Pliny Then and Now

The July/August 2009 issue of Zymurgy has the results of this year's reader's best commercial beer in the United States. After being beat out for first place two years in a row by Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Vinnie Cilurzo took first place this year with his Russian River Pliny the Elder. The issue includes an article by Vinnie himself where he spends five pages telling you how to brew a double IPA. It includes an updated recipe. I found it especially interesting because I recently featured the recipe he gave out at the the 2005 National Homebrew Competition. It seems he has been tweaking the recipe and this may account for the change in the polls. The IBU values listed are Vinie's measured values, not calculations.

	Then	Now
OG:	1.075	1.070
FG:	1.013	1.011
ADF:	81.8%
IBU:	95–100	90–95
SRM:	5.9	7

Fermentables	Then	Now
Two-Row Pale Malt (1.8 °L)	13.3 lbs. (5.897 kg)	11.0 lbs. (5.0 kg)
Crystal (45 °L)	0.32 lb. (145 g)	0.5 lb. (277 g)
Carapils Malt (2 °L)	0.94 lbs. (425 g)	0.5 lbs. (277 g)
Dextrose (0 °L)	1.1 lbs. (500 g)	0.4 lbs. (181 g)
Hops
Warrior 15.6% AA, 90 min.	2.75 oz. (78 g)
Chinook 12.2% AA, 90 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, 90 min.		3.5 oz. (99 g)
Simcoe 12% AA, 45 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, 45 min.		0.75 oz. (21 g)
Columbus 14.3% AA, 30 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, 30 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, 0 min.	2.25 oz. (64 g)
Centennial 8.0% AA, 0 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12% AA, 0 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, 0 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Columbus 14.3% AA, dry hop.	3.25 oz. (92 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)
Simcoe 12% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)
Yeast
White Labs California Ale WLP001, Wyeast American Ale 1056

Brew Day - Friday June 19, 2009

Brewed my Pliny The Elder clone today. I boiled off more than I expected, so the gravity was a little higher than expected — 1.082, instead of 1.075. Apart from that it went really well.

Beer Flag

In honor of flag day. An oldie, but a goodie. (via Brookston Beer Bulletin)

Beer Flag
Originally uploaded by I am Jacques Strappe

Two Brewing Movies

Brew Day - Sunday, May 31, 2009

A Toast from CJ in J

I finally did it.

I brewed my second batch of CJ’s JPA.

I did not want to tie up the whole day brewing, since it was Memorial Day weekend, so I got as ready as possible the night before and start as early as possible in the morning.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assumed a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That left six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assumed a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I needed seven gallons (26.5 L) at the start of the boil for a 60-minute full-volume boil. I adjusted the ingredient amounts accordingly to achieve the desired gravities, bitterness, and pitching rates. I assumed the use of bagged pellet hops for all hop additions. I use the Rager formula for calculating bitterness and the Morey model for calculating beer color.

Recipe: CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA

Pre-Boil Volume: 7 gallons (26.5 L)
BG: 1.051 (12.62 °P)
OG: 1.059 (14.51 °P)
FG: 1.015 (3.83 °P)
ADF: 73%
IBU: 89.7
ABV: 5.9%
Color: 7 SRM (17.4 EBC)
Boil: 60 minutes

Extract	Weight	Percent
Muntons Light DME	6.5 lbs. (2.95 kg)	76.5
Muntins Wheat DME	1 lbs. (0.45 kg)	11.8
Steeping Grains
Dingemans CaraVienne (19–27 °L)	0.75 lbs. (0.34 kg)	8.8
Dingemans CaraMunich (40–54 °L)	0.25 lbs. (0.11 kg)	2.9
Hops		IBU
Northern Brewer 9.0% AA, 60 minutes	1.5 oz. (43 g)	51.7
Amarillo 8.0% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	6.7
Cascade 5.4% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.5
Centennial 7.7% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	6.4
Amarillo 8.0% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.3
Cascade 5.4% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.9
Centennial 7.7% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.1
Amarillo 8.0% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.0
Cascade 5.4% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4
Centennial 7.7% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.0
Amarillo 8.0% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4
Cascade 5.4% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.0
Centennial 7.7% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4
Amarillo 8.0% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Cascade 5.4% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Centennial 7.7% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Yeast
Fermentis Safale S-04

Fermentation and Conditioning

I used 11 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast. Fermented at 67 °F (19.4 °C). When finished, I will carbonate the beer to approximately 2.5 volumes.