YIPPEE KI-YAY MR. FALCON
Beer of the Month Program
April – Yippee Ki-Yay Mr. Falcon
One of the best parts about making beer (aside from drinking it) is the social aspect. Brewers love to swap recipes, discuss what well or horribly wrong in their brews. We thought it would be a fun idea to start a beer conversation here. We’re going to make a beer every month here and encourage other brewers to make it as well. In the end, we’re hoping we can share our opinions and experiences with the recipe and crowd-source some improvements. The recipes will be easy to make and we will gladly assist new home brewers in the production of these beers. Going forward, we would love to have recipe ideas from our community.
At the start of every month we will post the recipe in store, as well as on our website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We will also have a set price for the recipe that will include a discount of up to 25%!
Oh this months beer is a FUN one. Yippee Ki-Yay Mr. Falcon pays homage to one of the greatest voice dubs in TV history, and to a great hop named after a craft beer pioneer. This is a single hop IPA with big citrus notes, that is full flavoured and has just the right amount of hoppiness.
What’s with the name?
We’re big fans of hoppy, citrusy beers here at KJ, and we have been dying to try the Falconer’s Flight hop we carry. So we figured, we should make a single hop IPA out of it to see what all the fuss is about.
We’re also big Die Hard fans here at KJ, and who could forget one of the greatest/weirdest voice dubs in TV history.
Ah, the good ole days when people watched movies on their local television channels rather than Netflix.
YIPPEE KI-YAY MR. FALCON
Single Hop IPA – 5.5 Gal (21L) – OG 1.065 – FG 1.015 – ABV 6.2% – IBU 55 – SRM 8
When every movie is at the tip of your fingers, available to watch ad free, it is a little hard to imagine that we used to watch movies on cable TV. An entire night could be devoted to watching the Lethal Weapon series on TBS. A 2-hour movie became 3 hours with all of the ads between scenes. Worst of all, networks would dub over some of the ‘advanced’ language in movies. Most affected was Die Hard 2, where Bruce Willis’s trademark slogan was dubbed over by one of the funniest, most outlandish alternatives I have ever heard.
This very hop forward beer is a homage both to the legendary voice dub, and to this big bold citrus forward hop. This beer is a citrusy, full bodied IPA with an excellent malt backbone.
Sometimes a recipe gets caught in the brewing crossfire.
Ingredients (All available at our shop)
Grains
- Canadian 2 Row x 10lbs
- Crystal Light (40L) x 1lb
- Caraamber (25L) x 1lb
- Carafoam x 1lb
- Acidulated x 0.2lbs
Hops
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 0.5 oz @ 60min
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 0.5 oz @ 30min
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 1.0 oz @ 10min
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 1.0 oz @ 5min
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 1.0 oz @ 0min
- Falconer’s Flight (13.0% Alpha Acid) – 2.0 oz Dry Hopping for 7 Days
Yeast
- US-05 (11.5g) OR Escarpment Labs Vermont Ale or Cali Ale Yeast.
Extras
- Irish Moss (1 tsp for last 15 minutes of boil)
- Dextrose (150-170g for priming at bottling)
Important Tips on Brewing
- Be extra cautious when it comes to cleaning! Once you have stopped boiling your wort everything that gets in contact with the beer MUST be sanitary.
- The temperature of your mash is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL. Not being in the 150-155f range can drastically affect your beer. Make sure you correct the temperature ASAP once all of the grain has been added to the mash.
- Always let your beer ferment for 10 days! Do not disturb it, do not open the lid. It is absolutely natural for the airlock to stop bubbling after a few days, it is still fermenting though.
- Oxidization: Airspace is always something to consider. When undergoing primary fermentation airspace is needed so that the beer can bubble up and ferment vigoursley without leaking out of the container. The fermentation creates a layer of CO2 that remains in the pail due to the airlock. Once primary fermentation is over, and the lid has been opened, the layer of CO2 dissipates, and oxygen replaces it. At this point airspace can ruin your beer. When racking into carboys make sure they are filled to the top, or you blast CO2 inside to prevent oxidization. Ask us for details on this!
- Before bottling, make sure you use a priming calculator (many can be found online) to verify the amount of sugar that needs to be added.
Instructions
We’re going to be producing this beer with the Brew-in-a-Bag (BIAB) method. We believe it is an easy, and cost effective way to make great all grain beer. These instructions are also catered to novice brewers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Mashing -> converting the grain into a fermentable liquid.
- Bring 6 gallons of water in your brew pot to 155°F. This is our strike temperature. Turn off the heat to the pot.
- Wrap the muslin/nylon bag around the brew pot and slowly pour all the milled grains into the bag. Stir them in while adding to prevent clumps. The addition of grain should drop the temperature down to 150-155°F.
- We want to mash the grain at 152°F for 60 minutes. It is very important to hold the temperature at 152°F. If the temperature rises above 155°F it hurts the fermentation, or if it dips below 149°F it can lead to a thinner tasting beer.
- The first 15-30 minutes are essential for the success of your brew. The temperature HAS TO BE IN THE RANGE OF 150-155°F. Sometimes adding the grain to the strike water does not lower the temperature enough, in this case add a little bit of cold water to bring the temperature down. Cover the pot with your lid and let it sit.
- Most brew pots will be able to maintain 152°F without adding heat for 20 minutes, we recommend checking the temperature every 15 minutes, and if it drops add more heat to bring it up. We recommend opening the lid and using a thermometer in the liquid.
- After 60 minutes, bring the temperature of the mashing grain up to 170°F and hold for 10 minutes. This is our mash out.
- Time to remove the grain. Lift the bag full of grain out of the brew pot. Let the liquid in the bag dribble into your wort. Once that is done, put the bag inside of a brewing pail, or another empty pot. There will be about 4 gallons of wort in the brewpot, we need to get it to 6 gallons before we can begin the next stage.
- Run warm water through the grains in the bag, aim for 170°f – let it run through the grains and add to the brewpot. Add until you reach 6 gallons.
- PSA: It is natural to think that the grains need to be squeezed to get all of the liquid out of them, DO NOT DO THIS. Aggressively squeezing the grains will lead to tannin extraction and a doughy taste in your beer. Lightly pressing the bag is fine, but do not try to squeeze every last drop out.
Boiling -> Hop addition time
- Bring 6 gallons of your wort to a rolling boil, and let it boil for 5 minutes, this is called the hot break.
- Add 0.5oz of Falconer’s Flight hops and set a timer for 60 minutes, keep the wort boiling (212°f) and uncovered.
- With 30 minutes left in the timer, add another 0.5oz of Falconers
- With 15 minutes left, add 1 tsp of Irish Moss, and if you’re using a wort chiller add that too.
- With 10 minutes to go add 1oz of Falconer’s, and then, add another ounce with 5 minutes to go.
- When your timer goes off, add 1 more ounce of Falconers, turn off the heat, and proceed to the cooling stage.
- Now it’s time to cool the beer down to 75°f (20-25°c) as quickly as possible.
- We love using a wort chiller for this, it can get the beer down to temperature in 20-30 minutes. Otherwise, you can immerse the brew pot in an ice bath or wait it out. The longer it takes, the greater the risk of infection
Fermentation -> Turning the wort into beer
- After the boil is done it is time to be extra careful in regard to sanitation. We recommend using a no-rinse sanitizer called Starsan. Mix ¼ tsp of it with water in a 500ml spray bottle. Before we touch any part of the beer we spray it with Starsan.
- Transfer the cooled wort into your fermenting pail or carboy. Run it though a strainer to catch any hop or grain residue.
- It is also an important time to take a hydrometer reading. It should be around 1.065 give or take a few points.
- Your choice of fermentation vessel is important. During primary fermentation, it will bubble up quite a bit, you want to be sure there is airspace for it to work away. Otherwise the pressure of it will push out the airlock.
- Make sure the wort has been cooled to at least 25c!!! Adding yeast at a higher temperature will likely kill it.
- Once the beer is in the fermenter, pour in the 11.5g sachet of US-05 yeast
- Put the bung and airlock in the hole (make sure there is water filled up to the line in the airlock). If using a pail, make sure the lid is sealed tight. Put the pail in a room that is in the range of 18-22°c.
- DRY HOP: Three days into fermentation, it is time to add the dry hops. Remove the bung on your fermenter and quickly toss in 2 ounces of Falconer’s into the hydrometer. Put the bung back in. If you see the airlock bubble after, then that means there is CO2 in the fermenter still. If it does not, then boil 100g of dextrose/sugar and add it to the fermenter. This will ferment and create more CO2 which will eliminate the threat of oxygen.
- After 10 days have passed, take a hydrometer reading. It should be somewhere between 1.012-1.017.
- Lately, we have been of the opinion that secondary is an unnecessary step. Unless you are kegging, we recommend proceeding to the bottling stage. Clarification can occur in the bottle rather than in a carboy, and the risk of oxidization is greatly reduced.
Bottling -> We’re getting close to Beer Time now.
- Rack the now fermented beer into a bucket.
- At the same time, mix the priming sugar with 300ml of boiling water and add to the beer. Stir it in VERY gently.
- Make sure to check out a priming calculator to verify the correct amount of sugar. Too much sugar and your beer will end up foamy, or even start blowing the caps off! Too little and the beer won’t be fully carbonated.
- Rack the beer into your bottles or growlers. Then, let them sit for 2-3 weeks at room temperature. Chill and enjoy!