A month ago I participated in brewing a NEIPA with Arttu and Erkki at Erkki’s summer cabin. Usually I brew alone, but every once in a while it is nice to spend a weekend in good company, eating good food, drinking good beer and, as it turned out, watching the Eurovision finals. We had some spectators as well since Kaisa, Laura, Noora, Paula and Pyry joined us on a beautiful summer day.
The recipe was written by Arttu, and it held great promise; a ridiculous amount of hops, fresh mango, Maris Otter pale malt, some malted wheat and yet more hops. The hops we decided on were El Dorado, Galaxy and Experimental 03. As we were brewing a NEIPA (New England Indian Pale Ale) we were aiming for a hazy beer, with a relatively low alcohol percentage and a smooth hop profile with emphasis on fruitful aroma rather than bitterness.
Crushing the malts was a breeze with the malt mill, though it had to be done by hand. Pyry thought that we should power the mill with a motor saw next time. That sounded quite dangerous, but the idea had some appeal. In the past I have operated a similar mill with a power drill. It was very efficient, but almost as dangerous as the motor saw, since the crank by which the mill was operated circled super fast with an intent on breaking my fingers.
We were planing to brew around 80 liters of beer, and it required a very large amount of malts, around 25 kg. As a result mixing the mash with water proved to be quite a challenge.
As it turned out we had been slightly too greedy in attempting make an ‘entire’ 80 liters brew. Next time we need a bigger mash tun or we need to aim lower. The latter is not an option and therefore I suspect we will make the same mistake in the future as well.
The boil was rather uneventful and we went to the sauna. While the wort chilled we cooked some food and watched the Eurovision song contest.
Transferring the beer to the vessels where it was to be fermented happened very late at night. Surprisingly we didn’t manage to botch things at this crucial stage.
The next morning we had brunch and cleaned the place up. Erkki and Arttu bottled the beer alone. I couldn’t make it since Kaisa gave birth to our lovely daughter the very same day!
Credits for the photos goes to Arttu, Erkki, Laura, Paula and Noora!
Jaakko Hirvelä 