[Review] - HBC apollo IPA

[Pat_buttercups]

APOLLO IPA

Hi everyone, as promised review on the apollo IPA. Since it was all already organized for me it seemed to be the perfect option to take over to my friends cider farm for a brew evening + bbq. Later I realize of course that it also makes it harder to tell if any end off flavors would be the result of the recipe or the differences in water etc, but we can take that into account when we come to tasting

Anyway as seen above the kit comes with 3 (actually 4 as i found out when pouring in the mash) bags of pre-measured hops at 60 mins, 30 mins, 15 mins + whilfrolic and dry hopping at 7 days( also a bag to dry hop). All the grain needed (pre crushed, something a little roasted in there with the base i noticed... caramel or biscuit could be both hard to tell). Regardless well put together and sealed with the level we have come to expect from HBC.


Now bear with me as i tried to take as many pictures as i could so it might get a little long. as you can see i mashed at around 64degress. for the hour then attempted a batch sparge as instructed.


now ill admit i made a little bit of a mess with the sparge, didnt wait long enough between adding the 80 degrees water and the first running's so id expect we get a little bit more cloud and perhaps lower gravity than may be expected otherwise. still looked alright for the most part.

anyway we followed up with a fairly vigorous boil adding hops at desired times. but my phone died so no end pictures im afraid. not alot to show anyway , after boil cooled to 22 and pitched the safale yeast that came with the pack.
the final gravity was 1.056, a bit off the 1.061 that was expected but Ill put that down to my poor sparge.

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A week later there was quite a bit of sediment on the bottom so i decided to put it into secondary before i dry hopped.




at this point a few warm evenings must have accelerated the fermentation a bit cause we have a gravity of about 1.02 or the yeast is just more active than i am accustomed too.
regardless tastes quite nice definitely gives a good taste of the Apollo hops which i guess is kind of the point of the kit to begin with. will need to wait to give a better overall view but ill get back in about a month and a half when ive had a better taste of it and bring a bit over to the group to get everybody opinion. until then hope this helps

[Simon_]

Argh me neck

[Frequent Sequence]

Argh me neck

Nice write up Pat_buttercups. On the hbc site it lists the grain bill as marris otter and crystal.

[Acott]

I bottled this 3 weeks ago and had a taste at the weekend, nice bitterness, aroma is beautiful, lots of tropical fruits, mango really prominent! An ideal brew to match the decent weather