Scorpion IPA

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aiptasia

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
3,472
Reaction score
536
Location
Them Scary Woods
Recipe Type
Extract
Yeast
Safale S05
Yeast Starter
2 ml
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.060
Final Gravity
1.010
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
50.3
Color
5.8 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
17 @ 60f
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7 @ 70f
Tasting Notes
Good aroma, assertive citrus with floral notes, medium bodied with plenty of warmth.
I brewed this one based on Sculpin extract recipes here at HBT. Since I used a few different techniques and ingredients typically found in these recipes, I felt it warranted it's own recipe thread. It's a delicious hot pepper version of an IPA that you can dial in to your own heat level so you can avoid over or under peppering your IPA. Enjoy it, it's great!

Recipe: Scorpion IPA
Style: American IPA
TYPE: Extract with Specialty Grain Steep
Taste: (will revise after upcoming BJCP comps)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.25 gal (E-BIAB)
Post Boil Volume: 5.00 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 5.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 50.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.00 gal Jacksonville, FL Water 1 -
2.00 gal Distilled Water Water 2 -
4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.7 %
5 lbs 1.0 oz DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 74.3 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz DME Sparkling Amber (Briess) (10.5 SRM) Dry Extract 5 22.0 %
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 12.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 13.9 IBUs
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop 8 6.5 IBUs
0.25 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 3.9 IBUs
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10 6.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 11 3.1 IBUs
0.25 oz Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 12 1.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 13 -
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 14 1.8 IBUs
0.25 oz Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 15 0.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 16 0.7 IBUs
2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 17 -
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Hop Steep 45 mins Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Hop Steep 45 mins Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
2.25 oz Scorpion Pepper Extract (Bottling 0.0 da Spice 20 -

Notes:
------

Give the small amount of cara-pils a 45 minute steep @ 155f prior to boil. I know, no base malt to mash the cara-pils but that's ok. It's there simply for flavor and adding a little body and head retention. Some recipes call for flaked corn but the cara-pils works great.

Instead of doing a dry hop found in many Sculpin clone recipes, I just added all the dry hops at flame out and let them steep for 45 minutes before the ice bath. Let your wort temps fall to 170f during hops steep and hold there until 45 minutes is complete. This eliminates the need for a dry hop and you'll have wort with wonderful flavor and aroma.


Scorpion Pepper Extract:

Warning: Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Peppers are currently the hottest pepper on the planet. These peppers are hot, and that's no joke. Some eclipse over 2,000,000 scoville heat units and can be very dangerous to handle. Do not use bare hands when working with them. Wear protective eyewear and food prep gloves to avoid getting any pepper oil on anything crucial. Wash your hands thoroughly immediately after working with these peppers. Adding these peppers or an extract of these peppers to beer can cause adverse reactions, gastric distress, profuse discomfort, pain and even earn you a trip to the emergency room. Use common sense and keep out of reach of pets, children or people of weak constitution.

After some HBT advice, I decided to make a hot pepper extract instead of the "dump and pray" method of adding peppers to the beer in a secondary. My choice to do this was reinforced when I watched a local award winning brew pub put two kegs worth of it's premium beers on close to a pound of Bhut Jolokia pepper pods for seven days. The consensus of my friends that tried these beers was that each beer was way too hot to be drinkable. Since I wanted to create an enjoyable beer and really didn't want to re-create the liquid mace of the brew pub, I decided to follow some tips from a friend here at HBT and do a pepper extract using grain alcohol. The capscacin in peppers is very alcohol soluble, so you can extract the heat and a little of the flavor from the peppers using grain alcohol.

Make your extract at least 48 hours before your bottling day. Use Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Peppers, whole dried pods split open with a knife. Add one large pepper to 4 oz everclear (150 proof) in 4 oz. sanitized jelly jar. Allow to sit for 48 hours, shaking often. Remove pods/seeds after 48 hours to avoid bittering the extract.

Now you have your pepper extract. Since the scoville heat units can vary from pepper to pepper on the same plant, it's best to taste test the strength of your pepper extract. This step is crucial and you must be careful! I used my friends from a local bottle share as guinea pigs for testing the heat of the extract. Here's how to do this:

Purchase a clean, new eye dropper from a drug store. Pour a four ounce cup of original sculpin and add one drop of pepper extract to it. Taste it for heat level. If not enough heat, pour a fresh 4 ounce sample of beer and add a few more drops of pepper extract to it. Take notes on how many drops are added to each sample 4 ounce beer. Record results until you come to an acceptable heat level. For my first batch, this was about seven drops for a four ounce pour. That scales up to 21 drops for a 12 ounce bottle/serving or approximately 1 ML per 12 oz. bottle. Your mileage may vary.

Scale your pepper extract to your beer and add the pepper extract to each bottle or just add all of the extract to the bottling bucket with your priming sugar addition. I used five ounces of dextrose in two cups of water boiled for ten minutes and added the drops manually to each bottle.
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View attachment Scorpion IPA.xml
 
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