Traditional IPA

[onlooker]

Hi Im new to this board , heres a link to my guestbook entry with a little bit about myself. http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 5806#35806

I thought I would share the recipe I brewed today.

Chilka IPA (19litre batch)

Grist
6kg Golden Promise

Adjunct:
500gs brown sugar

Hops://

47g Super Alpha (60 min)
40g Goldings (20min)
40g Goldings (10min)
40g Cascade (5min)
40g Styrian Goldings (1min)

Yeast Saf s-04

Step infusion at 60c, and at 67c.

o.g. 1072 .

[oblivious]

Should you add some crystal malt to help balance the beer?

[onlooker]

I brew an ordinary bitter at 1038 and a best at 1048 for everyday drinking. IPA should be strong and for special occasions.

I will age it in a cornycask for a month or so and then serve it under co2 rather than thru the beer engine so I can have a running beer on at the same time.

As for crystal , in my opinion it wouldnt be an IPA if it included crystal malt in the grist.

[Andy]

I like the sound of the Meantime IPA!

"Jam packed with English Fuggles and Goldings, the beer is brewed with as many hops as we can physically get into the copper. We then fill the lauter tun with hops for a further infusion and then we dry hop with the beer with even more hops using our own unique circulation process to ensure maximum contact between the bops and the body of the beer. All this gives us a final hopping rate of well over 2lbs of hops per barrel."

Sainsburys sell a couple of Meantime beers including this IPA, pretty expensive and now I know why! Going to have to try this one...

[mysterio]

Looks like a great beer, onlooker.

Andy I had the meantime IPA in a brewpub once and it's sublime, properly bitter and strong like a proper IPA should be

[onlooker]

I have heard on other forums that it isnt all that good, or all that hoppy. I have never had the chance to try it myself however.

---------------------------------------------------------

Primary : CHilka IPA, Berhampore Best Bitter, OSB Ordinary Bitter.
Conditioning: Berhampore Best, OSB, Merchant of the Devil Imperial Stout, Brooklyn Best Bitter ESB.
On the Handpump : Berhampore Best Bitter
Bottle aging: Merchant Of The Devil Imperial Stout
Up Next: OSB, Berhampore Best, Alfreds XXXX Stock Ale.

[oblivious]

I think they also do a London porter, if it is them it was a really nice beer

[BitterTed]

Nice recipe onlooker! I agree that a traditional IPA shouldn't have crystal malt, just not right! I will say though, that Cacades seem a bit out of place in that beer. May I ask why you used them? and are you planning on dry hopping that brew? I think that would be a nice touch!!!

[onlooker]

Yeah the cascades are out of place, and my reason for using them ? I have about 500gs of last years NZ Cascade crop in my freezer and I need to use them up. I use them in my Golden Summer ale and thats about it. I wont buy them again as Im not a huge fan, grwat for APA's but not in traditional english ales which is where my homebrewing has travelled since I bought them.

As for dry hopping, Im not abig fan, alot NZ Craft brewers are dry hopping the hell out of there ales and I find alot of off saline flavours popping up in alot of these beers. Also I can only access golding and styrian pellets as NZ wont import flowers .

---------------------------------------------------------

Primary : Berhampore Best Bitter, OSB Ordinary Bitter, Chilka IPA
Conditioning : Berhampore Best, OSB, Brooklyn ESB
On the Handpump : Berhampore Best
On the CO2 Serve: zilch
Bottle aging: Merchant Of The Devil Imperial Stout
Up Next: Berhampore Best, OSB, Alfreds XXXX Stock Ale

[bitter_dave]

Hi Onlooker

Nice looking recipe. I'm curious as to why it was step mashed though.

[steve_flack]

Yeah the cascades are out of place, and my reason for using them ? I have about 500gs of last years NZ Cascade crop in my freezer and I need to use them up. I use them in my Golden Summer ale and thats about it. I wont buy them again as Im not a huge fan, grwat for APA's but not in traditional english ales which is where my homebrewing has travelled since I bought them.

British microbrewers are moving out of the usual Challenger/Goldings/Fuggles and starting to try more hop varieties - particularly American varieties. For example Adnams (not a micro) use Columbus in their beer Explorer and the winner of the Great British Beer Festival last year used Brewers Gold (actually that's a German hop). The same brewery makes a great beer with Amarillo.

[onlooker]

I step mash everything, I learnt to brew from papiazen and thats what he does it. When I tried infusion my efficiancy droped significantly so I step mash. My beers all have a good malt character even the low gravity ones which perhaps stems from the step.

[onlooker]

Im aware of the innovations of the UK Micros, we get some SIBA member beers here, plus Im a member of CAMRA (in addition to being on the Executive Committee of SOBA society of beer advocates , NZ's version) and keep a close eye on brewing and beer related issues in the motherland. However there is a lot to be said for traditional varieties.

As for Adnams, Im a huge Broadside fan, its one the few english bitters that makes it out here tasting fresh.

[SteveD]

I like the sound of the Meantime IPA!

"Jam packed with English Fuggles and Goldings, the beer is brewed with as many hops as we can physically get into the copper. We then fill the lauter tun with hops for a further infusion and then we dry hop with the beer with even more hops using our own unique circulation process to ensure maximum contact between the bops and the body of the beer. All this gives us a final hopping rate of well over 2lbs of hops per barrel."

Sainsburys sell a couple of Meantime beers including this IPA, pretty expensive and now I know why! Going to have to try this one...

Try it...it's great. As I said at the beer club meeting, it was Meantime IPA that in a roundabout way brought me to that table like this:-

(1) Interest in beer history means I try Meantime IPA. Very impressed.

(2) Email brewery, reply suggests I contact Durden Park.

(3) Contact Durden Park - James McCrorie

(4) Meet James at the White horse Parsons Green for a drink. End up attending beer tasting instead (Thornbridge Brewery) and meal, in company of various beer alumni. Stagger home at 00.30

(5) Join CBA, find Jim's site, register.

(6) Go to North Hampshire beer club meeting

All that from trying a bottle of Meantime. Go ahead, you never know what might happen! Try their Porter too. Very nice.

[SteveD]

As for crystal , in my opinion it wouldnt be an IPA if it included crystal malt in the grist.

Correct, but you shouldn't be adding sugar either

Your post is titled 'Traditional IPA' so here goes. The foremost authority in this country, and therefore probably the world, on IPA says this :-

To make a modern equivalent of a traditional IPA (circa 1830) use low colour maris otter, to replicate the 'white malt' or 'east india pale malt' as it was called, that they used. Use 3lb per UK gallon. Mash Stiff at 66c for 3 hrs in permanently hard water. Raise to 77c for 30 mins. Sparge until you hit your required volume to give OG 1070 in the fermenter. The advice is to sparge until you are 15 degrees below target gravity, ie G1055 in this case. The boil will then raise the wort to the desired OG. Boil with goldings at the rate of 2.5oz per gallon. Yes...2.5oz per gallon, for 90 mins. Cool, strain off, rinse hops, ferment with good quality ale yeast. Dry hop with 1/2 oz goldings per 5 uk gallons. Mature 12-18 months.

The maturation time mellows down the massive hop bitterness and as the bitterness recedes, the flavours change into something quite astonishing. I tasted some IPA brewed by the man to this recipe at 14 months old. It was the best beer I've ever tasted.

If low colour otter isn't available you can use half pale malt, half lager malt instead.

If you want a traditional IPA that's what you have to do. Modern variants are good in themselves, but aren't really the real deal.