Nugget IPA

Yesterday I got down to brewing business after a three week hiatus. I kegged Heat Wave straight from the primary (my first time skipping a secondary) and racked Pyatiletka (it's at 1.024 right now, about 8.1% ABV). I did all this while brewing up a single hop IPA utilizing my giant bag of Nugget hops.

The Recipe:

9 lb Maris Otter

13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale

Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.

O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1

Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.

I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.