Merry Fuckin Christmas Simcoe SMaSH Wort Day went off quite nicely. Thanks so much to everyone that took part and my apologies for the slight delay due to hops clogging my heat exchanger! Regardless we had everyone filled up and on their merry way by 3:00 pm or so. It should be really fun to see the different variants that come out of this.
To all participants:
Your mash-hopped and 1st-wort-hopped wort was created yesturday Nov. 13th then simmered for 20 hrs before continuing on as usual this morning (Nov. 14th), boiling and adding more and more hops along the way. Post boil gravity was measured at
1.077 at which point I added a very tiny amount of H2O bringing it to 1.076 - right on the money. IBU's were calculated at 255.5 and the wort was fully oxygenated with medical grade O2. The supplied yeast in mason jars is a slurry of 2nd generation US-05 harvested from the '
Polygamy Pale' which ferments well from ~ 55 - 73 F.
How to handle your wort and dry-hopping:
- Pitch yeast as soon as possible upon arriving home with your wort.
- Always be very sanitary, aseptic if possible when opening your wort to pitch the yeast and when transferring for dry-hopping.
- Ferment in a cool area of your home, ideal ambient temps should be near 65F. Heat generated from fermentation should give you a real wort temp around 69 - 73F internal.
- After your wort has completely fermented with VERY little to no bubbling in your air-locks - leave it rest at ambient in the primary fermentor on the yeast for another full 24 hrs, 48 hrs max before racking off the yeast and dry-hopping.
Dry-Hopping: The Real McCoy
- Rack the wort into your freshly sanitized carboy (leaving the yeast cake behind) with half of your Simcoe hop pellets and leave at ambient temps for 3 full days, 65 - 75F is good here. 170g (or 6 oz) of hops were included with your wort kit so dry-hop at racking with 85g (3 oz) or approximately half of the hops if you have no scales, no need to sanitize or boil the hops beforehand however you should practice sanitary techniques when handling the hops. Always wash your hands good first, wear latex gloves if you have them and/or use a small sanitary scoop of some sort, if not just have another beer and don't worry about it.
- After 3 days on the first batch of hops add the remaining 85g and let it rest at ambient another full 3 days.
- After the 6 day dry-hopping process is complete it's time to remove the beer from the hops readying it for packaging. Some of the hop particles will remain floating, some will sink to the bottom. I recommend very carefully entering the carboy with your racking cane through the floating hops on top but NOT into the ones hovering near the bottom. Carefully siphon while watching the racking cane tip in the fluid so as not to pick up any hop particles, into your keg or into your priming vessel in preparation for bottling. Should you be unable to transfer the beer without siphoning up a few hop particles you really should leave it rest another 24 - 48 hrs to let them settle out, then carefully rack again a third time. As always, try not to splash the beer at all to avoid oxygen pick-up during these transfers.
- After it has sat for at least a week to carbonate and condition, try a sample and enjoy! It's ready to drink anytime after carbonation however this big beer will peak 4 - 5 weeks out from dry-hopping, just in time for the holidays!
- Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all.
- It'd be great to hear how your beer production is progressing so post your updates in the comments below.
- And finally, enjoy and have a Merry_Fuckin_Christmas!
Again, thanks so much to everyone for coming out and taking part in this communal brew!
Cheers, Nash
