Even More Space Ghost

This beer is a clear winner.

Grain Bill / Fermentables

  • 14 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
  • 1 lb Carapils
  • 0.5 lb Crystal 10
  • 0.5 lb Crystal 20

Hops

  • 2 oz Chinook (10.5  AAU)
  • 4 oz Amarillo (7.7 AAU)
  • 3 oz Citra (13.3 AAU)

Yeast

  • Nottingham (yeast cake from last batch of Space Ghost)

Other

  • Whirlfloc Tablet
  • Campden Tablet

Target Stats

  • 6 Gallons
  • OG 1.078
  • FG 1.018
  • ABV 7.90%
  • IBU 74.28
  • SRM 5.67

Final Stats

  • 5.5 Gallons
  • OG 1.081
  • FG 1.020
  • ABV 8.01%
  • Efficiency 76%

Brew Day (2018-12-27)

Heat 9 gallons of water to 160°.  (Unfiltered Dover City water with chlorine removed with a campden tablet.)

Gently dough in grains until all grain is covered by water. Add 1/2 tsp gypsum and 1/4 tsp epsom salts and stabilize pH at ~5.2

Mash grains at 152° for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Remove “grain bag“, rinse, squeeze and allow grains to drain.

Bring wort to a boil.

Once wort is boiling, add 1 oz Chinook hops and continue for 45 minutes.

Add 1 oz Chinook hops and continue boil for another 10 minutes.

Add whirlfloc, yeast nutrient, 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Citra hops and continue boil for 4 minutes.

Add 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Citra hops and continue boil for last 1 minute. (This is a good time to drop in the wort chiller.)

Reduce wort temperature to 170° and add 1 oz Amarillo.

Reduce wort temperature to 68° and take OG reading.

Sufficiently aerate and transfer to primary fermenter.

Pitch rehydrated yeast into fermenter.

Allow beer 1~2 weeks in the primary to adequately ferment and cleanup any diacetyl produced during fermentation.

Dry hop with 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Citra for 4 days to 1 week.

Bottle and wait another 2 weeks or keg and carb.

Enjoy!

Notes:

December 27, 2018 Brew Day
  • Forgot to add the citric acid until 1/2 way though the mash, but only had to add 1/4 tsp to drop the pH to 5.3
  • Fermentation lagged for the first 36 hours and carboy temperature had to be raised to 54° to start.
  • Day 7, the initial tilt reading was off from hydrometer (1.062), but still accurate enough to determine when to raise carboy temperature (1.025). I would wait and extra day next time because the fermentation was still really strong as the temperature raised to 65°, reaching as high as 69° due to the exothermic reaction of the yeast.
  • Day 10, dry hoped after tilt reading stabilized at 1.005 for 24 hours.
  • January 11th, started cold crash at 33°.
  • January 12th, got impatient and hit with gelatin, which actually stirred up yeast more initially.
  • January 14th, kegged and hit with 40 PSI.
December 27, 2018 Brew Day

Final Stats

  • 6 Gallons
  • OG 1.076 (1.065 Tilt)
  • FG 1.0
  • ABV %
  • Efficiency 78%
  • Did not need citric acid, pH dropped to 5.21 with the gypsum and epsom salts.
  • Pitched 2 packages of fresh, rehydrated yeast at 64° and had activity within 8 hours.
  • Day 1, 1″ krausen and activity is causing the star san in the airlock to foam.