Batch #5 (Coopers Australian IPA) & Batch #6 (Coopers Draught)

After checking out Beau’s Beaver River IPA and realized it was a tasty treat, I decided to buy an IPA for my next batch.  I stumbled upon a Cooper’s Select Australian IPA which I had not seen before.  Defalco’s let me know that it was super popular and I was lucky to find it on the shelf!

I also picked up a Coopers Draught as Mike and Andre has made a batch and I thought it was quite tasty.

I am now a brewing machine after four+ batches under my belt.  I zipped through the process fairly easily.

This time around, we didn’t boil the wort for 45 minutes.  Defalco’s let Mike know that we may have been inadvertently boiling off the sugar which is used to create the alcohol.  So I brought the water to a boil, dumped the malt in and turned off the burner.

Interestingly enough, once I added the wort into the carboy, the temperature wasn’t registering!  What the heck?!  It must have been TOO cold.  How is that even possible with boiling wort?  I consulted with Mike and he thought maybe boiling it again would do the trick.  I boiled a gallon of the stuff again and no luck.  Vero then suggested I do the craziest thing ever…put the carboy of beer in the hot tub!  Mike and Vero had a good laugh at the carboy sitting in the hot tub.  Too bad we forgot to get a picture.

In the end, the temperature never moved and Mike realized that the problem wasn’t that the temperature was too cold, it was too hot!  This ended up being the case as we noticed the temperature dropping after putting it in the basement and in the deep freeze.  Case in point, making beer in the summer is definitely different than in the winter!

The worst part of making beer is the cool-down period.  We had two batches of wort ready to go around 7PM.  It wasn’t until 7AM the next day that the temperature had dropped to a good temperature to pitch the yeast!  Incroyable!  At least I know that now and I won’t wait around for it.

I’m quite excited for these two batches.  Next week I will most likely do a third batch as the summer is upon us and more and more people visit wanting to try and homebrew.  I think I have enough glass bottles to make 2 batches and will have to resort to the plastic bottles for the third.