Liquid Novacaine 296 IBU IIPA

I've got a problem. I'm moving in June and have about 3.5# of pellet hops sitting in my freezer. They are about 2 years old but have been sealed and kept in the freezer the whole time. I can't ship full bottles or fermenters and don't have room in my car for a bunch of beer. I figure I've got enough time to brew and drink one (maybe two) batches before I drive cross country. So I came up with this hop stupid brew. Comments are welcome.

5 Gallon
OG 1.088
FG 1.022 (hoping for lower)
ABV 8.5%
SRM 12
IBU 296
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13# Marris Otter
1# Crystal 40
2# Belgian Candi (clear)

2oz Magnum (14.1% AA)
12oz Willamette (4.1% AA)
8oz EK Golding (5.1% AA)
5oz Fuggles (4.5% AA)

The plan is to mix all the hops together and add a few pellets every 5 minutes for a 120 minute boil. I threw this in Qbrew and came up with 296 IBUs. I was shooting for 300, but I figure this should still put your tongue to sleep. Thoughts?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/710-ibu-coopers-ipa-78010/

See the above post. You max out the IBUs at around 100, so you'd just be wasting hops.

Holy balls. I have no words for this.
I'm really interested to hear how this turns out.
If in doubt... Add more hops!!

You'll lose a lot of wort so maybe plan for 7 gallons and lose 2. On american barleywines and IPAs I like the Northern Brewer Hopshot which is similar to the extract Russian River and Lagunitus use for bittering but that doesn't help you use your hops.

I would urge you to put as much of that as you are willing to in at flameout and let it sit hot (I actually like to chill it to about 190 first) for 20 minutes before chilling. I think you will like the result.

Ace,
I understand that you can't (in theory) go much over 100 IBUs. I also know that while the bitterness isn't going to go up past that, the flavour and aroma will. As far as wasting hops goes, I would be tossing them if I don't brew with them. They've been in my freezer for 2 years and they were (probably) a year old when I bought them on sale. My brew buddies don't really want them. I spent $20 for 5# so I'm not going to be broken hearted either way.

Remilard,
I think I started with 8 gallons in the kettle on recipe. My boil off rate is pretty high on my system. I can back load the hops to get more flavour and aroma. Also I have a pound of cluster and more willamette to dry hop with (not that I'm planning on using a pound to dry hop).

In that case, brew on!

YES YES YES! I assume you're in the armed forces? If so, thank you. If you want some feedback, I'd love to try a bottle.

This was my my home grown cascade IPA that I made last week. People here flipped their ever loving mind when I noted that I used ~13oz of leaf hops.

I bought 2lbs of hops for $20 from a guy who was moving from Hawaii to the mainland. Just saying...

It is my understanding that you can add more IBUs to a beer, your taste buds just can't perceive any increase above 100...am I totally off here?

Do it!

Update: The ingredients have been ordered and will hopefully arrive before this weekend. I'd originally planned on trying the Greenbelt strain from AHS, but they were temporarily sold out. I went with WLP007 Dry English Ale instead. I figure it should finish nicely dry but still have a touch of residual sweetness given the high OG and the long boil adding some caramelization.

Terje

Stratotankard said:

Update: The ingredients have been ordered and will hopefully arrive before this weekend. I'd originally planned on trying the Greenbelt strain from AHS, but they were temporarily sold out. I went with WLP007 Dry English Ale instead. I figure it should finish nicely dry but still have a touch of residual sweetness given the high OG and the long boil adding some caramelization.

Terje

Click to expand...

Dude, I would pay you to try a bottle of this. Srsly.

I would love to try that. Any chance you're moving this far south?

How about you send two bottles to me and I can give one to SwampassJ?

Brewing this today!

Weighing out the hops is proving to be a very time consuming process... Never had this problem with my "normal" beers. Wish me luck!

OOOOOOhohohohohhohohhoooo! DO WANT! Love the idea, and would be very enthused to find out how it turns out. Awesome idea :rockin:

Slainte

It sounds like something I'd love to try if I ever had an overabundance of hops!

The hoppiest beer I ever made was a Pliny clone, I believed. It calculated out to about 250 IBUs, and used about 10 ounces of hops. It was definitely my favorite beer!

Wow. I can has hop juice?

I have done a DIPA with 220 IBUs and 2# of hops. Mostly flavor and aroma additions. The hops begin to add almost a vinous character to the beer: think Chardonnay.

It'll take some time to calm down... my 220 IBU beer was way harsh for quite awhile, but then calmed down and tasted pretty good. I wasn't happy with my hops selection, but I'd brew it again.

Keep us posted!

Well, finally finished this disaster of a brew day. Where to start...

For some reason my new brew stand regulator decided not to work, so I was back to the old turkey fryer setup. This is not conducive to the recirculating direct fired mash I've been using. Had a hell of a time keeping the pump primed and flow rates balanced. This probably contributed somewhat to the abysmal efficiency (~50%) I experienced.

Once I got everything running I realized I now had nowhere to heat my sparge water. Losing the double burner regulator is really starting to suck. I decided to heat as much as I could indoors and then do a semi batch/fly sparge This probably was also a bad idea and hurt my efficiency.

The boil went ok other than everybody calling me every 10 minutes. As it was approaching time to put the IC into the pot to sanitize, I realized that it was not as empty of water as I had thought after the last brew and that water had frozen and burst the tubing in a couple places. Ok no chiller, but I've chilled in the sink with ice water before, I can do this.

Surprise! The shiny new pot I'm using won't fit in the sink. No worries, I have a bathtub... and no ice. Only took an hour to get down to pitching temps. I suppose it could have been worse. Transfer to the fermenter was slowed by the stupid amount of hop sludge in the pot. Normally I could whirlpool and everything goes fine. This time I left over a gallon and a half of sludge that was higher than the spigot.

So what I ended up with is a super bitter (but very flavourful) 1.060 wort instead of the (slightly more balanced) 1.090 starting point. I suppose I can boil up a couple pounds of DME to make up the difference, but as cursed as this beer has been, I'll probably end up boiling over onto my stove top and setting fire to my kitchen somehow.


Terje

This beer has now been in bottles for a couple months and is really starting to come into its own.
It pours with a dense creamy white head over a slightly cloudy gold with copper highlights. It does clear a bit as it warms, but I still wish the clarity were better.
The aroma is strongly hoppy with earthy and floral notes. A backing of caramel and maybe dried apricots or pears? Some bready notes come out as the beer warms.
It is intensely bitter, but not harsh. Hop character is earthy with some spice. There is a good deal of malty caramel sweetness that balances the bitterness nicely. Some fruity notes try to show, but get beat down by the hops. The finish is long and dry with that hoppy goodness that lingers for ages.
Mouth feel is Medium-Light. The malt sweetness makes it seem a bit heavier than anticipated. Well carbonated, but with more of a prickly carbonation than foamy if that makes any sense. The finish is somewhat dry, which I think helps balance this beer out.
Overall, I feel this is one of the best beers I've brewed. All the elements in it are strong in their own right and could have been overpowering in other beers, but they come out strangely well balanced. Not insanely bitter and harsh, not overly sweet and cloying. I've set aside several bottles for aging and a few more for the State Fair competition.

It's a real shame that I'll probably never be able to recreate this beast, but at least I get to enjoy it while it lasts.

Stratotankard said:

I've got a problem. I'm moving in June and have about 3.5# of pellet hops sitting in my freezer. They are about 2 years old but have been sealed and kept in the freezer the whole time. I can't ship full bottles or fermenters and don't have room in my car for a bunch of beer. I figure I've got enough time to brew and drink one (maybe two) batches before I drive cross country. So I came up with this hop stupid brew. Comments are welcome.

5 Gallon
OG 1.088
FG 1.022 (hoping for lower)
ABV 8.5%
SRM 12
IBU 296
------------------
13# Marris Otter
1# Crystal 40
2# Belgian Candi (clear)

2oz Magnum (14.1% AA)
12oz Willamette (4.1% AA)
8oz EK Golding (5.1% AA)
5oz Fuggles (4.5% AA)

The plan is to mix all the hops together and add a few pellets every 5 minutes for a 120 minute boil. I threw this in Qbrew and came up with 296 IBUs. I was shooting for 300, but I figure this should still put your tongue to sleep. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I would mix them all add like 1 oz at the start of the boil, and the rest from 30 mins down.

So, I was pretty happy with this beer and decided to enter it in the state fair competition.

I must say, I was surprised by the comments I got. Chief among them was a lack of hop flavour and too sweet. Also that it was not bitter enough or big enough to be an imperial IPA.
I know I'm not the worlds biggest hop head, but I'm not sure what I could do to add more hoppiness to this beer. The only thing I can think is the slightly sweet finish is masking the bitterness.

Strato

The hop aroma/flavor fades rapidly, so what was good early faded and left you with the underlying sweetness. That's my guess.

I made a similar beer a bit ago; AHS Hop Bomb (with the Greenbelt strain you spoke of). Thread here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/first-modified-kit-ahs-hop-bomb-tweaks-265646

I too read about the 100 IBU limit, but having sampled many an IPA at or around that mark, I can tell you there's a difference. Much of it may be the large amount of dry hopping mine had, giving tons of aroma (which, of course, is inextricably linked to taste) - but it's still awesome.

They are rather expensive to make, but well worth it in my mind. I applaud your efforts, good sir!