1kg of Honey
Juice of 2 oranges
50g of raisins
2 cloves
1 tsp of cinnamon powder
1 packet youngs wine yeast
Well, I'd ended up with loads and loads of grain left over from previous brews which I could've used up on a couple of normal beers, but I decided to use up all in one go and have a go at brewing a massive IPA...This is mostly inspired by the crazy IPAs which the Americans are producing. I'd had a bottle of Stone Ruination IPA over Christmas and it had blown my face off; in a good way.... So I'd figured that there was no point doing this by halves and therefore there are a lot of hops involved! This cumulated in the a mixture of Goldings, Willamette and Cascade being continually added over the period of the 60minute boil, and a further 75g of Cascade being added to the secondary fermenter. This means that the final product will be over 9% and have about 135 IBUs..... As well as being a massive beer, this is also the most complicated brew I've ever done. Due to space limitations in the mash tun, and a desire to experiment with something new, I decided to go for a triple decoction mash. In decoction mashing, the mash temperature is raised by pulling a specific amount of the thickest portion of the mash out of the mash tun and boiling for a period of time, and then returning it to the main mash in the tun. This caramelizes some of the sugars, giving the beer a deeper flavor and color, and frees more starches from the grain, making for a more efficient extraction from the grains. Brew day was quite successful, with my decoctions more or less hitting the correct temperatures and getting a decent extraction from the grain. I pitched a couple of packets of Safale US-5 American Ale yeast, and it was fermenting like crazy the next morning. Now we just have to play the waiting game... I have included the recipe bellow, in case you are curious!
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