Haven’t brewed in ages, but this seems like a good place to re-start: it’s the Brewdog DIY Dog kit for Jack Hammer. As a kit it’s rather simple: extra pale malt, 5 packs of pellet hops, and a sachet of US-05 yeast. Instructions are just a printed copy of the page from the DIY Dog PDF. Better fire up my recipe planning software and start calculating volumes of water…
Brewday details:
- Length: 20 litres
- OG: 1.068
- FG:
- ABV:
BeerXml File: Jack Hammer
Jack Hammer
- Style: American IPA
- Length: 20 litres
- Yeast: Safale American (DCL/Fermentis US-05)
- OG: 1.064
- FG: 1.011
- ABV: 7.1 %
- Colour: 7.4 EBC
- Bitterness: 169.7 IBUs
| Name | Colour | Amount (kg) | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Pale Maris Otter (Crisp) | 3 | 5.799 | 100 |
| Total | 5.799 | ||
Hops:
| Name | Alpha | Form | Amount (g) | Time (mins) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus (Tomahawk) | 14 | Pellet | 30 | First Wort |
| Centennial (pellet) | 10 | Pellet | 25 | First Wort |
| Centennial (pellet) | 10 | Pellet | 19 | 30 |
| Columbus (Tomahawk) | 14 | Pellet | 19 | 30 |
| Centennial (pellet) | 10 | Pellet | 50 | Aroma |
| Columbus (Tomahawk) | 14 | Pellet | 25 | Aroma |
| Amarillo | 11.2 | Pellet | 100 | Dry Hop |
| Citra | 12 | Pellet | 100 | Dry Hop |
| Simcoe | 13 | Pellet | 100 | Dry Hop |
Comments:
Hardness fairly typical: 216ppm. Water treatment: 31ml CRS in 30 litres, with 8.9g Gyspum, 3g Epsom salts, 2.3g Calcium Chloride, 0.8g salt.
Looks like the recipe is planned expecting 70% efficiency. I normally get 75-80%, but I’ll not bother fiddling with things for the sake of that. I’l probably end up with a slightly stronger wort, though since I often have more volume at the end, things may balance out..! The printed recipe also states 250IBU and BeerSmith comes up with 169IBU. I don’t imagine for a minute that this is a real difference.
Since the recipe is entirely pellet hops, I’m going to use my big BIAB-bag, secured at the top of the boiler. The intention is that this will allow them to circulate properly, but will contain them for filtration so I don’t either clog the hop filter or let them all through to the FV.
The bag worked rather well – except for when I put the chiller in the boiler, when it came loose from the rim… Had 20 litres at 1.068 at the end of the boil, and I don’t think there would have been that much lost to the hops, as I ended up with quite a dry lump in the bag; I emptied the green thin-ish liquid into the FV. From reading around, it seems a lot of people don’t care even if the majority of pellet hops end up in the FV, so I figured I might as well get as much liquid and flavour as possible into the brew…
As mentioned, I’ve finished with 20 litres at 1.068, which is 74% efficiency. That seems about right for a fairly strong brew, and better than the recipe’s 70% – I’m sure I’ll be happy with a slightly stronger beer. I rarely get as high attenuation as recipes seem to want, so it may end up balancing out. The mash was targeted at 65C, started at 66C and ended at 64C. I also fly sparged for a change.