Brew Day - Helles turned India Pale Lager

Using new brewing software and taking a break from homebrewing for several months can lead to mistakes. Today I intended to brew a Munich Helles, but I evidently forgot to specify the amount of Munich malt I intended to use, despite entering the malt into the recipe in Brewer's Friend. So the recipe thought my total grain bill was 8.5 and I was thinking it was 10. Brewer's Friend therefore was telling me to anticipate an OG of around 1.48-50. And ABV below 5%. Perfect for a Helles. I added 10 pounds of grain to my mash tun and started mashing. I then discovered my failure to enter the amount of Munich malt. Once I did, I saw I could anticipate a 1.060 OG and a 6% ABV beer. My last Helles ended up like this (more like a Maibock I guess). I had a dilemma: either brew a different style of beer, accept the beer as is, or dilute it. Diluting would have given me the desired OG and ABV, but I would have ended up with an extra gallon of wort. Rather than mess with that, I decided I would try an IPL, something I've never made before. IPL seems to be a fairly recent style, as until a few years ago hoppy beers (at least with American hops) were fermented with ale yeast and lagers tended to be less hoppy, malty beers. A crisp beer with pungent, fruity hops makes for a tasty beer.

I recall having fresh Alpine Duet a few years back and enjoyed the combination of Amarillo and Simcoe hops. I had these on hand (2016 crop) and decided to use them. I kind of regretted not making use of the 2015 Nelson Sauvin hops that have been in my freezer for about three years. Maybe that can be the next beer, assuming this one turns out okay.

I used the yeast from the gallon batch I made last weekend. The beer fermented by that yeast only attenuated to 1.018, from a starting gravity of 1.034. I assume the low apparent attenuation is due to my mash procedures and not the yeast, but I suppose I'll find out for sure in a week or so when today's beer should be nearing the end of fermentation. OG was 1.058-1060, pretty close to my target, but I was off on my volume for some reason. I ended at around 4.67 gallons. IBUs were off from my Brewer's Friend calculator, as the Alpha Acids in my hops were higher than the preset values in the software. But the wort sample I tried was not unpleasantly bitter. All in all, I think this will be a good batch of beer, to quote Don Osborn.