IPA advice Mew-Langdon

[Digby Swift]

I was thinking about doing the following IPA recipe as it has a much shorter maturation time compared to some other examples.

OG 56 5 Gallons

8lb 11oz (3950g) Pale Malt
1lb 15oz (900g) White Sugar

5oz (140g) Goldings 90min

Mature 8-10 weeks

For anybody who has tried to make some of the historic IPAs is it worth trying this one or going for one of the 12 month maturation monsters? I've never really tried a proper IPA, I like the punk IPA and a tesco finest IPA I tried, am unsure who brews this but it was right nice, but I doubt this will come out like those as it has no late hops and no dry hops. Will this have much flavour other than bitterness?

Should I treat the water for a dry pale ale, sweet pale ale or burton pale ale? Although I realise this one wasn't made at burton so perhaps am answering my own question here.

[Whorst]

Age 8-10 weeks??? 2 weeks in the fermenter(if that) and about 2 weeks in the keg. Drink and enjoy.

[prodigal2]

Whorst will probably hate me for saying this, but I think every AG brewer should try a aged beer at least once, as you get a flavour that you just can't get in most commercial beers.
Goldings is a great hop for a aged beer as it ages it gains a spiciness, that you just don't get from a young ale. I have yet to do a 12 monther yet but I will do soon(ish).
If you are aging a ale I would recomend you taste it from time to time as you taste the transformation from something that is and then all of a sudden it will become and will become really good. defiantly worth the effort, water treatment I am not sure as I try and avoid all of that stuff.

[Digby Swift]

I taste my beers regularly as they are maturing but I haven't had one yet that i've particularly thought was really good within a month in the cask, I've seen promise in them but they've all had flavours which needed rounding off with a few weeks ageing. After this time I have really enjoyed them and was glad when I left them that long. The 8-10 weeks was the reccomended time in durden park which was why I said that, in reality I will be trying it every week pretty much to see how it is getting on. I don't really like the type of bitterness you get from young beers either but thats the beauty of brewing, you can have the beer however you want.

[Whorst]

All I can say is I wished you lived closer. From my taste buds point of view, aging beer is a myth, unless you're talking strong. Fresh beer is the best beer. Brewpubs and breweries don't excessively age their beer, so why should a home brewer? One of my local breweries, Pizza Port win a great deal of awards. I spoke to brewer over a month ago about how long they ferment their IPA. It's fermented for about 10 days and aged for about a week. It's then lightly filtered, but not pasteurized. We're talking starting gravities of over 1.060. They want all the hop aroma and flavor to stay within the beer. Now perhaps you don't like hops all that much. Use less, and drink when bright.

[Digby Swift]

I expect any ale from a pub is out within your time frame and i'm not certainly not saying that it is horrible I just prefer the taste of my beers after a month or so maturing. That ofcourse could be down to negative flavours imparted in my beers from the way I make them which are then softened by a bit of ageing. The lengths of time I was proposing on this recipe was that it was reccomended in the Durden Park book which it came from not particularly what I think as I have never brewed an IPA before.

I have heard that there are flavours you get from an agressively hopped aged beer which you don't get from just cutting down the hops. What these are I don't know but I wouldn't mind finding out. That's the main reason I was asking about this recipe as I was wondering if anyone had tried it in comparison to one of the 10+ month aged IPAs as I would obviously rather drink it sooner if there is little difference.

I would think that brewpubs and breweries don't age their beer mainly because of cost reasons, and that people buy their beer anyway so its not of much consequence to them. Incidently I have tried beers that have been aged over a year, Adnams Tally Ho, at a beer festival so they must've thought that enough difference was in the aged beer in comparison to just getting a fresh cask.

[prodigal2]

All I can say is I wished you lived closer. From my taste buds point of view, aging beer is a myth, unless you're talking strong. Fresh beer is the best beer. Brewpubs and breweries don't excessively age their beer, so why should a home brewer? One of my local breweries, Pizza Port win a great deal of awards. I spoke to brewer over a month ago about how long they ferment their IPA. It's fermented for about 10 days and aged for about a week. It's then lightly filtered, but not pasteurized. We're talking starting gravities of over 1.060. They want all the hop aroma and flavor to stay within the beer. Now perhaps you don't like hops all that much. Use less, and drink when bright.

Thats the interesting thing whorst that kind of IPA is a American IPA usually with C hops and the hops are there more for Flavour and Aroma. A aged IPA the malt and the hops balance each other out and then mutate into on BIG round flavour, that is unlike a double IPA or a American IPA.
Then again Firestone Walker seem to be spending alot of time AND money on aging beers.

Oh I do like hops and malt I love some of the BALANCED hoppy ales in the US, but the lupinoids change character over time and become something amazing as oposed to great. Then again I love milds too, in fact most beers.

FWW I am trying hard to not end up standing in pretentious courner

[prodigal2]

I expect any ale from a pub is out within your time frame and i'm not certainly not saying that it is horrible I just prefer the taste of my beers after a month or so maturing. That ofcourse could be down to negative flavours imparted in my beers from the way I make them which are then softened by a bit of ageing. The lengths of time I was proposing on this recipe was that it was reccomended in the Durden Park book which it came from not particularly what I think as I have never brewed an IPA before.

I have heard that there are flavours you get from an agressively hopped aged beer which you don't get from just cutting down the hops. What these are I don't know but I wouldn't mind finding out. That's the main reason I was asking about this recipe as I was wondering if anyone had tried it in comparison to one of the 10+ month aged IPAs as I would obviously rather drink it sooner if there is little difference.

I would think that brewpubs and breweries don't age their beer mainly because of cost reasons, and that people buy their beer anyway so its not of much consequence to them. Incidently I have tried beers that have been aged over a year, Adnams Tally Ho, at a beer festival so they must've thought that enough difference was in the aged beer in comparison to just getting a fresh cask.

All I have to say Digby is that anyone who has brewed a DP recipe, has ALWAYS said it was amazing, and they wished there was more left

[Digby Swift]

All I have to say Digby is that anyone who has brewed a DP recipe, has ALWAYS said it was amazing, and they wished there was more left

So I hear. I have the simmonds bitter which has just finished fermenting but have done it with the belgian diastatic amber (50 ebc) as someone from durden said its best to when I asked about pale amber and couldn't home roast, just after I bought some munich for the bodged up mix as well. Have to come up with another brew now

[Whorst]

I just sent Thornbridge an email regarding how long they age Jaipur before it's off to the pub. I will post their response. Also, please take heed of my new avatar. It's much more toned down than the previous. Although her boobs are legendary.

[Digby Swift]

The durden park recipes are old recipes which were designed to be aged though so it doesn't really matter which new recipes are aged and which aren't. The recipes also have no late hops in so hop aroma lost during storage isn't an issue whereas it would be in modern IPAs which tend to have alot of aroma hops.

Its a sad day that you have changed your avatar, I might have to actually start reading the forum again.

[prodigal2]

Its a sad day that you have changed your avatar, I might have to actually start reading the forum again.

I got distracted during a couple of phone calls today due the old avatar. It was like hypnosis for blokes

[prodigal2]

I just sent Thornbridge an email regarding how long they age Jaipur before it's off to the pub. I will post their response. Also, please take heed of my new avatar. It's much more toned down than the previous. Although her boobs are legendary.

That is something I will be interested in Whorst.

i should also say that here in the UK the IPA moniker has been used more for marketing than a true description of style, and it was not until the influx of the American style IPAs that we have been rediscovering the past and also the American style IPAs(least from my perspective). I would recomend that you try making a aged ale at least once to see for yourself, it is something else that one malt and one hop can create such a complex flavour.