Water for partial mash: dilute water with distilled or RO water, if needed, to below 100 ppm carbonates (bicarbonate ions (HCO3–) or “alkalinity as CaCO3”), add calcium, if needed, to make 100 ppm Ca2+, use 3:1 ratio of gypsum and calcium chloride for adding calcium ions
(for dilution: filtered tap water)
Procedure:
- Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brew day.
- On brew day, heat 4.1 qts. of brewing liquor to 165 °F and mash grains at 154 °F for 60 minutes. Stir every 8 minutes or so, if you can do so without losing a significant amount of heat.
- Collect around 1.75 gallons of wort. Add water to make at least 4.0 gallons of wort. Stir in roughly 1/2 of the malt extract, hold at 154 °F for 5 minutes, then bring to a boil.
- Boil the wort for 90 minutes. (If hot break does not appear as big, fluffy flakes after first 15 minutes of boil, add 0.5 tsp. gypsum.)
- Add hops and Irish moss / whirfloc at times indicated. Add water, if needed, so boil volume never drops below 3.5 gallons.
- Dissolve remaining malt extract in wort and stir in with 10 minutes left in boil. (You can do this in shifts.)
Option: add Fermax 0.5 tsp per gallon as yeast nutrient, 15 minutes before the end of boil.
- Chill wort to 70 °F. If using an immersion chiller, swirl chilled wort and let sit for at least an hour (covered) to let hop debris settle.
- Transfer wort to fermenter, leaving as much hop debris and trub behind as possible. Add water to yield 5.0 gallons.
- Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch sediment from yeast starter.
- Ferment at 70 °F. If dry hopping in a keg, let beer fall (at least mostly) clear before racking.
- Dry hop for 7 days. Avoid exposing beer to oxygen as much as possible when transferring wort and dry hopping after fermentation.
Double Dry Hopped Option:
Note to make the Double Dry-Hopped version, remove the first charge of dry hops and add a second charge of the same amount. You can use more Centennial. Simcoe, Citra or Amarillo also work really well.