India Pale Ale

03 June 2007 @ late afternoon | Comments (2)

India Pale Ale

“Dude, have you tried Brand X Quintuple IPA? It’s EXTREME!”
- Extreme Beer Punk #1

This is the part where I commit beer blasphemy: I think most IPAs suck.

It’s not that I dislike hoppy beer. On the contrary, there are many well-hopped beers that I enjoy immensely (most notably those produced by AleSmith and Russian River). However, the hype that fuels the extreme IBU trend leads most brewers toward over-hopping their recipes just for the sake of marketability or street-cred. These recipes generally suffer from a grain bill that is too sweet (excess caramel malt or improper mash), which overloads the palate when paired with strong hops, or a hop profile so complex that the result just lacks drinkability.

In other words, hops for the sake of hops.

This is an attempt to brew a pale ale with a clean malt character that highlights a balanced but assertive hop profile, without sacrificing drinkability.

Recipe

  • Style: India Pale Ale
  • Type: All grain
  • Batch size: 6 gal
  • Color: 8 SRM SRM 8
  • Bitterness: 60 IBU
  • OG: 1.063
  • FG: 1.014
  • ABV: 6.5%
  • BU/GU: 0.95
  • Mash: Single infusion (153°F/168°F)
  • Efficiency: 75%
  • Boil: 90 min
  • Yeast: California ale yeast (WLP001)
  • Grain:
    • 13 lb Domestic two-row
    • 0.5 lb Wheat malt
    • 0.4 lb Crystal 120L
  • Hops:
    • 1.0 oz Columbus (pellet, 90 min)
    • 1.25 oz Centennial (whole, 10 min)
    • 0.5 oz Centennial (whole, 0 min)
    • 2.25 oz Cascade (whole, 0 min)
    • 1.0 oz Amarillo (pellet, dry)
    • 1.0 oz Simcoe (pellet, dry)

Process

Everything went flawlessly for this batch; all temperatures were nailed dead-on. Primary fermentation will last about ten days at 69F before being racked to a secondary fermenter and dry hopped for another week.

Result

June 12, 2007: Racked off to secondary fermenter and dry hopped. Gravity currently sits at about 1.017, which hopefully will continue downward to finish at 1.012 over the next week or two.

June 19 2007: By far the best IPA I’ve ever brewed. Although it finished just a tad high, it’s not too sweet so as to throw it out of balance. I really like the Simcoe/Amarillo dry hop combination; it gives a very clean fruit and citrus hop presence, not overbearingly pungent, spicy or soapy. It’s very reminiscent of the Stone IPA cask (also dry-hopped with Amarillo/Simcoe) showcased at The Linkery from time to time. If all goes according to plan, all five gallons will be gone by Sunday.

2 comments

1

what are you doing for water? I brew in SD and have been trying to figure out the best water to use. Lately I’ve been draining water out of my refrigerator’s charcoal filter system.

Justin
2

Most brewers I know use filtered tap water, since San Diego’s tap water has good hardness and alkalinity for many styles of beer.

However, because of San Diego’s usage of chloramine, an organic disinfectant that is (purposefully) much more stable and difficult to remove from water than free chlorine, you’ll have to use a GAC (granular activated carbon) filter. An alternative is sodium bisulfite or potassium bisulfite, generally referred to as campden tablets. This has the ability to break the strong bond between ammonia and chlorine in chloramine. I’ve had some success with campden, but it’s not my preferred method.

Personally, I opt to start with a blank slate and use RO (reverse osmosis) water from a local water/ice store. It’s not difficult to match water profiles with brewing salts and It also allows me to brew some styles, like pilsner, that are impossible to brew with San Diego’s moderately carbonate water. I’ve had a lot of success with RO water, using ProMash to quickly figure out my salt additions.

That being said, purists will argue that the only truly traditional method is to brew to your region/climate, which would be to use filtered tap water. Luckily, our local water source will likely work for 80% of the beers you’ll ever choose to brew!

Andrew → compooter.org

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