Dan's Double IPA

Here's the mash tun during the early stages.

We decided to take a three-day weekend out at Hawksbill Cabin.  There was an agenda, as we'd be meeting friends in Culpeper for dinner one of the days - and I needed to check on the pigs.  Then Dan told me he was planning to brew on Saturday, and that he'd be using a new recipe that involved 20 pounds of malt - a double IPA - so I decided I would make a stop over at Beaver Run Brewery and help out where I could.

Dan's been using the Beer Smith app to compile recipes - he has been brewing for years and the Flat Tale Ale recipe is pretty set.  Largely as a result of the brewers association, he has been adding a few ingredients to the mash, including rye, and using a step-mash technique to get as much out of the malt as possible.  This time, he was going for a double, and he queued up the app to list all the ingredients (I have a snap of that part of the recipe below).

Here's a portion of the recipe - hash marks are mine.

The step mash process is very effective, but there is a lot of extra time and detailed record-keeping involved.  It seems like, especially when you are brewing with this kind of quantity, you really do need a second set of hands in the brewery to help out with every thing.

We were checking mash temps and stirring the mash at intervals as everything progressed - it really was a demanding pace.  I know it will pay off with a high-quality brew though!

Since we are getting close to butcherin' season, I decided to save the spent grains for a trip to visit the hogs.  I'll post on that visit over to Public House Produce tomorrow.