I do use it, but I didn't mess with it on this batch. I just tossed the pellets loose into the keg. I've also found it lets a tiny amount of hop particulate through, but my beers still seem to clear up after a couple pints :shrug:

The article on kegging is actually a really good idea; I'll put that on my to-do list.

As for the starters and yeast pitch rates. Yes, I'm usually targeting a specific pitch count. I use Mr. Malty's pitch rate calculator, but I do find his estimates to be a bit too conservative at times. I use a stir plate, so I mostly just plug my numbers into his site and see what I get. For big IPAs, (1.070 and up), it usually works out to about a 3L starter for me.

I think an article on that would be great. I am interested in your process for things like racking into the keg (do you setup a ball lock connector at the end of the racking cane to rack through the dip tube? Is it worth it to setup a keg -> keg system for transferring using CO2 and two ball lock connectors?), and things like doing multiple hop editions in the stainless brewing dry hopper.

The other process I am interested in is what your process is for blasting the secondary with CO2, as well as your racking procedure in general (is the autosiphon injecting too much oxygen and I should just use a plain racking cane?)

duh skeptical

I really don't feel they make a difference, but

A. I didn't want to change anything on a batch right before the wedding.
B. I really need to use up these Belma hops I have, and mash hops seemed like a great place to 'waste' them.

A little less harsh than CTZ, Apollo is even more pungent and dank than CTZ; less citrus in the aroma though. It's very oily.

For a bittering hop, it's fantastic. It stores better than most hops (loses less AA% as it ages), and it's super high in AA to start with.

Give it, or Bravo a shot. They're both really good new-school bittering hops.;

Ya, I feel your pain. Been there. Done that.

I'll get an article posted here in about 2-3 weeks. I'm brewing an IPA this weekend, so I'll take some photos during the dry hopping and kegging process in the weeks to follow.

I was just out of hop extract, and completely forgot to order more online (it's not available here locally.) I agree, hop extract in any decent quantity leaves such a mess inside the kettle.

I would say the previous two batches that used extract were still hard to clean, but not quite the magnitude of the Pliny batches.

For this recipe, the difference was indistinguishable. I won't lie, I'm not questioning how much of a difference hop extract makes in these massive IPAs. I'm really tempted to brew either of the Pliny recipes with Apollo, and see what it turns out like. I'm not sold on hop extract, but I'm not sold against it either. I'm going to need to experiment a little more before I make up my mind.

By the way, how did the Younger recipe turn out?

*now questioning

The Younger turned out absolutely phenomenal! It's been on tap now for about 3 weeks. Finished reasonably dry (1.008) which is what I wanted. I don't like overly sweet double IPAs/IIPAs myself so I did all I could to go from 1.088 -> 1.008 or lower, including step mash (somewhat like Bud Light) where I held at 145F for 90 mins then ramped up to 155F and held for another 30 before mashing out. I wanted this thing to finish as dry as possible with the Chico (US-05) yeast I used. If you're curious, I did a write-up on it (and gave you props for the recipe since it's basically yours). See: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26749

That's pretty awesome! Nice work. That's a beautiful bar you have there by the way.

I deal with it much like you do. Another alternative would be to crash the beer prior to pulling out the dry hopper, or rack out of the keg into a fresh keg.

For the wedding we just gave the kegs a few hours to settle, it seemed to do the trick.

Thanks!

There's a number of things that can affect mash efficiency, with sparging techniques being the biggest. If you fly sparge, make sure you are sparging very slow. If you batch sparge, make sure you are stirring in the water additions like crazy.

Those would be the first things I could check.

1.087 is pretty high for this recipe. Keep in mind my goal for this batch is 1.080, and that includes 1lb of Dextrose. What was your OG post boil?

1.062. did you add at the end of the boil?

Yikes, that is way low. I added my Dextrose mid-boil. When you add it doesn't make that much difference. It slightly affects hop utilization, but that's about it.

Have you had issues with efficiency in high-gravity beers in the past?

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

I'm harvesting from a previous batch. Pitching onto a yeast cake is almost 100% of the time massively over-pitching.

I sanitize a measuring cup (or something similar), mix the slurry until it's homogenous, and measure out a specific volume (usually what mr. malty tells me, but I'm getting a better feel for it without the calculator these days).

Sure. Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy are both Southern Hemisphere hops, so their harvest was about 6 months ago. You should be able to find both right now if you want to stock up on some.

Keep in mind, the hops listed in parenthesis are the hop Stone uses, and the hop listed was the one I substituted.

For the most find hops this year. Simcoe should a little easier to find than it's been. Centennial will be a little harder to find than normal (i.e. always in part, Amarillo, Citra, and Mosaic will be the hard to stock everywhere), but it shouldn't actually be hard to find. Everything else should be pretty easy to find.

I buy a ton of hops in bulk every year, but mostly just for the cost savings. I also like to have them on hand so I can brew what I want, when I want. Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, and Mosaic are the only ones that you'll have a hard time finding later in the year though.

Hopefully that helps.

News from a hop contract holder I know if that Nelson Sauvin is going to be next to impossible to find in North America pretty soon. NZ isn't exporting it anymore and the rumour is the farmer that grew most of it ripped up his fields and retired out of protest of poor treatment of hop farmers.

That's doubled up for the 12 gallon batch. It's a total of 6oz of hops for a 6gallon batch. 3oz Nelson & 3oz Galaxy split into two additions.

I ran out, and didn't figure it would make much of a difference considering the small amount they use. I was correct.

I usually add dextrose with about 15 min left in the boil. It's really up to you though. It doesn't make much difference other than slightly decreasing hop utilization.

Or what about 30 or 45 mins? I see a lot of IPA recipes with additions at various times between 90 mins and 0.

The English Pale Malt in this case was Marris Otter.