Aging an IIPA

I'm making my first IIPA on Tuesday. Without going into the recipe it should be around 8.2-8.4% and has 6 oz of simcoe, Citra, and Amarillo hops + 2 oz more in dry hopping.

For a 5 gallon batch, when should I expect to drink it? Should I bulk age in my carboy or just bottle after a month and age in bottles?

You'll probably get different responses then this, but I do lots and lots of IIPAs and I leave it on the yeast cake for 3 weeks minimum. If I can leave it a month even better. I dryhop in primary too. I have left one on the yeast cake as long as two months and it turned out awesome. Young IIPAs taste much harsher then their more mature cousins IMHO.

That said, bottle conditioning will only make it better. My IIPAs peak at 3 months usually (in the keg so YMMV).

jbaysurfer said:

You'll probably get different responses then this, but I do lots and lots of IIPAs and I leave it on the yeast cake for 3 weeks minimum. If I can leave it a month even better. I dryhop in primary too. I have left one on the yeast cake as long as two months and it turned out awesome. Young IIPAs taste much harsher then their more mature cousins IMHO.

That said, bottle conditioning will only make it better. My IIPAs peak at 3 months usually (in the keg so YMMV).

Click to expand...

+ 1. I leave mine in the primary for at least a month and dry hop after 3-4 weeks before transfer to kegs. I also agree that they peak out between 3-6 months.

Does 6 oz of hops sound about right? Hopville says 150 IBU's.

Rule of thumb: the more complex the grain bill, the longer you should age your beer.

If you plan on dry hopping, I wouldn't recommend bottle aging it as the aroma subsides with time. I usually bulk age my IIPAs, and dry hop the last week before transferring to bottles or kegs. The fresher the better when dry hopping.

brewski08 said:

Rule of thumb: the more complex the grain bill, the longer you should age your beer.

If you plan on dry hopping, I wouldn't recommend bottle aging it as the aroma subsides with time. I usually bulk age my IIPAs, and dry hop the last week before transferring to bottles or kegs. The fresher the better when dry hopping.

Click to expand...

Ah ha. So it has more to with the grains than the hops or ABV? Mine is mainly 2 row, some Maris Otter and then a small bit of 10L, carapils, and flaked and chocolate rye for some color.

At 8-9% ABV, it's a decent sized beer with some complexity in your grain bill (i'm assuming you're keeping all your specialty grains to <1.5 lb per specialty grain).

Eyeballing, I'd age it a month in bulk, dry hop it for 7-10 days, keg/bottle, and enjoy. I would put a six pack to the side so you can notice the effect time has on the hop aroma and overall taste of your beer. I've found bottle aging IIPAs causes your sweet unfermentables to overpower the hop flavor and bitterness.

brewski08 said:

At 8-9% ABV, it's a decent sized beer with some complexity in your grain bill (i'm assuming you're keeping all your specialty grains to <1.5 lb per specialty grain).

Eyeballing, I'd age it a month in bulk, dry hop it for 7-10 days, keg/bottle, and enjoy. I would put a six pack to the side so you can notice the effect time has on the hop aroma and overall taste of your beer. I've found bottle aging IIPAs causes your sweet unfermentables to overpower the hop flavor and bitterness.

Click to expand...

Yes sir. Except, Maris Otter is not a specialty grain, correct? I'm using 2 lbs of that.
10L - 6 oz
Carapils 6 oz
Flaked rye 5 oz
Choc rye 3 oz.

Sounds like 1 month in primary, dry hop for 1 more week, then bottle age for another month or 2. Not as long as I was thinking.

My single IPA was close to those timelines.

Does 6 oz of hops sound about right? Hopville says 150 IBU's.

Click to expand...

6 oz sounds right...but I think 150 IBUs is too much, you don't really taste anything over 100. Mine was about 79 IBUs and I think it was just right. I would shift some of the 60 min hop addition to 20 min or later to bump up the flavor and aroma and get the IBUs down to 80-90 or so. Mine used 7oz total hops including the dry hop and has very big hop flavor and aroma, only 39/79 IBUs came from the 60 min addition.

I've never made an IIPA or IPA with rye and/ or chocolate, but in the amounts you list that is not a very complex grain bill that needs to age. In my opinion, how long you age an IPA or IIPA depends upon whether you want hops in your face or something mellower. I like fresh IPAs/IIPAs. Why use a lot of hops if you are going to age the beer and let the hop aroma fade? I do about 3 weeks in the primary, dry hop in the same vessel for another week or seven days and then keg and drink it.

strambo said:

6 oz sounds right...but I think 150 IBUs is too much, you don't really taste anything over 100. Mine was about 79 IBUs and I think it was just right. I would shift some of the 60 min hop addition to 20 min or later to bump up the flavor and aroma and get the IBUs down to 80-90 or so. Mine used 7oz total hops including the dry hop and has very big hop flavor and aroma, only 39/79 IBUs came from the 60 min addition.

Click to expand...

Here's what I currently have as the hop schedule:



first wort 60+ mins 1.0 Summit pellet 17.6
boil 30 mins 1.0 Simcoe leaf 14.1
boil 20 mins 1.0 Simcoe leaf 14.1
boil 15 mins 1.0 Citra pellet 14.5
boil 10 mins 1.0 Simcoe leaf 14.1
boil 5 mins 1.0 Citra pellet 14.5

dry hop 7 days 1.0 Amarillo leaf 10.4
dry hop 7 days 1.0 Cascade pellet 6.8

I've got 6 oz in the wort and 2 more dry hop. I also have 1 oz already at 30, 20, 15, 10, and 5.

Should this change? I've got additional hops in the freezer.