A tribute to Thornbridge’s Chiron with slightly altered hops composition. The original recipe calls for Cascade, but I’m substituting with Columbus, hence the name Chirombus
A fresh bag of Weyermann Pale Ale malt, the smell is fantasticA mixture of Pale ale, wheat, carapils and Munich maltsVery nice crush. With this I usually end up having an expected 75% BH efficiency. This is with the no-sparge method.Dough in processThe mash, ready for saccharificationStarchy/cloudy beginning of the mashing processMash temperature is close enough, I’m targeting a 1 hour mash rest at 66CWhile the mash is ongoing, I measure out the hop portionsThe dry hop portion gets vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer until neededEnd of mashing processThe SG reading before and after boilCooling the wortWhile wort is cooling the fermenter and other utensils are soaking in starsanRe-hydrated Safale S-05 waiting to be pitchedThe OG reading from the hydrometer is a bit off compared to the refractometer ones, most likely due to the temperatureWith my Spanish tap water I managed to get the temp down to only 22C, after that I let the SS fermenter knock it down to 17C, that’s when I pitched the yeastAfter pitching the re-hydrated yeast I Oxygenate the beer with pure O2I dryhop right in the fermenter, I find it easier and eventually most of the hop matter drops to the bottom, the rest will be catched in the bouncer filterFinal gravity around 1.007, SafAle US-05 did a good job herePre-conditioning – yeasty but full of lovely hop character
Results
Tasting notes:
Appearance
Lovely golden/straw color. Very clear and moderately high carbonation.
A classic Columbus character. Somewhat spicy, piney A touch of citrus. Very light ester notes.
Mouthfeel
Very dry with a lingering bitterness, but still surprisingly pleasant.
Summary
A dry and flavorful beer with strong Columbus hop character. Clear and pleasant. At over 70 IBU it does pack a noticeable kick of bitterness. Despite of this seeming imbalance (of bitterness) it’s surprisingly easy to drink and you find yourself filling up the glass again and again.
