6 Years and no IPA

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Fiery Sword

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Just last night I came to the striking realization that in 6 years of brewing, I have NEVER, not once, made an IPA. Not by plan, either, it just happened that way...somehow. I am definitely no a fan of super-super-hop beers but I am still amazed that this never occured to me.

As a result, I'm looking to to an AG batch within the next month or so. I'd like to keep it in the British IPA style, nothing over 60IBU's. I've heard a lot about Walker's (i think, could be wrong) but I'll have to look around for a good recipe.

I still can't believe that I've never done one...... :confused:
 
True- I can vouch for Walker's recipe. It's extract, though, you'd have to convert it to AG. I did it in Beersmith, but I can't vouch for that conversion. Maybe someone else more intelligent than I am can give you the correct conversion. It seems like when Beersmith converted it, there is way too much Crystal.

In Beersmith, the IBUs for Walker's show up as 54. To my palate, though, it tastes like less because of the citrusy aroma. It's very well balanced and probably my favorite beer. Even my husband (most assuredly not a hophead) loves it.

The recipe is in his signature- Awesome recipe!
 
knipknup said:
REPENT you SINNER!
The only way I can repent is to bump it ahead of the Irish Red and Pale Ales that I was going to do next week. :D

I'll probably do some research and conversion of Walker's recipe to AG Saturday. Is this his IPA, names Kaduva......or is it no longer in the sig? (Sub "your" for "his" is you are around, walker :D )

Yoopers, the key to me in your wording was balanced. I actually realy like hoppy beers, as long as they are well balanced - a lot of the American IPA's turn me off because they are both over-hopped and under-malted in my book.

Anyone done an AG convesion for this yet? I'm having a little trouble locating a mention of it in some searched. If the above recipe is the baby, thats a lotta DME for beersmith to make a conversion for! I'm going to read around.....

And sorry to all you IPA hopheads. I have sinned. Walker must help redeem me. :eek:
 
Fiery Sword said:
I'll probably do some research and conversion of Walker's recipe to AG Saturday. Is this his IPA, names Kaduva......or is it no longer in the sig? (Sub "your" for "his" is you are around, walker :D )

Yoopers, the key to me in your wording was balanced. I actually realy like hoppy beers, as long as they are well balanced - a lot of the American IPA's turn me off because they are both over-hopped and under-malted in my book.

Anyone done an AG convesion for this yet? I'm having a little trouble locating a mention of it in some searched. If the above recipe is the baby, thats a lotta DME for beersmith to make a conversion for! I'm going to read around.....

And sorry to all you IPA hopheads. I have sinned. Walker must help redeem me. :eek:

Yes, that's the recipe. I followed it exactly, except for the chinook hops. I used a comparable AAU of cascade. I can't help with the conversion to AG, though- but when you figure it out, can you let me know? I want to do an AG version of this, too!
 
OK. After some HBT/IPA reading. That "Standard IPA" recipe looks pretty kick ass, though I really want to start with a less kick-ass British IPA. I think going from no IPA's to a 70+ IBU IPA ain't going to win me over. :D

that being said, I was working off Walker's brew for a bit. The AG mash conversion is definitely not an exact science for me, so I probably will get some variation there. I also was initially trying to stick with British hops but I have found that I absolutely LOVE Pacific Gem for real bittering. Being that this is supposed to be a more hoppy beer than I normally brew, how could I leave out my favorite bittering hop??? Once I made that switch the all-English hop bill hit the skids.....I might change it back tho. Not sure yet. So right now, this is there the 'conversion' stands:

9.5 lbs. English Pale 2-row
1 lb. English Munich
1 lb. Carahell
1/2 lb. Caramel 60L

3/4 oz. Pacific Gem pellets (60 min / 42ibu)
1 oz. Kent Goldings whole (15 min / 12ibu)
1oz. Hallertaur Northern Brewer whole (0 min)

That should land me in the 1.065 range for an OG, in the 54IBU range, and I think the color should fall smack dab into a British IPA.....the only realy thing to sort out is the hops (I am seriously thinking of going with a more Walker-like hop bill and bailing on my experimentation!) and if I want to dryhop a little. As long as I keep it below 60IBU, I'm game. Any thoughts??

EDIT: The more I think about it, the more I want to try walker's hop method with the above malt bill.
 
I'm certainly no expert on IPAs, but my thought is you MUST dry hop. I think the reason that 54 IBUs is appealing to me in this recipe is the aroma, bitterness and malt are all balanced. Dry hopping gives you that extra something that you need to make it that way.

As far as your recipe, I'm no help at all. I don't think I've ever used Pacific Gem, although I have used the others in other recipes. I like Walker's continuous hopping method- as that also seems to decrease the total hoppiness on the palate, if that makes sense. I also liked the combo of hops he used, and particularly the cascade. The citrus-y balanced the bitterness nicely. That said, it's your beer, and if you like those hops, I'm sure you'll like the results!
 
Yooper Chick said:
I'm certainly no expert on IPAs, but my thought is you MUST dry hop.
Can you tell I'm hop-phobic? :D

Yooper Chick said:
That said, it's your beer, and if you like those hops, I'm sure you'll like the results!
The thing is that I really like the idea of Walker's method. It is something I've never tried, and in a way that's the whole theme of this beer. It will be some interesting math to calc out the IBU's from the continual hop additions but I am leaning that way.

Then again, maybe I'll just have to do a 10 gallon mash, split it, and try 2 different hop boils. muuhahahaha. Now I'm just getting carried away.
 
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