Cash & Coe
It's the season for light and quaffable summer ales so today I decided to hit the American and Australian fruity hops and brew up a light APA.
Starter
I made up a 1.5 litre starter with the intention of keeping behind 500ml for the next re-use and pitching a litre into the brew. It went in the brew-fridge on my stir plate last night at 20C. 12 hours later we appear to have passed high krausen during the night if the trub marks are anything to go by.
Brew day
Recipe: Cash & Coe
Date: 7 June 2020
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Finished water profile: Ca:52, Mg:8, Na:9, SO4:72, Cl:57
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type %/IBU
29.53 L Tesco Ashbeck Water -
2.10 ml Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent -
1.70 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent -
1.70 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent -
1.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent -
0.40 g Calcium Chloride (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.40 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.20 ml Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent -
3.69 kg Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC) Grain 85.0 %
0.43 kg IREKS Munich Malt (20.0 EBC) Grain 10.0 %
0.22 kg IREKS Crystal Maple (3.5 EBC) Grain 5.0 %
10.00 g Simcoe [11.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6.8 IBUs
18.00 g Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5.4 IBUs
18.00 g Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11.9 IBUs
18.00 g Simcoe [11.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8.9 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining -
22.00 g Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 1.5 IBUs
22.00 g Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 3.4 IBUs
22.00 g Simcoe [11.70 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 2.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg Barbarian (Imperial Yeast #A04) Yeast -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.34 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.53 L of water at 70.2 C 67.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5 L of water at 75 C
Brew day went as smoothly as usual. My pre-boil gravity came in a little higher than expected so I liquored back with 700ml of Ashbeck for the boil as I want this one to finish at 4.0% - 4.2% ABV to keep it on the easy drinking side. The wort smelled amazing during the last few minutes of the boil with all those hops in there.
I chilled with the immersion chiller to 24.5C before giving up and transferring the 24 litres of 1.042 wort to the fermenter. The brew fridge can take it down to 20C when I'll pitch the Imperial A04 Barbarian yeast starter.
Fermentation
I had a quick check the morning after pitching the yeast and the jam jar housing the blow-off-tube is bubbling away quite rapidly so my inline keg-purging system is working as expected.
I've now brewed with all of the liquid Vermont strains: The Yeast Bay Vermont, Omega OYL-052 and Imperial A04 and I'm finding it hard to believe that they're all from the same source. TYB and Omega are very similar so possibly they're the same but this Imperial yeast just seems different - much more like Wyeast 1318 than the other two Vermonts. My IPA actually has a similar character to it that I get from Shepherd Neame cask ale (our local is SN). If someone handed me a pint of it and told me it was SN I'd have no problem believing it.
Kegging
The plan was to keg this after 2 weeks but it still seemed to be bubbling about once every 30 seconds through the blow-off tube so I gave it an extra week. This Barbarian A04 yeast does seem to take ages to fully flocculate so maybe that's why it needs a little longer.
FG was 1.009 which gives a nice and easy drinking 4.3%. This was the first of mine to be kegged in a CO2 purged keg. To transfer I just cracked the keg lid, inserted the hose attached to the fermenter valve and opened up. The steadily rising beer level pushed out the CO2 and I sealed up as soon as it came within a few millimetres of the gas-in pipe. Kwik Clear finings were added to the keg and I had enough left over for 3 bottles.
The keg was purged (again) with 5x15psi bursts and it's now sitting at 12psi to slowly carbonate and condition for a couple of weeks. The sample jar tasted really good and hoppy and I'm hoping the extra effort to keep oxygen away during transfer will pay off in the form of longer-lasting hop flavours.
Tasting notes
Looking back at my notes in Beersmith I noted that it tastes like a typical APA with grapefruit from the Simcoe and tropical melon from the Cashmere & Galaxy. I also noted that this one took longer than usual to clear in the keg. I finished by saying that I'd do it again but with a different version of the Vermont strain. A year later and with hindsight I would now use WLP4000.