Beer Styles: American IPA

Threat Actor NEIPA

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I am a software guy by trade. I am not a hacker, but I am facinated with what people can do with computers, networks, or even friggin blenders. Listening to my favoriate non-beer podcast, Darknet Diaries, he had mentioned something as being a threat actor and immediately I think, that is a great name. Especially for an easy drinking NEIPA, because this NEIPA could be responsible for something later in the evening if you happen to have a few too many.

And let me admit it. Sometimes I really hate on NEIPAs and sometimes I really just want one. Yeah, I’m brewing one. Don’t @ me. Well you can, I don’t really mind, it’s just that I have noticed a trend with a lot of the high ABV NEIPAs. If the alcohol isn’t controlled properly it tastes like paint thinner, then combine that with the hop burn that I tend perceive, tat really turns me off. This grain bill I swiped from my buddy that has a tiny brew pub in Jackson, MS. His brewing is not on social media. He sells a lot of beer out of the beer store in which he brews in the back parking lot. Remember, I said tiny brew pub. Oh, but you can find him on Untappd. That’s social media. Take a look for Bicentennial Beer Company, you’ll only find his beers at LD’s in Jackson, MS.

I went nuts the past couple months and have purchased a few too many hops. I am going to play around with my grain bill and hop blends to really nail down what I hope to be an awesome NEIPA. This is my first iteration. I know the percentages of flaked grains in this bill is a touch high if you were to read Scott Janish’s IPA book. This is what I wanted to do this time. I have oat malt and golden naked oats to play around with the next iteration to take the flaked oats out.

I do want to note. All my 20 minute additions in the following recipe details is in the whirlpool. I wonder if Beer XML allows for whirlpool additions. I might have to move to something else for adding beer recipes to the blog. I just wanted to mention this. **EDIT** I have sorta made a fix for this. I’m sure my other blog posts where I added hops to a whirlpool might not reflect my process. **

I also did the cold dry hop on this beer. I did not dry hop during primary fermentation (remember, don’t @ me, but you really can). Here is my fingers being crossed that cold side oxidation didn’t occur and I will not have a brown beer when this is ready to imbibe.

Cheers, y’all.

Recipe

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5.5 gal 60 min 38.3 IBUs 5.3 SRM 1.065 1.016 6.5 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 21 A 1.056 - 1.07 1.008 - 1.014 40 - 70 6 - 14 2.4 - 2.9 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Southern Select 7.5 lbs 53.57
Oats, Flaked 2.5 lbs 17.86
White Wheat Malt 2 lbs 14.29
Barley, Flaked 1.5 lbs 10.71
Oats, Golden Naked®™ (Simpsons) 8 oz 3.57

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Citra 3 oz 20 min Whirlpool Pellet 13.3
Mosaic (HBC 369) 1.5 oz 20 min Whirlpool Pellet 12.5
Galaxy 1 oz 20 min Whirlpool Pellet 13.4
Citra 1 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 14.1
Galaxy 1 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 14
Mosaic (HBC 369) 1 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 12.3

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 7.78 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 5.42 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 3.79 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Baking Soda 2.05 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Salt 0.75 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
SafAle English Ale (S-04) DCL/Fermentis 73% 59°F - 75.2°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 152.1°F 75 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

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Tasting Notes

Aroma
Moderately-high hop aromas that are citrusy (mainly orange), and tropical like passion fruit, with a slight tinge of floral in the background. Malts are muted and hidden behind the hop aromas.

Flavor
Moderately-high hop flavors that mimic the fruity notes that are listed in aromas. Orange, tropical, passion fruit. Very slight cracker note in the background that are just wanting to punch through that hop character. Ever slight note of fruity esters (mainly pear). Finishes medium-dry.

Mouthfeel
Pillowy, not quite chewy texture that has a moderate creaminess.

Overall Impression
Not my favorite. I would like more of a hop punch in the aroma. The hops that I saved from the dry hop, I put into a freezer bag and I have frozen them. That is an experiment for later. I believe I am going to brew a saison soon and throw those in the whirlpool. The aromas were just too good to throw out in the wood.

What would I change in this beer? I’d back off the flaked grains a touch. I believe I am going to go 80% pale malt, 10% oat malt/golden naked oats, 10% flaked wheat with my next grain bill. The stupid amount of haze in this beer was from the grain bill its self. I do like S-04 on the yeast. It’s just English enough to have a touch of esters that doesn’t screw around with the hops. I’ll dry hop the next batch 24 hours after pitch next time, to see if that makes a difference. I’m running low on citra, so it may just be a mosaic/galaxy hop blend. I haven’t decided yet.

Brings All The Boys to the Yard IPA / Saison

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My homebrew club does a a intra-club competition that we call the Makeshift Mashout. We have everyone put ingredients into 3 hats: a brewing ingredient, a hop, and a yeast. I believe I entered oats, mosaic hops, and Vermont Ale  yeast because I’m kind of on a New England IPA kick, yes, I’m brewing with the trends these days, excuse me there. The three ingredients that were selected were oats (WOOT!), CTZ hops, and saison yeast. I started on my journey of formulating a recipe. Where do I go to none other than The Mad Fermentationist Blog. I found a recipe of his using Columbus hops and oats. I used his Softer, Juicier, and Uglier APA recipe as the basis for this beer.  I didn’t have any Nelson Sauvin hops and me being me, I didn’t want to buy a pound of them. I ordered 8 ounces of El Dorado hops. The descriptors of these hops were pear, watermelon, and stone fruit. This is exactly what I’m looking for in this IPA. I had some Amarillo stashed away in the freezer and ordered some CTZ hops with the El Dorados and now I’m about ready to fire up the kettle.

My grain bill was missing malts that would drop the mash pH in the effective range, this is why the initial grain bill called for acidulated malt. If you’re wondering no, I don’t have a reliable pH meter, I’m going all on gut instinct, which, well probably isn’t the best method. A reliable pH meter is on my wish list which will happen sooner than later. The acidulated malt I had in stock was overrun with weevils. It was disconcerting the amount of bugsthat had taken over the malt. I ditched them out in the yard and went onto something else. Since it was just for lowering mash pH, I added phosphoric acid to my mash water. At least this was a quick fix. Have I mentioned I need to go ahead and buy a reliable pH meter?

Harvester of Aqua

Also to note, I harvested my water from a spring that is 20 miles south of where I live. The water is very pure tasting and it has made some fantastic beers. I would love to get my hands on the analysis report. I do have a Total Dissolved Solids meter and it read 13 PPM. Pretty pure if you were to ask me. I built up a small water profile by using a 2:1 ration sulfites to chloride. Why the small numbers in these? Well I only had 6.6 grams of gypsum, so there you go. I wanted to use 2 grams of gypsum per gallon of water used, that didn’t happen as you see. No problem though, at the end I’ll still have beer.

Now onto my fermentation, this thing was super active which made me a happy brewer. The saison yeast was a few months past the prime, but I did a yeast starter and both yeasts were happily fermenting.

NE IPA and the “saison” fermenting away nicely. #homebrew

A video posted by wickdawg (@wickdawg) on

I can’t wait to write up some tasting notes on this bad boy. When I open the chest freezer to check on my babies in there, it smells glorious. I hope that transpires into what I am about to enjoy.

This beer has had a lot of life so far. There is a local artisan bakery in town. I sent him a text the morning of my brew day and told him this was a little different grain bill than usual and he was interested in what I had. He came by a few hours later to pick up my spent grains and he made some lovely loafs of bread. If you ever want to know what a brew day smells like, this bread delivered those aromas to his customers. It smelled of sweet grains and wort to boot. It was mighty tasty bread. I believe it might have been my favorite bread to come out of his bakery.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
11 gal 60 min 56.5 IBUs 3.9 SRM 1.061 1.012 6.4 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 21 A 1.056 - 1.07 1.008 - 1.014 40 - 70 6 - 14 2.4 - 2.9 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pale Malt (2 Row) US 14 lbs 56
Oats, Flaked (Briess) 5 lbs 20
Wheat Malt, Bel 5 lbs 20
Carafoam (Weyermann) 1 lbs 4

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus (Tomahawk) 2 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 17.8
El Dorado 3 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 13.9
Amarillo 1 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 7.2
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 17.8

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 6.60 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 3.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Leeuwenhoek Saison Blend (WLP564) White Labs 78% 64°F - 90°F
London Ale III (1318) Wyeast Labs 73% 64°F - 74°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min

Notes

Heated 8 gallons of water in the BK to mash. Doughed in with 170 degree water. Initial mash temperature was ~142 degrees. Boiled ~1 gallon of water to add to mash to raise the mash temperature. Added to the mash, the mash was inconsistent as far as temperature, but was averaging around 152 degrees. Added 1/2 tsp of phosporic acid to mash water to help lower pH. I do not have a pH meter, just blindly did this.

Heating 8.5 gallons of water in the HLT with my immersion circulating heater covered with foil to keep heat in.

Anvil FIAK
—————
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III
12 hours after pitch - 1 ounce El Dorado Hops
1 ounce El Dorado - 14 Days
1 ounce Amarillo - 14 days
.5 ounce Columbus - 14 Days
1 ounce El Dorado - 7 Days
1 ounce Amarillo - 7 Days
.5 ounce Columbus - 7 Days

6 Gallon Glass Carboy
———————————
WLP564 Leeuwenhoek Saison Blend
1 ounce El Dorado - 14 Days
1 ounce Amarillo - 14 Days
1 ounce Columbus - 14 Days

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Experimental New England IPA

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I’ve been itching to release this post for some time now. As I am writing and editing this post I am working on gathering some statistics to put in here so you will have some info to chew on. This brew was probably my most documented brew day I have ever done and I must say it is pretty nice to look back and read what all I did for it. I took lots of photos of the entire process. The reason I did this experiment is for the Experimental Brewing Podcast, it made me brew a beer I’ve been wanting to brew for some time, but really just didn’t know where to start. Where I sorta failed at this experiment is that I actually used a Conan Yeast strain, rather than Wyeast 1318 London Ale III that the recipe suggested. I hope it doesn’t throw them off with their data.

2016-06-02 21.37.38

2016-06-04 18.21.53-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brew Day: June 4, 2016

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
11 gal 60 min 38.0 IBUs 4.6 SRM 1.055 1.013 5.5 %
Actuals 1.053 1.01 5.6 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 21 A 1.056 - 1.07 1.008 - 1.014 40 - 70 6 - 14 2.4 - 2.9 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pale Malt (2 Row) US 19 lbs 82.61
Munich 10L (Briess) 2 lbs 8.7
Oats, Flaked 2 lbs 8.7

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Warrior 0.5 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 15.9
Centennial 1 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 10
Citra 1 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 14.1
Amarillo 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 9.2
Centennial 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 10
Citra 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 14.1
Amarillo 4 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 9.2
Centennial 4 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 10
Citra 4 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 14.1

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 17.25 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 17.25 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
American Ale (1056) Wyeast Labs 75% 60°F - 72°F
DIPA Ale (OYL-052) Omega 76% 65°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min

Notes

Dry Hopped on 6/25/2016

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Download this recipe's BeerXML file

Wort is chilled in the the carboy ready for pitch

6/6/2016 – 7 AM – Still no sign of activity from the Omega Yeast

6/5/2016 Evening after pitching. Wyeast 1056 took off first.

6/6/2016 – 6 PM – Omega Yeast has taken off!

6/7/2016 – 7AM – Both beers happily fermenting away

6/7/2016 – 7 PM – This is smelling super good

The lapse of time in between these two pictures was Homebrew Con. Ok guys, it was my first one to attend, I apologize for not documenting them daily while I was off drinking a copious amount of beer.

6/12/2016 – Activity is slowing down quite a bit

6/17/2016 - Looks like it's done with the super active fermentation now

6/17/2016 – Looks like it’s done with the super active fermentation now

6/25/2016

Dry hopped each primary fermenter with:
56 g. Amarillo (7.2% AA)
56 g. Centennial (10.0% AA)
56 g. Citra (12.5% AA)

7/3/2016 – These samples are from the carboy. Can you tell which one is which?

7/3/2016
Keg conditioned each keg with 3.6 ounces of table sugar and 3/4 cups of water. Simmered for 5 minutes.
Wyeast 1056 FG – 1.010
Omega OLY-52 FG – 1.012

7/18/2016
The kegs went into the kegerator to chill

7/21/2016 – First Triangle Test

Omega DIPA on the left, Wyeast on the Right

A little stats here for ya. Out of 25 total testers 20 of them picked the correct sample. I must know some people with really good palettes. Of the people who commented, it seemed that the Wyeast 1056 sample was the favorite among the two samples. Personally I like the Omega DIPA because it has a softer mouthfeel and doesn’t come across as sharp as the 1056. Me personally I think I get a slight touch of diacetyl in the 1056 sample. No one else mentioned this, but I would have written that down on a BJCP score sheet. There was a BJCP judge that tasted the samples and he didn’t mention the diacetyl either, so maybe I’m really sensitive to it.

This was a really fun experiment. I plan on doing more of these for sure. I appreciate the Experimental Brewing Podcast for pushing me over the edge and doing something scientific like this. Lets me geek out even more on beer.