What's your biggest, hoppiest beer to date?
Just coming to the end of the keg on this one - was amazingly drinkable, from day 1 in the keg. Made to see out 2006...
I stock 19 American hop varieties, so as the name implies (R = 18 min) I've hopped with every variety. Rather than use the bucket & mix method, I weighed them all out into 19 packets, so 3gms of every hop in every addition. Over 460 hop weighings done on christmas eve, I must be mad...
R+ IPA
Imperial IPA
Type: All Grain
Date: 27/12/2007
Batch Size: 26.00 L
Brewer: Ross
Boil Size: 34.00 L
Boil time 90 minutes.
Brewhouse Efficiency: 83.0
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.30 kg Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcett) (5.9 EBC) Grain 88.9 %
0.41 kg Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118.2 EBC) Grain 5.0 %
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 42.7 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (70 min) Hops 37.5 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (60 min) Hops 36.3 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (55 min) Hops 35.5 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (50 min) Hops 34.5 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (45 min) Hops 33.3 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (40 min) Hops 31.8 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (35 min) Hops 30.0 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (30 min) Hops 27.9 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (25 min) Hops 25.2 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (20 min) Hops 22.0 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (15 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (10 min) Hops 13.1 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (90 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 7.8 IBU
57.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (5 min) Hops 7.2 IBU
114.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (20 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
114.00 gm Hopburst 19 varieties [7.80%] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
0.50 kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (2.0 EBC) Sugar 6.1 %
2 Pkgs American Ale (Safale #056) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Original Gravity: 1.084 SG
Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Alcohol by Vol: 9.4 %
Bitterness: 402.7 IBU Calories: 808 cal/l
Est Color: 18.9 EBC
Insane brews
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oxford brewer
- Under the Table
- Posts: 1289
- Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:00 pm
- Location: oxford
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Ross
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Vossy1
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Ross
Cool, being a newbie on this excellent site, I'm not yet aware of who does what... I'm not that experienced (time wise) Vossy, but brewing twice a week, I guess I get the urge to explore brews outside the norm more than most.Vossy1 wrote:A lot of us Ross, are probably not as experienced as youself and haven't gotten round to trying such things yetNo one else here made any brews outside the square?...
I am a great believer in trying all things to explore the options, once I've mastered the basics
Also, since I started up this little business a year ago, it's given me access to every grain & hop at "tax write off" prices
, so there's no holding me back 
...cheers Ross
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BigEd
Ross, as a Yank I can attest to the popularity of those monster beers in the US as there has been a virtual arms race of hop and alcohol content among many American homebrewers and micros over the last several years. Frankly, they are not for me for several reasons. One, I don't care for the American C hops which dominate the profile of these brews. I like hops and regularly brew a couple of recipes with IBU numbers well into the 100s but to me many of these beers, both amateur and professional, are out of balance. They typically lack malt body and flavor to support the massive hop additions. Yours at least uses a good pale malt but most of the US brews utilize North American pale malt, which if you will pardon the expression, pales by comparison. I'm a member at several of the US forums which typically have a cadre of members who are into extreme hoppy beers so you should check some of those out if you haven't already. Most of the members here at Jim's lean toward the more traditional UK beers which is what brought me here. Cheers!
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Ross
Would have to disagree a little bit there. Beers tend to have been made over tiime with limited ingredients mainly due to production cost/excise. Also traditional style English hops IMO are a little wasted in highly hopped ales, whereas the new breed of aromatic American hops can be fantastic.DaaB wrote:The boundarys of the square have found their place over many centuries. Having made beers close the the edges of these boundarys imo at least, they are there for a good reason. It's not like they are restrictive. As I have said in the past, it's easy to make 25L of beer with limitless ingredients, the real skill lies in turning a the same lump of water into something tastey with limited ingredients. Personally I prefer something around the 1040 mark, hopped appropriatelyRoss wrote:No one else here made any brews outside the square?...
cheers Ross
The majority of my beers are "inside the square" so to speak, but I've made some great ones that are not - Balancing a 400 IBU beer is a lot harder than balancing a 1040 bitter, trust me
...That said, English Bitters are still my favourite drop & the day I can replicate something like TTL I'll be a very happy man
.Cheers Ross
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Ross
Can't disagree with much there at all & certainly not knocking your quest for the perfect mid strength...as I said it's my main quest as well. Personally though I love brewing variety (it is the spice of life, so they sayDaaB wrote:You are missing the point a little, there are good and mid OG beers, balanced or not. Just because a piece of beer software claims a beer is within prescribed guidelines, guidelines often set by a country that has limited experience when it comes to producing good beer, still doesn't make it a good beer.
Good taste isn't computer generated, it comes down to years of experience, experience many of us don't have making it necessary to draw on centuries of accumulated wisdom and even then good taste is subjective.
There's nothing wrong with working with higher and lower gravity beers but I choose to work on low-mid beers as I can enjoy drinking more if them and spend more time deciding how I can go about making adjustments to the recipes I use to suit my pallet.
), & brewing some big beers whether they be English Barley wines, Belgians or higly hopped yank brews, I love the challenge (& the taste). Experimenting with a few different fruit beers as well at the moment...got a banana amber ale fermenting as we speak. cheers Ross
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Ross
Take more than a good debate to shut me upDaaB wrote:There is room for all styles of beer in the beer brewing community and just as importantly on this forum. I hope my forth-right views don't put you off from posting your experiences here otherwise I would be indirectly responsible for censoring on this forum, something that in general we try to avoid.
cheers Ross