Time to Dry Hop!
Sampling:
So 8 days have gone by since the beer has started fermenting and it is time to pop in 100g of delicious Citra hop flowers to create that amazing aroma you'd expect from a hop & liefde. But first let's take a sample and measure the gravity to see where we are at in terms of abv.
Testing the Density:
I use my 25ml Pipette to draw a sample of about 50ml of the beer into the measuring tube. After popping in the barometer, I measured 1.010 SG, down from 1.044 OG, which means we have reached a current alcohol content of 4.46%, not bad, but I really think this fermentation is not quite done yet, and my water lock surely agrees. This beer could easily make 1.008 FG and a nice 4.73% abv, much closer to the objective than I initially predicted.
Tasting:
The color is simply superb! a very vibrant ambar just as I would have liked, maybe even better. After checking the abv content, here comes the most anticipated stage so far, the first tasting since fermentation began! Look at how eager I look to try it, I was so anxious, what if it didn't taste good? I couldn't even consider that as an option, this had to be good!
And the taste was.... delicious! I felt the bitterness of the Saaz, the sugar content almost at the ideal point, the body is light and smooth as you would expect from an American Pale Ale.
The Special Ingredient - Citra Hops:
I'm impressed, this is going quite great! All that is missing now is the freshness of the Citra aroma, which I am going to add by throwing this huge bag of flower hops directly in the fermenter. Please meet the Citra hop: This batch was grown in the USA and commercialized by Korrels Hops, it has a high Alpha acid content of 12% and a potent floral and citrus aroma, just perfect for this batch!
Adding the Hops:
Initially I wanted to ferment in two stages, so that I could obtain a more clear final product. But since I produced more than Tale's fermenter can handle, I had to give up the idea and just throw the hops directly in the batch as it was. I was already happy with the clarity in the sample anyway.
There isn't too much secret here, you just throw all the hops and spread them, you will notice that the flowers float - this is correct and it helps with the bottling process since you draw the beer from the bottom of the barrel and by the time the flowers reach the bottom, you are done bottling.
Hydrating the Hops:
The final stage is to use the mixing spoon very gently to get it to mix a bit with the beer, this is important as there is a layer of thick foam at the top created by the yeast going bat shit crazy on the wort. Now that the hops are evenly spread and hydrated with beer, it is time to close up again. See you in 10 days or so!
Stay tuned for the final two stages: Bottling and Carbonation. I can't wait to see the final product!
Cheers.