Specialty IPA: Red IPA India Red Ale

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I just recently started brewing in a bag. I was going to go the all-grain approach with this one and was wondering how long i needed to mash for? I also plan on trying to figure out my efficiency with this batch, too. Pretty excited about it


I do not know much about BIAB other than one article from BYO magazine a couple years ago. I would assume a 60 minute mash. Not sure about efficiency. You may be able to find more info about BIAB efficiencies by doing a search on the topic? Best Brewing!

Tim
 
GoldenShowerGladiator said:
I just recently started brewing in a bag. I was going to go the all-grain approach with this one and was wondering how long i needed to mash for? I also plan on trying to figure out my efficiency with this batch, too. Pretty excited about it

I normally do a 75 min mash schedule for BIAB.
 
Double mill the grain. With BIAB, there's no worrying about a stuck sparge, and it will help your efficiency. Do you have a good calibrated thermometer?
 
when sparging with BIAB, which is better: dumping 170 degree water over the grains or having a separate pot with water and "tea-bagging" them in there? i've seen it done both ways and i've always sparged by dumping water over the grains when i did partial mash
 
Don't necessarily need to sparge, but I would recommend running water through the grain bag if you want to do a sparge. If you do the dunk method, that's a lot of additional liquid to boil off.
 
IRA brew update

Brew Day: March 30 2012
Recipe: 11 gallons
13 lbs 2 row-Great Western
10 lbs Briess Munich 10
1 lb Briess Crystal 40L
1 lb Breiss Crystal 90L
2 oz Bairds Black patent

1 oz Simcoe First Wort Hops
1 oz Simcoe 60 min
2 oz Amarillo 20 min
2 oz Cascade 5 min

OG 1.067- a bit higher than anticipated. 82% efficiency

Yeast: Split US 05-American Ale(66F) and San Fran Lager Yeast(59F) (did not use S-04)

Sample 4/15/10

US 05 at 1.016- Wow, as usual! I can tell some difference with first wort hops-seems more "Simcoey" in the flavor, which I like. I think the reduction of C-40 helps the balance. Seems the perfect bittersweet beer.
San Fran lager at 1.017- Smooth and not as hop-forward, really good too...need more time.

Added Dry Hops:
.5 oz Cascade,.5 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Amarillo to each fermenter (I am dry hopping in primary) for a week. I usually dry hop in the keg, but out of keg space.
 
How long are you guys keeping this formula in primary secondary and conditioning.

I am finding its no good until at least 10 12 weeks
 
I like it at about 6-8 weeks. It does benefit from some time in secondary or keg. That said, I have liked it at 4 weeks, and loved it by 6 weeks. I am sorry you don't like it for nearly 3 months...
 
Side by side split batch comparison: S-05 (American Ale Yeast) and WLP 810 (San Francisco Lager yeast). WLP actually preferred at beer tasting by a small margin of about 20 already buzzed drinkers. Interesting.... it is crisp and hoppy, I still prefer the ale. I would however stick to Wyeast 1056- seems cleaner and "rounder" to me. Both are delicious.
 
I just made this and its fully carb'd.

Phenomenal

I will definitely be making it again.

Thanks for this recipe!
 
I developed a similar recipe for my Imperial IRA. Fermented with Pacman. Just got a 40 on it at Spirit of Free Beer. My favorite home brew--malty, hoppy, and strong enough to savor @ 8.25% ABV.
 
Yeah! More beer joy!

wfowlks, so glad you like it! You may be the first "phenomenal" comment, I feel that way too, especially since I am drinking a pint right now;)

Piratwolf, That is great! 40 is a great score. What were your tweaks? 8.25% must have been 1.080 to 1.085 range?
 
TimBrewz said:
Yeah! More beer joy!

wfowlks, so glad you like it! You may be the first "phenomenal" comment, I feel that way too, especially since I am drinking a pint right now;)

Piratwolf, That is great! 40 is a great score. What were your tweaks? 8.25% must have been 1.080 to 1.085 range?

@TimBrewz--my 2-row/Munich ratio is about 2:1, some slightly different crystal malts, and an OG/FG of 1.084/1.021. I think the Pacman was key, though. 1st time was Nottingham, and it was too malty. The Pacman subdues the malts and carried the hops just enough to balance the two nicely.
 
Eye Candy....my candy.

IRA!.jpg
 
Tim - is that pic from your latest batch which is an even split of C-40 and 90 ?

I just reread this thread again since I plan to brew this over the weekend. I know crytal has been tweaked a couple times but the rest of the grain bill remains intact.

I was thinking about going with 8oz each C-40 and C-120. (5 gallon batch)
What do you think? I guess you gotta start somewhere and see how you like it.

Going to be all Falconer's Flight after the bittering addition.
 
Yes, Dustbow, that is the latest batch. C40 and C90 in equal parts. So .5 lb each for 5 gallon batch. It is really nice, complex enough to be interesting and smooth enough to make drinking a little too easy;) I prefer this ratio of crystal malts.

Falconer's is a great choice.
 
Eye Candy....my candy.

That's a beautiful looking pint! I'm sorta photo challenged, but my first brew of this is in my sig pic.

Also, I just noticed your yeast comparison. The first batch I did was Nottingham, and I liked it a lot. The Pacman version came out much cleaner, and gives great balance, but I feel like all the edges of the flavors are softened or rounded just a touch.

However, I seem to be the only one. I was lucky enough to get to pour two kegs of my beer at our club tent at the Norfolk Beer Fest last weekend, and everyone from beer n00bs to a couple of local pro brewers said they really liked the balance of malt and strong hop flavor. Looks like I'm sticking w/ the Pacman :)
 
Just had my first IRA the other night, decided I'd be brewing one of these next. This recipe looks great. I'm going to give the original write-up a swing, except I'm leaning toward replacing the Amarillo with Citra (suggestions?). My LHBS didn't have Amarillo last time I went in, said they might never get any again . . . some malarkey about somebody in Belgium (?) buying it all up or something.

This will be a stretch for me as I've basically just honed my skills in balancing out a bomber 9% IPA with tons of NW hops, but I really liked the sweetness in the IRA I had so I gotta try it!

BTW, BeerSmith is giving me 14.8 SRM, does that sound about right? I'm terrible with color. Looks more amber than red, but I don't actually know how well my computer screen compares with what I end up with in the lab. ;)
 
Yep Amarillo are tough to get right now. Try the Citra. Galaxy is another hop that may be a good Amarillo sub?

That color isclose but 14.8 SRM is a bit lighter than I usually get(16-17), but I use BeerTools and the calculators may use different methods. You may just be choosing a slightly lighter Lovibond grain. For example, I use Bairds Black patent, which is 550L and the default black malt in BeerTools is 500L. So I have to manually change that aspect for the recipe. Also, I use 10L Munich where some Munich is as low as 6L. With 5 lbs in the recipe, that can make a difference in the final color calculation.

Glad you are trying this recipe!
 
Yep Amarillo are tough to get right now. Try the Citra. Galaxy is another hop that may be a good Amarillo sub?

That color isclose but 14.8 SRM is a bit lighter than I usually get(16-17), but I use BeerTools and the calculators may use different methods. You may just be choosing a slightly lighter Lovibond grain. For example, I use Bairds Black patent, which is 550L and the default black malt in BeerTools is 500L. So I have to manually change that aspect for the recipe. Also, I use 10L Munich where some Munich is as low as 6L. With 5 lbs in the recipe, that can make a difference in the final color calculation.

Glad you are trying this recipe!

Cool, thanks for the input. BeerSmith does default to 500L for black patent, and there may be some other issues (I only have options for C80 or C120, no C90, so I went C40 and C80). Really it's just for rough-drafting my shopping list, and things always come out different in real life anyway. I should be tweaking the program according to my real efficiency and such, but I don't.

And greetings to a fellow Oregonian. :)
 
Hey Tim... Im brewing this recipe tomorrow and unfortunately am unable to get simcoe... What Do you think would be a nice substitute centenniel or citra?
 
Hey Boyd, with Simcoe as the bittering hop, you can sub just about any high alpha hop. I have used Magnum in this beer when Simcoe was in short supply and the result was very good. I chose Simcoe because it has a very low co-humulone level and lends a super smooth background bitterness and a character that can shine a bit even after an hour in the boil. Between Centennial and Citra, I would go with Centennial mostly because I have read that Citra can become "catty" if used for bittering, whereas I have never seen anything to indicate that Centennial has issues like this. Thanks for trying the recipe, happy brewing!

Tim
 
TimBrewz said:
Hey Boyd, with Simcoe as the bittering hop, you can sub just about any high alpha hop. I have used Magnum in this beer when Simcoe was in short supply and the result was very good. I chose Simcoe because it has a very low co-humulone level and lends a super smooth background bitterness and a character that can shine a bit even after an hour in the boil. Between Centennial and Citra, I would go with Centennial mostly because I have read that Citra can become "catty" if used for bittering, whereas I have never seen anything to indicate that Centennial has issues like this. Thanks for trying the recipe, happy brewing!

Tim

Thanks Tim!
I brewed this last weekend and am just about to transfer to secondary. It smells delicious! Going to dry hop with centennial, amarillo and was thinking about citra... I did use centennial, amarillo and centennial in the boil..
 
BOYDBrew said:
Thanks Tim!
I brewed this last weekend and am just about to transfer to secondary. It smells delicious! Going to dry hop with centennial, amarillo and was thinking about citra... I did use centennial, amarillo and centennial in the boil..

Whew, that's a big dry hop party! Not saying it's bad, but it will be busy. :)
 
Finally decided to give this a go today. I'm heating my strike water as we speak, doing a 2.5 gallon batch just as an afternoon diversion. The hop schedule is going to be way out from this recipe (the updated one) due to the shop's inventory. No Simcoe, no Amarillo, no Citra, nothing I like! I ended up getting some Cascade, Apollo, and Summit. I'll play around with them to see how I want to add them in, but I really need to start planning ahead and ordering my hops online instead of just putting myself at the mercy of the LHBS. :)
 
Glad you tried it. What was your hop schedule with those hops? I am assuming you bittered with Apollo?

Cheers,
Tim



Finally decided to give this a go today. I'm heating my strike water as we speak, doing a 2.5 gallon batch just as an afternoon diversion. The hop schedule is going to be way out from this recipe (the updated one) due to the shop's inventory. No Simcoe, no Amarillo, no Citra, nothing I like! I ended up getting some Cascade, Apollo, and Summit. I'll play around with them to see how I want to add them in, but I really need to start planning ahead and ordering my hops online instead of just putting myself at the mercy of the LHBS. :)
 
TimBrewz said:
Glad you tried it. What was your hop schedule with those hops? I am assuming you bittered with Apollo?

Cheers,
Tim

I did indeed, but it was a last-minute swap for the Summit. I originally subbed Apollo for Amarillo, Summit for Simcoe. I don't know why, probably just whatever I remember from a chart somewhere. I did 5 grams of Apollo @ FWH and 60 mins (20.1% aa), 11 grams of Summit @ 20 mins (17%) and 15 grams of Cascade @ 5 mins. Still thinking about how to dry hop. Even adjusting down for aa's I probably ended with 85 IBUs or so. It might be a bitter red, but we shall see.

If that looks bad, don't tell me. I was shooting from the hip. :) I'm still planning a full 8 gallon batch in the future, but I'll order the right hops in advance next time.
 
Looks good. The malt tends to stand up well to whatever you throw at it. I have never used Apollo or Summit, but I have had an all Summit IPA and it was great. I might dry hop with Summit and Cascade?

2012 Hop Harvest is just around the corner, so Simcoe and Amarillo should show up some time in October. BC hop farm here in the valley are beginning harvest on 8/22 and say it will be a good year for hops.
 
I brewed a 5 gallon batch of this a couple months back w/ Magnum for bittering and 2 oz of Falconer's Flight (or was it Falconer's 7C's?) addded evenly over the final 15 minutes, and another oz keg-hop (I only had 3 ozs on hand). I used the original recipe/grainbill that's heavier in crystal.

It's good but I would call it more of a West Coast "Amber" than an IPA. Not sure if the Falconer's hops just aren't as strong as I planned (1st time using them), or if 15 minutes was too early and I should have started the additions later, or if the grainbill just needs even more hops to cut through the malt. Maybe all the above.

But it's still a nice beer, not as in your face hoppy as I thought, but it's tasty and definitely different than anything I've brewed before.

I'll definitely be trying again, maybe toning down the crystal a tad like you have done, and look forward to throwing some Simcoe and Amarillo at it next time. I've got a good amount of both stashed away in the freezer and I love all DFH beers with that combo so I'm looking forward to brewing that one up sometime soon.
 
Thinking of brewing this with:

1 oz Centennial 60 min
1 oz Amarillo 30 min
1 oz Summit 5 min

Thoughts?

I have never used Summit, but I have used Amarillo at 5 min or FO on a lot of IPAs and that is always a good choice. However, if you are willing to be the Summit guinea pig, please report your results!
 
DustBow, I think if you do as mentioned; and bring the crystal down a bit you will find the hops shining through a bit more. I have also tried decreasing the munich to 3 lbs and the upping the 2 row to 8.5 lbs, and that made the hops pop a bit more too. Glad it turned out OK and you are trying another iteration.
 
I have never used Summit, but I have used Amarillo at 5 min or FO on a lot of IPAs and that is always a good choice. However, if you are willing to be the Summit guinea pig, please report your results!

After reading a bit I might add the Summit at FO because it sounds like they add quite a bit of onion flavor if you put them in any sooner. Might push the Amarillo closer to FO as well. I'll hopefully be able to dry hop with some cascade from my hop harvest.
 
Hope it comes out:)

Don't push it into a decision, just let it decide what kind of beer it is on its own. ;)

I just snuck a test of mine that's been going for almost 2 weeks, it seems to be coming along nicely. Gonna dry hop it mid-week and bottle next week.
 
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