I've been pondering a hibiscus IPA for a week or so now, since batch 049B is about to get bottled and the current estimate is that hibiscus was a good move in that mead. So I thought I'd add hibiscus in secondary to a basic IPA recipe that I've wanted to brew for a while now. And that's why I'm rather disappointed right now in one of my local homebrew stores, the one attached to Surf Brewery, who ground the grain for me when I bought it on Saturday ... and did a really crappy job with the grind. I didn't notice until I'd dumped it into the mash water, though, so I went ahead with the mash, but ... taking a gravity reading an hour later was an appalling experience, so I threw in some of the only fermentable sugar I had in quantity at the moment, which happened to be honey. Which may be an excellent idea, now that I think about it, though that's no excuse for a crappy grind at the homebrew store.

Anyway, this will hopefully be an IPA-style braggot, inspired by SMaSH IPAs, showcasing Maris Otter malt and the piney floral notes of the Simcoe hop. (It was originally intended to be based on this recipe.) And this wondeful alfalfa honey, which is dark and rich and sweet. And hibiscus. There's a lot of moving parts here. Maybe they'll fall into place. Anyway, we're going to call this Inadvertent Hibiscus IPA Braggot.

BeerXML for this recipe, generated by BrewTarget.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 5 gal refreshe™ spring water
  • 2 gal Niagra™ purified (reverse osmosis) water
  • 7.00 lb. Maris Otter 2-row pale malt
  • 3.00 lb. alfalfa honey from Bee Squared Apiaries, Berthoud, CO
  • 1.00 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 60 min.
  • 0.50 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 50 min.
  • 0.50 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 45 min.
  • 1.00 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 40 min.
  • 0.50 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 30 min.
  • 0.50 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.) at 15 min.
  • one jar of White Labs WLP090 (San Diego Super Yeast), recovered from batch 057, removed from the refrigerator and left to warm slowly to room temperature
  • 2.00 oz. Simcoe hops (12.9% A.A.), in a brewing (dry hop addition, 6 Aug 2017)
  • 2.5 oz. Imperial Spices dried hibiscus flowers (added with dry hops, 6 Aug 2017)
  • 2 lb. (more) Bee Squared alfalfa honey (added 6 Aug 2017)

Procedure

Standard procedure: mashed 15 pounds of Maris Otter pale malt in a bag in the brewpot. It was not until I'd dumped the grain that I saw how poorly milled it was. Went ahead with the mash (60 minutes at 153–159℉; the grain didn't bring down the temperature as much as I'd hoped, so I killed the heat and stirred vigorously to help it cool a bit until it started falling). Pulled out the grain bag and took a gravity reading from a sample at the end of the mash; it was only 1.043. (The ingredients list above, and the BeerXML generated for this recipe, include an estimate of how much properly milled grain would be needed to get the same gravity; I used 15 pounds, unfortunately, since the grain was improperly milled.) Started the boil and added hops at 50, 45, and 40 minutes, according to the schedule; by this time, the mash liquid sample was cool enough to measure, so I read it and added three pounds of alfalfa honey, then added more hops at 30 and 15 minutes. Chilled the wort and moved it into a bucket, then covered it and waited for the temperature to come down a bit more. Dumped in a jar of White Labs WLP090 that had been pulled from the fridge a few hours later and allowed to come up to room temperature. Popped in an airlock and filled it with vodka.

Brew day: 23 July 2017
Original gravity: 1.064 (but we're treating this as if the O.G. were 1.080 because of later honey additions)
Bottling day: 29 August 2017
Final gravity: 1.008
Estimated ABV: approx. 9.5%

Yield:

  • 9 x 500 mL beer bottles
  • 6 x 22 oz. beer bottles
  • 14 x 12 oz. beer bottles
  • 1 x 750 mL beer bottle
  • 1 x 1 L beer bottle
  • 1 hydrometer tube's worth of beer

Total: Approx. 515 fl. oz., or just over 4 gal.

Observations

  • 2017-07-24T15:11: There's carbon dioxide discharge from the bucket already.
  • 2017-08-06: Added dry hops and hibiscus to the bucket. Added two more pounds of honey, too. SG before additions was 1.005.
  • 2017-08-29: Bottled at 1.008, resulting in just over 4 gallons at 9.5% ABV.