Organic IPA Recipe

Has anyone tried the following kit/recipe from Northern Brewing. I am looking into doing an IPA and thought it would be kind of fun to have an organic brew.

Organic IPA Extract Kit
O.G: 1063 / Ready: 2 months

A full-bodied and hoppy English-style IPA that strikes a balance between malty sweetness and hop bitterness. Organic caramel and base malts combined with a fruity, low-attenuating English yeast creates a hefty, rich body and respectable gravity, while additions of imported organic Admiral and Goldings hops bring pungent bitterness and floral aromatics to the glass. We suggest 2 months from brew day before cracking a bottle, but due to the high OG and hop rate, this beer will age well beyond that point if kept in a cool, dark spot. Includes organic priming sugar.

Kit Inventory

Specialty Grains
0.5 lbs. Briess Organic Caramel 60

Fermentables
6.3 lbs. Organic Light Malt Syrup
2 lbs. Organic Light Dry Malt Extract

Boil Additions
1 oz. Organic Admiral Hops (60 min)
1 oz. Organic Admiral Hops (30 min)
1 oz. Organic Goldings Hops (5 min)

Special Ingredients
1 oz. Organic Goldings Hops (dry hop)

Yeast
Wyeast #1968 London ESB Yeast. Highly flocculant top-fermenting strain with rich, malty character and balanced fruitiness. This strain is so flocculant that additional aeration and agitation is needed. An excellent strain for cask-conditioned ales. Flocculation: high. Apparent attenuation: 67-71%. Optimum temperature: 64-72.

I've not tried the kit in question, but it looks really tasty. I would definitely give it a shot.

You might have already found this site, but Seven Bridges is a great resource for a-la-carte organic supplies too. http://www.breworganic.com/

Actually I never saw that website, thanks.

EricS said:

Actually I never saw that website, thanks.

Click to expand...

No problem! I'm so happy I could help!

I've been thinking about trying an organic brew or two myself. Haven't ordered from 7 Bridges myself yet but hope to at some time.... right now I'm still in the "cost effectiveness" stage because I'm brewing very regularly (almost weekly) on a fairly thin budget.... But soon I will investigate the switch to organic, and it excites me that I think I will feel more proud of my beer when I do so. It is important to be conscious these days.

Still wondering if anyone has tried the recipe I have posted above for an IPA. How hoppy can I expect it to be?

Hard to say exactly, since it's extract - that is to say, if you do a late addition or a partial boil or something, that throws all the numbers out of whack. To make matters worse, since crops have been weird lately, AA% numbers are all over the place - by that, I mean that the same variety of Goldings could be a 4%, a 4.5%, a 5%, a 5.5%, or anywhere between.

But pretending you're on my 7.5 gal kettle doing a full boil, and pretending you're using 14.75%AA Admiral and 4.7% Goldings, then I get 88.8 IBU. Weird.

(Other numbers are 1.066 OG, 1.017 FG, 9.1 SRM, 6.4% abv, if you want any of them. This is calc'd using BeerSmith.)

I would guess that it would be pretty hoppy - but less so if you do a partial boil or a late addition. Not hoppy in that American IPA way, though - this will be a very different kind of hoppy. With 2 oz of Goldings in it, I would think it would be delicious.

Maybe someone here has tried it before, though, and can chime in.