BierMuncher's Outer Limits IPA
 

I wanted to come up with a nice malty, hop-flavorful IPA that pushed the upper limits of a Category-14 (American IPA) beer. The outside range for the OG is 1.075 and the IBU’s at 60. Normally for me, a 60-IBU beer would be a bit too bitter. I knew I’d have to get to one more upper limit with this beer, and that was to attenuate to the high side of about 1.018 finished gravity. With a higher finishing gravity, the malt character would hold its own against the higher IBU’s. This was going to need a high mash (159) and a short rest (45 minutes) to give me the higher FG.

I’m a fan of the slightly sweeter grains, so a fair amount of specialty grains were in order. With 12% Munich, 7% Honey malt (which I love) and 7% of some crystal (60 & 80), I thought I’d have enough residuals to really give some nice body and a malty sweetness. I decided to use a smaller amount of higher Alpha hops for bittering, in this case some Nugget. Then some Amarillo at around 45 minutes and then really lay it on the last 30 minutes with an additional 2.5 ounces of American hops.

I brewed this beer on August 18th. It sat in the primary for two weeks and then was dry hopped for an additional 7 days. It was racked to a secondary with gelatin and rested another 10 days. From there it was racked to a keg and stored at room temp another 10 days…chilled and carb’d. I tasted after just one week on the gas and it was very drinkable. About 2 weeks later I included a bottle in each of my packages to Chriso and GreenwoodRover as part of the 10der & mild swap. I thought the beer was phenomenal, but lest there’s any doubt, here’s what they had to say:


I also had a fellow St Louis Brews member over at the house last week to pick up some grains and after sampling from left to right on my 5-tapper downstairs, he landed on this beer as his favorite. A veteran BJCP judge, he gave it a definite two-thumbs-up and suggested it be entered into some upcoming contests.

So anyway, enough talk. Here it tis.

Outer Limits IPA


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Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 8.13 gal
Estimated OG: 1.075 SG
Estimated Color: 12.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 61.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
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11.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1.75 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)

0.75 oz Nugget [13.00%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90%] (45 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (30 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90%] (15 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (10 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [6.10%] (5 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (0 min)

.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90%] (Dry Hop 7 days)
.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (Dry Hop 7 days)
.50 oz Glacier [5.60%] (Dry Hop 7 days)


Hit the mash temp at 159 exactly. Held for 45 minutes and the sparged.

Pitched a slurry of safale-04 from a prior batch at 68 degrees.

I rated this 5 star based on my tasting of the original batch sample (Thanks BM!).

I'm brewing this at the end of this month (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and I'll post my results when I get a chance to taste it. Based on BM's ferment and aging schedule it should be a nice way to start off the new year.

I hate myself
 

I brewed this tonight but f'ed it up in lots of little ways:

I read and re-read the recipe but always missed the Honey Malt until 2 hours before mash-in so I subbed 3/4# of aromatic for the 1# honey, because it was all I had and the closest in terms of SRM.

I would have hit the 1.075 OG if i wasnt an ass. I siphoned 5 gal onto a S-04 yeast cake then topped up to 5.5gal for an OG of 1.068. Maybe my efficiency sucked (63% when i'm normally 70% and compensated for the 5% diff in my eff and BM's) or i didn't realize %.5gal was the finish ammount and you only racked 5 gal. oh well, i'm sure it will be decent for my first weak attempt at an IPA.............

Truth be told, I missed my target of 1.075 by a few points too. :cross:

The beer will turn out great regardless.

I brewed a batch in late november.
I f-ed up the grain bill and forgot the honey malt, but subed for Aromatic malt.

This is the BEST BEER I have ever brewed.

I sampled it tonight with Two Brothers Bitter End IPA and Three Floyds Alpha King.
First - two bros. no competition. the OLIPA was WAYYYYYYY better. Fresher (obviously) and less one note.

The 3 floyds - OLIPA more than stood up to the bitterness, my aroma wasn't as good, but the balance, oh sweet balance, put the Munster, IN boys to shame....

Brew this next if you want a really great IPA.

Sounds like it turned out well.

It's one of my favorites.

This sounds delish... happen to have an pm version of this?

Coupla things, BierMuncher.

First, I notice you use honey malt in a lot of your ales. What are you going for with this? Do you notice it in the finished beer at such low amounts?

Also, you mash at higher temps like 159. Is this is for maltiness?

TIA.

I love Honey malt. For me a good APA or IPA has to have sufficient malty/sweet flavor. I don't like an overly dry beer where the bitterness puckers you up.

Honey and higher mash temps give me the huge body I like without having to overload the grain bill and risk a hot alcohol bomb.

A lot also depends on the season. An IPA being sipped in the dead of winter (in my opinion) needs to taste different than one being drunk in the heat of July.

Hey BierMuncher,

What did you mean by "hot alcohol bomb" above? You have to forgive me, I've only just made the leap to AG from extract and not familiar with all the lingo.

BTW, I just brewed your Black Pearl Porter recipe on Saturday and it went great! I can't wait to drink it, thanks for putting that up here.