The Beer Machine: Chinook IPA

A few weels ago I went over to my buddy Jay's house and he showed me the ropes as we went through the process of brewing a couple beers. Fat with knowledge, I wanted to see if I could replicate the process at home using some hops that Jay had given me. Since he gave me Chinook hops, I found an IPA recipe that used only that strain. I stopped at my new LHBS CraftBrew and picked up some grains and malt extract and when the opportunity presented itself, I went to work.

I wanted to make this batch as cheaply as possible so I used what I already had around the house. I used my canning pot as my brewpot since my online research indicated that many people go this route. The Beer Machine would once again serve as my fermenter since it already proved itself with its initial batch.  This means I'm not making a full 5 gallon batch. Rather it'll be 2.5 gallons. I like this because it's cheaper to only buy one jar of the liquid malt extract and the boiling/cooling times are much faster. Sorry for the crappy pictures - took 'em with my iPod.

Trusty brewpot

Muslin bag full o' grains

Warming up the malt syrup

Steeping them grains

Hop additions lined up and ready to roll

Boil achieved

Canning funnel made the transfer to Beer Machine much easier. Thermapen is great for digital temp readings.

Now cool that wort

Wort cooled - Beer Machine sanitized

Yeast!  Added the whole thing instead of half.  Whoops!

Once the yeast was dumped in, it went down into the beer cellar where the temperature holds at 70-71 degrees. Fermenation had begun by the evening and now the several days later it would seem that fermentation is wrapping up. After two weeks I plan on dry hopping directly in the Beer Machine. I've put the bottling attachment on the spigot which was missing from my last batch. When it comes time I can either bottle directly from the machine or rack to a bottling bucket.

24 hours later later and fermentation is in full effect!