Well I designed a recipe for my brew-buddy that likes Double Dog Pale Ale. 24 lbs of grain for 6 gal batch. I guessed 70% efficiency (I don’t use a blue cooler) and hit my OG 1.103 spot on. Mashed at 146, 1.5 qts/lb, for 90 mins(RIMS) with 14g of Gypsum in the mash, fly sparged 3.5 gallons to collect 9 gallons pre-boil. Boiled for 2 hours to 6 gallons post boil. So far so good, no stuck sparge, no boil overs, no wort on the garage floor…
Pitched at 62 on top of the entire yeast cake of a 1.050 brown ale using WLP007. Fermented at 62 (internal temp - thermowell) 11 hours later, blowoff started and continued for 2 days. Lost a full quart of liquid. Mental note - use 1/2 the yeast cake next time
Fast forward 3 days. Day 5 - No more bubbles. Seems done. Gravity at 1.021 (target 1.023), tasted sample and WOW. No real hop aroma, but going to dry hop with 2 oz of Columbus and 1 oz Cascade pellets, terrific smooth bitterness with lots of flavor, mouthfeel is full but not syrupy like Double Dog. Going to give it another week on the yeast then dry hop in secondary for a couple of weeks, then 2 weeks of cold conditioning before kegging.
This is WAY over the top for me, I prefer Irish Reds and Browns, 35 IBU max. This beer was a technological challenge. Thanks to all the forum members for their advice on big beers (Fred B.) ;D