The Electric IPA

One of my favourite beers styles is an American IPA with lots of citrusy/piney/fruity/resiny hop flavour.

I've been playing around for some time with various hop combinations trying to hone in on one combination that I can call my house "Electric IPA" the same way I have my house "Electric APA" (a beer that I've brewed numerous times and always like to have on tap).

This recipe purposely keeps the standard 60 minute bittering hops somewhat restrained for a total of 37 IBUs at the 60 minute mark. The rest of the bitterness comes from late additions. Most of the flavour hops are done at 5 minutes before flame-out to give the beer a massive hop flavour. The beer is then also heavily dry-hopped for additional aroma. This is way I like my American IPAs: Bitter enough to be an IPA but not over the top mouth-puckering, with enormous hop flavour/aroma.

Because of the higher gravity I'm mashing fairly low (150F) to produce a more fermentable wort to ultimately produce a drier beer.

My brewhouse efficiency is 93% (down from the regular 95% since I'm temporarily brewing in the garage while the new permanent indoor brewery's being designed). Scale as required to suite your setup.

The US-05 dry yeast can be replaced by WYeast 1056 or WLP-001.

The Electric IPA



Size: 12.0 gal (post-boil)
Efficiency: 93.0%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Calories: 214.0 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.065 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 8.57 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.8% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 57.8 (40.0 - 70.0)



Ingredients:
22 lb Standard 2-Row (95%)
1.15 lb Crystal 55L (5%)
1.5 oz Warrior (15.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min (37 IBU)
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
4 oz Centennial (9.2%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min (11.5 IBU)
4 oz Amarillo (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min (9.4 IBU)
36 g Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
3 oz Crystal (3.3%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
3 oz Citra (11.1%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Notes:
Add 500mg potassium metabisulphite to 20 gallons water to remove chlorine/chloramine (as required).
Water treated with brewing salts to: Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=279
(Basically Randy Mosher's ideal Pale Ale numbers with slightly less Sulphate).
1.25 qt/lb mash thickness. Single infusion mash at 150F for 90 mins. Mashout to 168F.
60-90 min fly sparge with ~6 pH water.
Boil for 60 minutes. Lid on at flameout with 0 minute hops, start chilling immediately.
Cool wort to 66F and aerate well. Ferment at 66-68F until complete.
Dry hop for 7-10 days.

If you prefer to use liquid yeast, replace the US-05 dry yeast with WYeast 1056 or White Labs WLP-001.

For the complete brewing process I use, see my Brew Day: Step by Step guide.

If you brew it let us know how it turns out! Enjoy!

Kal

Looks great.. any pics of this badboy?

Looks good! Can you give a recipe for a more average effiency?

elproducto: No pics at the moment I'm afraid. It's been in the keg now for almost 3 weeks and is perfect however!

I'll cheat an post another picture of something that looks close (my Electric Pale Ale):



Just pretend it's just slightly darker. (8.6 SRM instead of 5.9)

bottlebomber: Every setup has a different efficiency so best you simply plug the two grain amounts into your brewing software and adjust. I also gave the percentages for the two malts (95% and 5%) so you could use that as well if you want and adjust accordingly for your efficiency. Like every other recipe, the other things stay the same and are not affected by efficiency.

Kal

Update: I've been drinking this beer now for the last couple of weeks and I think found my new "house" AIPA. Tons of hop flavour/aroma without over the top bitterness. This hop combination really works.

Of course, everyone will have different favourite hops but the ones I used here worked really well (IMHO).

If anyone brews it let me know what you think.

Kal

It looks really great! I"m not a big citra fan, but with centennial and amarillo, I bet it's awesome.

Yup, same here. I've done an all-citra late addition APA and IPA and it just doesn't work by itself (IMHO). For me, Citra need to be blended with others. I like using it as a dry hop as I've done here.

Kal

Looks awesome, so I brewed 5 gals of this today. It came out fairly dark though. I did use 2 lbs of Maris Otter and 11 lbs of pale 2row. I didn't think Maris Otter would make it dark?
Anyway, I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how it came out.

Definitely interested in hearing how it turns out. Swapping just a bit of 2-row for MO shouldn't make it that much darker.

Kal

I've finally tasted this and it's really great! I'm not an IPA expert, but this one is probably the best I've had. Lots of hop aroma, a little less flavor, and just exactly the right amount of bitterness. The three people who I've given bottles to also say it's great. Mine did turn out a little darker than your picture, and I'm wondering if I somehow got some Crystal malt that's higher than 55. This is floral and a little spicy. Not a lot of citrus.

If you were a little under on your post boil it could account for the darker color

Glad you like it! I'm on my last keg of it so time to brew it again...

As I mentioned in the post above with the picture, that's not this beer. It's a 5.9 SRM Electric Pale Ale instead of the 8.6 SRM Electric IPA. Sorry for the confusion! I probably never should have posted it...

Kal

Just a little more feedback - I took this to a party along with a keg of Dubbel and a keg of CAP, and it was a sellout. A couple of people even said it was the best IPA they've had.
So, I'm going to make more - except I think I'll try FWH for the first addition.

Glad to hear! Let me know how the FWH works out too!

Kal