Scottish SteamPunk Imperial Pale Ale part 2

Hi all,

As seems to be my habit, the major changes were made during the hop introductions. This was partly driven by cost (using the Pioneer & Libery FW hops to clear them for the hop bin) but mostly by nose! The final recipe looks like this.

SteamPunk Imperial Scottish Pale Ale

Ingredients
10.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
4.00 kg Munich Malt
3.00 kg Wheat Malt,
1.00 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
0.50 kg Oats, Flaked

3.50 oz Pioneer (120 min) (First Wort Hop)
3.50 oz Liberty (120 min) (First Wort Hop)
3.50 oz Cascade (120 min) (First Wort Hop)

3.50 oz Simcoe (5 min)

10.50 oz Cascade (5 min)

3.50 oz Green Bullet (120 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) 
3.50 oz Simcoe (120 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) 
2.50 oz Nelson Sauvin (120 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
Big Starter Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023)

Technical

Batch Size: 15 Imp gallon
Boil Time: 120 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00%

Measured Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG(Non bretted portion) 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.94 %
Bitterness: 102.8 IBU
Est Color: 7.9 SRM

The brew fermented well, albeit at a sedate pace due to the cool brewhouse temperatures. I later gave a part of the brew the chance to do its thing at higher temperatures and i can say that WLP023 Burton yeast IS an explosive beastie (more on that later)! I can't believe i've used a kilo of hops in a 15 gallon brew. Ah well, my own fault for hopping by nose and enthusiasm!

The batch was 60 ltrs in total. 20 ltrs of this was decanted at a gravity of 1.022 to a better bottle for the introduction of Brett C. I was interested to see if there would be much further activity in the Better bottle at raised indoor temperatures. The Burton yeast did not disappoint and leapt into action with the temperature change from the garage to the house. Albeit for a very limited period of time. The beer hit its FG at 1.019 but was eventful up to that point..

While this was going on i  had been culturing some of my WLP645 Brett C. The plan being to send a couple of phials of it through the post to other interested brewers. This i duly did and was left with a MASSIVE 400ml culture of Brett C. Even after storage of back up phials for myself i still had a huge amount. What to do?

Obviously the only thing to do was a massive overpitch of Brett C into 20ltrs of The SteamPunk! The smell off the airlock is sweet and tropical with slight zing of sherbety funk, a true Big IPA! This batch will if all goes to plan achive a FG of 1.003. It may go lower due to the overpitch. As i am still learning my way around Brett C i'll have to wait for the outcome and make random predictions as it goes. If it achieves 1.003 we will have an IPA fit for the 'Hop Loft' at Delerium Tremens in Brussels af 7.75% ABV. Only time will tell.

The 40 ltr  remainder of SteamPunk was ran through HopThang on 2 oz's of Nelson Sauvins for Six hours.

It was fascinating to watch a piece of equipment i had designed and built come alive and do its thing(Thang). The video is on YouTube, link below.

  I was in Dubai on the 23rd December and was lucky enough to find my way to the spice market ( truly you can just follow your nose). I bought a few different spices for use in cooking and some specifically for brewing. In use through this beer will be two flowers of star anise, an Omani dried Lemon and an Omani dried Black lemon (both crushed).

I have also prepared 20 grmms of Whiskey barrel oak shavings to complete this potpourri!. These shavings were boiled three times to sterilise and reduce their oakness and then soaked for 10 days in a huge belt of Asbach Brandy. This heady combination will be used in HopThang today along with a further handful of Nelson's and will be circulated for a number of hours.

I am really enjoying this brew as i have taken myself off my own personal knowledge map and I am currently travelling in the bit where its says 'Here thyr by dragons'. Its a grand adventure! :)