I picked up some Sabro Lupomax hops during the end-of-year hop sales. I decided it was time to brew a New England India Pale Ale (NEIPA). It sounded good despite the time of the year. At this point I was working part-time from home due to COVID-19 restrictions, so I decided to brew on a Friday.
I figured out this last year that I could shorten my brew day when working from home. The idea is pretty simple. Mash during my lunch break (1 hour), then mash out and finish the brew after work. Since I do BIAB without a pump or recirculation, it helps a lot to stir. Normally, I stir the mash every 15-20 minutes. However, during these days I stir it every hour or so when I get up to stretch my legs and take a break.
With a recent update, Brewfather is now able to adjust the boil time on the fly, so I thought that would be worthwhile to try out. Previously, separate equipment profiles would be needed for different boil times. This feature would also help me shorted my brewday!
Once I finished work at 4:00PM I went out to the garage, mashed out, boiled, chilled, pitched, and cleaned and was done by 5:30. Not too shabby! Considering a normal brewday for me is right around 4 hours, this brewday flew by!
Fermenting went fast with my washed Safale S-04 yeast. I did an 800mL starter and pitched the whole thing after 24 hours. I feel like under 1L a yeast starter is small enough to pitch the whole shebang. I haven’t noticed any ill effect yet anyway.
Since the fermentation went so fast the beer was 100% ready to drink in 7 days (after force carbing at 40PSI for 36 hours). It was great! There is huge pineapple and peach notes and enough bitterness to give it a nice refreshing bite that is more citrus.
I actually enjoyed this beer so much I am now brewing a Citra Lupomax version!
Check out the full recipe and fermentation here: https://share.brewfather.app/rmJYTXv15rX0MG
