wasabi ipa

So I was enjoying a glass of an IPA I made last night, munching on some wasabi peanuts. The wheels started turning and I now want to try my hand at a wasabi IPA. I already ordered a wasabi rhizome but I have no idea how I'm going to add it. Any thoughts?

I'd say shred it and soak it in vodka for a week or so. Then when your beer is done fermenting, take a measured amount of the beer and add your vodka tincture (strained first) dropwise until the beer has the amount of wasabi taste you're looking for. Then just do the math to scale up to a 5 gallon batch. Add the vodka tincture to your full batch at bottling/kegging time.

Absolutely agree with Reno_eNVy on this, don't screw up the whole batch by adding straight wasabi in the wrong proportions to the secondary. Try varying amounts of the tincture in a small measured sample of the beer to see which proportion works best. And if you happen to have some existing IPA (even commercial examples), just try a little wasabi paste mixed in to see if it's worth pursuing. I made a wasabi strong ale last year that was way hard to choke down, but it was mostly just an awkward blend of flavors, an IPA would probably hold up a little better against the wasabi profile.

Good luck

I would definately be interested in finding out how this idea plays out.

That sounds like a great idea. I'll give that a try. Thanks for the advice. I'll update with the good or bad verdict.

Man, I've been munching on a lot of wasabi peas lately and this sounds like an awesome idea. Why didn't I think of it. I'm gonna do as gypsyhead suggested and try to see how it taste like with a pale ale and different amounts of wasabi.

Game on??? I have some wasabi powder that was gift from a spice store and was not cheap. I like some sushi and wasabi peas but have had no real use for it at home. I even have some left over hops and grains I did not know what to do with. I will try to plan out a brew day for this next week. Great Idea BTW.

There's actually a sushi joint here in Rochester that has a local microbrew make them a wasabi pale. It's actually pretty good, if anything I would want more wasabi flavor, kick.

Good luck

OK, wasabi rhizome is ordered. In the mean time, I added a little wasabi puree to an IPA I made like gypsyhead suggested. The character of the IPA holds up nicely to the wasabi and vice versa. I like the bite it gives the beer. I think this will work out nicely. On another note, my wife just got home and popped open a Crispin Cider made with sake yeast...anyone try to brew beer with sake yeast?

Why not go all out and make a crazy hop bomb because then after the wasabi punch fades you still have the crazy hopness to follow which I think could be a cool give and take sort of thing. It wouldn't be a session beer though, that's for sure.