July Brewday – Hoppy Amber
I brewed my hoppy amber today, a beer I brewed twice last year around this time and really enjoyed. The only thing I changed from last year were some of the hop additions. I’m using new bittering hops because of what I’ve got on hand, and new finishing hops to see how it changes the beer. This is also my first brewday utilizing my new bucket heater to heat water when I don’t want to use the propane burner. This lets my wife start the water heating earlier than I normally would as well as letting me start heating the sparge water earlier.
11:13 – Mashed in at 151F. Forgot to take a pH reading today. This was about 30 minutes later than it should have been since I overshot the liquor temp significantly and had to cool it down with bottles of ice.
12:25 – Finished vorlauf and started the first runnings. This beer uses first wort hops which makes this step smell absolutely incredible. If you’re a brewer and have never used first wort hops, you MUST try it just to experience this sublime aroma. My favorite first wort hops for american style beers are Chinooks, but I’ve used several others and the aroma is never disappointing. This is a picture of the first wort hops between the 1st and 2nd runnings:
12:50 – Started second runnings. This seemed to be really quick after starting the first runnings. I’ll need to look back at some old notes to see how long this step used to take.
13:10 – Added the 60 minute hops and started the timer.
14:10 – Added knockout hops and killed the burner.
14:30 – Started the chiller but forgot to add the final hop addition. DOH!
14:36 – Added the final hops.