I've got a craving for hops... and I gave all of that last India Pale Ale I made for X-Mas presents. So, it's time for 10 gallons of a nice, new, big, hoppy batch of IPA. Brewin 'er up on Saturday. If it's good enough, I plan to bring this thing to the Southern California Homebrew Festival coming up in May. So meet me there if you want to try it out.In an IPA, the star of the show should be the HOPS. Being a California kid, I chose some very citrus-o-licious West Coast hop varieties. There should be some strong citrus, lemon, grapefruit and orange aromas spilling out of this thing. The trick here is to keep the malt character down with a simple grain bill, but lots of base malt to boost the alcohol. I still want to balance the bitterness with some maltiness, but I want to let those hops do most of the talking... and a 1.071 starting gravity ain't to subtle either.
Grain:
31 lb. American Pale 2-Row
1 lb. Cara-Pils
1 lb. Crystal 60
1 lb. Special Roast
Single Infusion Mash:
152 degrees for 60 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.
Boil:
11.5-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil
1/2 oz. Irish moss added at 60 min.
Hops:
60 min:
2 oz. Columbus (14.5 AA)
1 oz. Simcoe (13 AA)
30 min:
1 oz. Cascade (5.2 AA)
1 oz. Simcoe (13 AA)
15 min:
2 oz. Simcoe (13 AA)
Knockout:
1 oz. Amarillo Gold (8.4 AA)
1 oz. Cascade (5.2 AA)
Dry:
2 oz. Amarillo Gold
1 oz. Columbus
Yeast:
A 2 starter of White Labs "Cal Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into two carboys with 5 gallons of wort each.
Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.071 (or 16 plato... I just got myself a fancy refractometer :)
Notes:
I'll be fermenting this thing at around 65 to 70 degrees, and I'll dry hop it in the secondary around the second or third week of fermentation.
Well, all went well at the end of the brew. I hit all my numbers, but the final volume was a little low. I ended up with about 8 gallons total. I should have sparged a bit more, but the whole hops kept a LOT of wort in the kettle. There was at least a gallon and a half stuck in there. Oh well, next time I'll stick to pellets.
And a note for next time... I think I maxed out on the amount of grain this mash tun can hold. What do you think? :)
Update: Hot Dawg. I just uploaded the picture... looks fantastic. Very orange from the special malt, but not too dark. It's very clear for how high the gravity is, and it's got a great orange nose on there. I'm very happy with it.
Update2: I got a lot of good feedback on this beer. It really didn't do well in the Mayfair competition. The main feedback was a lack of carbonation. But, if I were to enter another IPA I'd keep the special malt out of it. I think it added too much color and too much sweetness for the style. It tasted pretty good, but it's definitely off style and in combination with the hops, it makes for a very aggressive beer.
