May 14, 2007

Poke You in the Other IPA

Well, My IPA went over pretty well. It was entered into the very informal IPA competition at the Southern California Homebrew Festival this year. Even though I didn't win, I got some good feedback from one of the judges, Peter Zien, the owner and brewmaster at Alesmith in San Diego. Basically I shouldn't have put the special roast in there, and I should have pitched more yeast. He said it was a good start, but it was underattenuated and a little on the dark side.

So, I'm going to use a similar hopping schedule, cut out most of the crystal malts, and brew up a double IPA version of the last IPA. Same types of hops but more of them and a higher starting gravity. I'm going to throw in some corn sugar to dry it out a bit too. This thing should be nuthin but hops.

Grain:
14.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
0.25 lbs. Crystal 40L
0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
0.60 lbs. Corn Sugar

Single Decoction Mash:
152 degrees for 45 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
6-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil

Hops:
90 min:
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
60 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
30 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
1.00 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
10 min:
1.50 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0 min:
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
Dry:
3.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)

Yeast:
A 2 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs "California Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into a carboy with 5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.080

Notes:
I'll ferment this thing at 65 degrees.

Update: Well, I learned a valuable lesson today. I wish I had used a hop bag. We left about 1-1.5 gallons of wort in the kettle, and it pretty much clogged coming out of the kettle. Good thing I had a pump, but even still it was a little iffy filling the carboy. I thought we were going to get stuck at 2.5 gallons. That's the last time I brew a hoppy beer without a bag.

2 comments:

Paul said...

I learned that lesson after dry hopping with leaves. I got to about 1 gallon left in the carboy and my siphon started to clog like crazy. I've been looking for a good stout to brew and I may take a shot at Thesis.

the.eremite said...

Thanks for the comment, Paul.

Yep. Those whole leaf hops are a pain to deal with. I've since gone completely to pellets. I've used the whole leafs a couple times when I've had to, but I'll never do it again for a hoppy beer.

Take care, man. And, let me know how your stout turns out.