Double IPA recipe

[mysterio]

Brewing this on Friday. Comments and suggestions welcome. The recipe isn't set in stone.

Dry hops will be 200g pellets per fermenter, so 400g in total. A roughly even split of Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo and CTZ.

Think it might be a personal best as far as hop volumes go ??

Double IPA

Type: All Grain
Date: 23/02/2011
Batch Size: 13.00 gal
Brewer:
Boil Size: 14.88 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 kg Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 43.21 %
6.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 37.04 %
1.00 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.17 %
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.09 %
100.00 gm Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 48.9 IBU
100.00 gm Warrior [18.20 %] (90 min) Hops 68.4 IBU
50.00 gm Summit [14.30 %] (30 min) Hops 19.3 IBU
50.00 gm Citra [13.80 %] (30 min) Hops 18.6 IBU
60.00 gm Citra [13.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
100.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
60.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
50.00 gm Summit [14.30 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.70 kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 10.49 %
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale (3rd generation re-pitch).

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.080 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.77 %
Bitterness: 155.2 IBU Calories: 363 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.0 SRM

Mash @ 66C

[Bopper]

The ibu's seem very very high, its almost going to be sour!! Richard

[mysterio]

Indeed, sourness/sharpness should mellow out with time though, actually I was worried the IBUs weren't high enough.

[schlafsack]

I listened to the most recent brewing network podcast and, in an interview, a pro brewer said that the actual max IBU you can get into a beer is around 100-110. The wort simply reaches saturation and can't absorb any more alpha acids. On paper, his DIPA should have been over 300, but the lab tested it at less than 100. Don't know if it's true or not.

[196osh]

High IBUs are not going to make it sour. Sour and astringency taste different.

Yeah, depends on the system and things like that. But bitter is bitter and if you get up to about 100 IBUs it will be the taste threshold.

Should be nice.

[mysterio]

I want to have it comfortably above 100 to allow for a fudge factor in the calculations.

I can kind of see what Bopper means by hop sourness. Some hops definitely taste sour when the beer is young. Bobek especially. A lot of American hops can be this way too.

[196osh]

My palate could be just unsensitive... . But I have made beers some of which have been brutally bitter even harsh or astrinigant initially and I wouldn't have said sour was a flavour I would attribute at all.

[mysterio]

Didn't you say you thought one of your recent hoppy IPAs had a lacto infection? Turned out it was just green?

Sour isn't a precise flavour, it can be sour like a lemon (citric), sour like a yoghurt (lactic) sour like unripe fruit (malic), sour like vinegar (acetic) etc etc.

It can be confusing when people come on and say their beer or starter is sour. Is it maybe acetaldehyde which is kind of sour/sharp? If we knew it was sour like vinegar when we could say for certainty that the beer was infected. You see what i'm getting at anyway.

[jubby]

That looks like a great IPA to me. Pantsmachine would be proud of that one!

I have found that around 150 IBU takes 6-8 months conditioning and 250ish around 12 months (as per Durden park) and I'm sure that will be a very special beer. It's interesting that you are using 1kg Crystal malt, increasing the body/malty profile which is usually fairly high with only standard malts, but i also notice the sugar and lager malt to reduce the body maybe? I've never tried that in aged IPA's so it would be interesting to know how it works.

I will be brewing another IPA soon using Simcoe and Amarillo to around 250IBU. Never used American hops in an IPA, but i have tasted a couple of Pantsmachine's which were outstanding.

Anyway, good luck with it.

[pantsmachine]

Well spotted Jubby, i do indeed think its a cracker! Just clocked the almost 9% strength! You should see a nice balance tween the booze and the bitterness. Will WP001 pull it all the way dowm to .013 from .080? Impressed i am as Yoda would say.

[196osh]

I have found that around 150 IBU takes 6-8 months conditioning and 250ish around 12 months (as per Durden park)

I would be drinking that a few weeks after it was carbed, the hop aroma is always better initially, the flavour drops off also, although more slowly.


As it says on the Pliny the Elder bottle:

". Respect your elder. Keep Cold. Drink Fresh. Pliny the Elder is a historical figure, don’t make the beer inside this bottle one! Not a barley wine, do not age! Age your cheese, not your Pliny! Respect hops, consume fresh. If you must, sit on eggs, not on Pliny! Do not save for a rainy day! Pliny is for savoring, not for saving! Consume Pliny fresh or not at all! Does not improve with age! Hoppy beers are not meant to be aged! Keep away from heat!"

Also, in terms of IBUs the saturation point of beer is such that the difference between those two beers is not going to be much.

[mysterio]

I'm glad you all approve! Pantsmachine I think I had a sip of one of your IPAs that you gave to Eric, not sure which one, it was great anyway. The grist is based around another great IIPA that 196osh made. I looked to the Pliny the Elder clone in Brewing Classic Styles for rough quantities of hops.

As for age, I think it depends on so many things, I'll be guided by my taste buds. I'll be bottling it, I think I would die if I kegged this.

[jubby]

196osh wrote:
Also, in terms of IBUs the saturation point of beer is such that the difference between those two beers is not going to be much.

That's what the theorists tell us, but I have to disagree. The 250 IBU Mr Nick's IPA brewed Feb 2010 is just about perfect for me now and the 140 IBU Mr Hadleys was good after 6 months. As mysterio says and as i suspect you do,

I'll be guided by my taste buds.

[mysterio]

I always think yeast handling has an impact on it. I notice when I repitch a nice slurry of healthy yeast beers always seem to be ready for drinking earlier than if I just sprinkle some US-05 in. Can't think of a reason why that would be the case but I'm certain of it.

[pantsmachine]

196osh wrote:
Also, in terms of IBUs the saturation point of beer is such that the difference between those two beers is not going to be much.

That's what the theorists tell us, but I have to disagree. The 250 IBU Mr Nick's IPA brewed Feb 2010 is just about perfect for me now and the 140 IBU Mr Hadleys was good after 6 months. As mysterio says and as i suspect you do,

I'll be guided by my taste buds.

Cheers Jubby. Brain rebooted and Mr Nick & Mr Hadley dug out of long term storage currently chilling down a few degrees to be sampled this evening by myself & Mrs P along with a Hop paradigm shift ipa. From my experience a 100 IBU beer and a 200 IBU beer are completely different kettles of fish. WHO's to say that IBU measurement is the whole of the thing anyway? Not us obviously!

Mysterio,
That's kind of you to say, thanks!