. The finishing hops added a really nice citrus/lime note, some spiciness and you can really pick up the green pepper, almost jalapeno-like note. I think this beer would make some outstanding Michelada’s. Overall this hop is really enjoyable and I think it would pair really nicely with hops like Mosaic, Simcoe and Centennial. This beer though will have you dreaming of spring break forever and ever….
