UPDATE: American Brown Ale (HB#6) now dry hopping in secondary

Hops waiting in secondary

This past Monday (2/27/2012) I got around to transferring the hoppy brown ale I brewed into secondary fermentation. Two ounces of Centennial hops were added in order to soak for two weeks to create much more prominent hop aromas. It has been a week since the transfer and I will be ready to bottle in about one more, so this one is getting close to done.

The green looking foam is
the dissolved hop pellets.

As far as the style/name dilemma goes that I was having, I think it has been settled because of the larger than anticipate volume I ended up with. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a final gravity reading before pitching the yeast, but I did a rough calculation and found that the original gravity would have been around 1.062 instead of the anticipated 1.071 because of the extra gallon of water that didn't boil off. This means that there is a smaller concentration of sugar in relation to the volume, so the beer will subsequently be lower in alcohol (there is less sugar by volume for the yeast to convert into alcohol). An original gravity of 1.062 puts my brown ale within the parameters of an "American Brown Ale," so that is what I will refer to it as now. If all goes as planned from here, which clearly it has not up to this point, I should have a beer around 6.2% ABV (instead of 7.1% ABV) that will still hold up strong with malt and alcohol in balance with the eight and half ounces of hops used that will surely be on the forefront. 

UPDATE: American IPA (HB#3) now in bottles

I had the day off today (12/5) so I decided to transfer the American IPA from secondary, where it has been dry hopping for a little over two weeks now, into bottles. The process was the same as the last two times: clean/de-label bottles, sanitize all equipment and bottles, transfer beer from carboy into bottling bucket with 5oz of boiled sugar in the bottom, fill bottles and cap.

While you would think on my third go at bottling I would have it down to an error-proof science, that was not the case tonight. My method of dry hopping was to simply poor the hops into the carboy and let them float and soak freely. Some people use hop-bags to keep all the hops together, but I didn't in this particular case because it seems like it is a pain in the ass to fish a bag of hops out of a carboy with an opening barely wide enough for a few fingers. If I were dry hopping in a bucket than I would more than likely use a hop bag since there would be zero problem getting it out. Anyways, since the hops were not in a bag, there was a lot of sediment floating around. The first 3-4 gallons siphoned into the bottling bucket went without a hitch, but once I got to the 1 gallon mark things started to go wrong. I noticed more and more sediment going through the siphon and the flow starting to decrease, and eventually come to a stop. The hop sediment gunked up the bottling wand and was not allowing beer to flow through it anymore, so I dug all the hops out with a fork. Unfortunately I also knocked loose a rubber piece that didn't want to go back on, so the bottling wand was a bit leaky. Next time I will put a piece of cloth over the end of the siphon in order to keep sediment from clogging things up (unless I use a hop bag, which would leave the beer sediment free). Lesson Learned: avoid clogging your siphon when transferring dry hopped beer by either using a hop bag or covering the siphon in some sort of strainer.

The gravity was right on target with the recipe at 1.014, which was a bit surprising since I had that sizable boil over that seemed to skew the numbers in the beginning. I tasted it too, and it was delicious despite being uncarbonated. VERY hoppy. I can't wait to drink this beer, I really think it is going to be a keeper.

UPDATE: American IPA (HB#3) is now dry hopping in secondary

Hop layer now covering the wort

After the first day of riding at Keystone this year, I came home today and racked the American IPA to a secondary fermenter. Secondary is only really necessary for adding fruits, hops and/or other adjuncts to the fermenter or if you want to improve the clarity of the beer. In the case of the American IPA, I am racking to secondary in order to dry hop for two weeks. Dry hopping is simply the process of adding hops to the fermenting wort in order to create an intensely hoppy smell and maintain oils that are usually lost during the boil on brew day.

Wort being added to hops

I started the process by dumping 1 ounce of Centennial hops into an empty carboy. The wart was then siphoned out of the primary fermenter into the secondary fermenter. As the wort started filling the secondary, the hops became more and more saturated and eventually turned into something that resembles green pond scum (only not as gross). For the next two weeks I will agitate the secondary fermenter once a day to try and get the hops to sink from the top of the wort. However, I have to somehow agitate without aerating the water even the slightest bit in order to not effect the yeast's process.

If you have read the brew day post of Homebrew #3: American IPA, than you are aware of the the boil-overs and subsequent low gravity reading (the target gravity was 1.064 and I got a 1.060). I took a sample before transferring the wort into the secondary and the gravity was at 1.014 (it is supposed to be within 2-8 points of the target final gravity), which just so happens to be the target final gravity. Obviously my numbers were off to start with, so all the measurements will be a little skewed.  On an upside, I tried a little bit of the sample and am extremely happy with how the flavors are developing. The sample was super bitter and hoppy before being dry hopped, so the additional hops in the fermenter should push the hoppy aromas over the top. It is going to be tough to wait on this one.