RIPA Under Pressure

Brew

Hops

Hop Variety60min10min0minDay 3
Citra2030500
Superdelic00100100
Heat off @ 0min addition, rapidly cool to 80C. Hold @ 80C until -10min addition, then resume cooling to pitching temperature.

Grain

  • 5.0kg American Ale Malt
  • 0.7kg Munich
  • 0.55kg Red Back
  • 0.45kg Shepherds Delight
  • 0.05kg Eclipse Wheat

Yeast

Lallemand BRY-97 West Coast Ale 2 pkts

Water Treatment

1 teaspoon Cal Sulphate and 1/2 teaspoon Cal Carbonate to mash water

Boil Additions

1/2 teaspoon yeast nutrient and 1/2 whirlfloc tablet at 10 min to go in boil

Brew

  • Mash in at 67°C with 17.5L, rest for 60 min at 67°C.
  • Mash out: 10 min @ 75C
  • Sparge with 15L at 75°C
  • Preboil size 27L
  • Boil time 60mins
  • Top up volume 2L
  • Postboil size 26L
  • Fermenter volume 23.5L

Fermentation

19C for 3 days, 21.5C for 3 days, Day 6 to 10 dropped temperature gradually to 6C.

Fermenter Additions

N/A

Carbonation

zero as pressure fermented

Bottled

20240316

Final Volume

22L

Notes

This was my first brew using pressure fermentation to capture CO2 and avoid the need to bottle condition using Dextrose. Long story short, I achieved a reasonable good fizz/head by targeting around 2.7 volumes of CO2 (16psi @ 6C) for 5 days. I had to connect to the bottle CO2 to achieve this. Bottling was carried out using an open system so dropped pressure in fermenter to 3psi and chilled bottles by sterilizing in ice water. While some pressure loss from 2.7 volumes of CO2, still very acceptable. Learnings: Once primary fermentation completed at around 4psi (3-4 days) crank up pressure to around 20 psi for remainder of fermentation. Assumes using a pressure tolerant yeast such as BRY-97. Aim is to naturally achieve 2.7 volumes of CO2 giving 5 days to dissolve into the beer.