RECIPE #70: BANGARANG: Rufio 2.0 (1st place Imperial Red IPA)

I just love having a big, bold, dank, pithy, piney, red, hop bomb around a couple times a year.  Especially in the Fall when the darkness starts creeping in sooner and sooner, the nights are cooling off, the garden is waning, the trees are changing colors, the hops are fresh.  I usually don't like much, if any, crystal malts in my hoppy beers, and have even avoided it completely at times.  For my Imperial Red IPA I do like some burnt sugar in there, just not raisins and plums.  Of course you have to have the right hops to play nicely over a red, malty, base with a touch of burnt sugars and toffee, and a big alcohol presence.  I have done 2 beers along these lines in the past, the first iteration of Rufio was over a base of Vienna and Munich with Chinook, Simcoe, and CTZ.  The second Imperial Red IPA I did last fall used flaked barley, crystal rye, and Kiln Amber for a malty and aromatic base to support the Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and CTZ hops.  For this version (a return to Rufio), I used a base close to Pliny the Elder with an extra layer of Crystal using an addition of British Dark Crystal for burnt sugar and color along with the Carastan for honey and light toffee notes, as well as Black Malt for the color and dry roast finish.  I really enjoyed the way the 4 C hops played up the dank and pith last Fall over the more berry / tropical fruit forward notes on the first Rufio, so I went with this combo again.


I mashed this beer with the other 11 gallons of IPA I brewed the same day.  I ran off a large portion of the wort to one kettle then pumped a portion over for this beer before it was totally done sparging (not enough room in my kettle for all the beer together).  This caused a huge jump in efficiency for this beer as it had not been fully diluted by the lower OG runnings at the end.  I added the British Dark Crystal and Black malt to the kettle in a sack to steep for the added flavor and color compared to the regular IPA.  I also added the sugar and kettle salts at this point as well.  While it boiled I finished picking the last of my Columbus hops from my first year plant and added that at KO.

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Stats:

Gallons:           5.75

OG:                 1.078

FG:                  1.010

ABV:                9.0%

IBUs:               117

SRM:               18

Efficiency:        101% (see above)

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Fermentables:

10.00# Weyermann Pale Malt (72.7%)

0.75#   Cara-Pils/Dextrine (5.5%)

0.50#   British Carastan – 30/37L (3.6%)

0.75#   British Dark Crystal - 75/85L (5.5%) (Steeped)

0.25#   Black Malt (Crisp) (1.8%) (Steeped)

1.50#   Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (10.9%)

Mash 10 hours @  152*F

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Boil 60 mins

60         2.50 oz CTZ 17.50%AA

30         2.00 oz Cascade/Centennial Blend 10.00%AA

15         1.00 oz CTZ 17.50%AA

15         0.40 oz Chinook 12.00%AA

WP 25  1.00 oz Cascade/Centennial Blend 10.00%AA

WP 25  1.50 oz Chinook 12.00%AA

WP 25  2.00 oz CTZ 17.50%AA

WP 25  1.00 oz Wet Columbus ~3%AA

DH       1.00 oz Cascade/Centennial Blend 10.00%AA

DH       1.40 oz Chinook 12.00%AA

DH        3.00 oz CTZ 15.00%AA

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Kettle Additions:

Ca 99; Mg 30; Na 6; SO4 267; Cl 34; Bi-Carbonate 70; pH 5.2

Gypsum - Mash 3/4 tsp; Boil 2 tsp

Epsom Salts - Mash 7/8 tsp; Boil 1 3/4 tsp

Calcium Chloride - Mash 1/4 tsp; Boil 1/2 tsp

Pickling Lime - Mash 1/8 tsp

Lactic Acid - Sparge 0.9 ml

Yeast Nutrient 2 taps

Whirfloc 1 each

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Fermentation:

Cooled to: 64*F

1/2C Cal Ale Slurry (Oakshire)

64*F 3 days

68*F 5 days

72*F 4 days

68*F 4 days

40*F 4 days

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Notes: 

08/31-9/1 Brewed alone after a few days camping.  Mashed in all the grains for both this beer and my 11 gallons of  IPA as one mash at 1qt/lb and almost didn't have enough room.  Hit 159*F for the rest temp and had to rush to cool.  Stirred and put frozen water bottles in mash to cool.  Got it down to 152*F in about 20 minutes.  Wrapped in a sleeping bag w/o the heat blanket due to the hotter weather.  Cooled to 136*F over 10 hours.  Batch sparged, then fly sparged like crazy with hot water and tap water to try get close to full volume.  Split the IIRA to its own kettle before the sparge was done to get a higher OG.  Added sugar to wort in a pitcher to dissolve with kettle salts, and added to main kettle.  Steeped British Dark Crystal and Black Malt for 30 minutes.  Boiled and added hops per recipe, but my propane died about 15 minutes from the end of the boil.  Luckily the IPAs were done and chilling so I swapped the tanks and finished the boil.  Cooled, transferred via pump, and came up with higher than expected volume, pitched yeast about noon.  Set temp control to 65*F.  Krausen forming by 6pm, added blow off tube and Fermcap-S, rocking the next morning.

9/4 Bumped up temp to 68*F

9/6 Pulled samples, down to 1.023, and still super yeasty.

9/9 Bumped up to 72*F

9/14 Suspended dry hops in sacks from lid with SS chain inside bag.  Purged kegs with CO2.  CO2 force racked from BB through Liquid Out post and dip tube from bottom up venting from the pressure relief valve.  First time doing this so I didn't think it all the way through.  The 40 psi in the keg shot straight through the line and racking cane and popped the top of the fermentor off causing the Better Bottle to jump violently, re-suspending some of the yeast.  Note to self, vent the keg first, and leave vented so that there is no back pressure.  Left at room temp in mid to high 60s.

9/16 Added some CO2 at 30 psi for 12 hours for some carbonation and pressure on the hops.

9/18 Moved to beer fridge, dropped temps down to 40*F to drop clear, and set to 10psi to carbonate.

9/27 Poured off sludge and jumper transferred to another purged keg.  Vented through the pressure relief valve.  Swapped keg into beer fridge and put back onto CO2 to drink.

11/1 This beer took 1st place in the Imperial IPA category at the McKenzie Cider & Craft Beer Festival - Homebrew Competition