Came across this yesterday. Great info on DIPA!
Brew a Double IPA! By Vinnie Cilurzo
My first Double IPA was called Inaugural Ale; it was
the first beer I ever brewed at Blind Pig Brewery in
Temecula, Calif. on June 23, 1994. We purchased some used
equipment from the Electric Dave Brewery in Bisbee, Ariz. The
7-barrel brewhouse was sound, but what was unique was the
fact that the fermenters were plastic. This didn’t bother me
much as I came into brewing professionally via homebrewing,
where fermenting in plastic was fairly common. What made
me more nervous was the fact that I had never brewed a batch
of beer commercially on my own, and, more importantly, I had
never brewed a batch of beer this large.
With all this in mind, I took the recipe for what was to be our
Blind Pig IPA, doubled the hops (literally) and raised the malt
bill by 30 percent or so. I figured that if there were any off
flavors in the Inaugural Ale, at least there would be enough
hops to help mask them. Thankfully, Inaugural Ale turned out
great and we made it a tradition on our anniversary to brew a
Double IPA.
Eventually both Rogue Ales and Stone Brewing brewed a
Double IPA in the ‘90s, but it wasn’t until 2001 when Vic and
Cynthia Kralj from The Bistro in beautiful downtown Hayward,
Calif. started one of the hoppiest beer festivals around, The
Bistro Double IPA Festival. That first fest had only 12 entries,
including my first batch of Pliny the Elder.
Building a Double IPA
To me, this is pretty simple: a Double IPA should not have a large
amount of crystal malt. After all, you are brewing a Double IPA,
not a barleywine. In my opinion, too much crystal malt mixed
with American hops is a train wreck of hop aroma and flavor. Now
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use some crystal malt; a little bit
will give you some color and body. A Double IPA needs to sit on
a good malt foundation, but it doesn’t need to be hampered with
too much crystal malt that will get in the way of a good, clean hop
character.
Obviously hops will be your primary concern when building a
Double IPA recipe. But before we talk hops, let’s talk malt and
yeast. In my opinion, the malt bill for a Double IPA should be
simple. It doesn’t need to be anything more than two-row malt,
Carapils (dextrin) malt, crystal malt, and possibly some acidulated
malt. Beyond that, I highly suggest you use some dextrose (corn
sugar) in the boil to help bump up the gravity. Not only will the
use of sugar help bring up the gravity of the wort, but because there
are simple sugars that the yeast can ferment straight through, you
will end up with a lighter bodied beer. This is of course purely up
to you; I personally like to drink a Double IPA that is light in body
thus allowing the hops to plow through the overall flavor profile of
the beer. If you like more body in your Double IPA, I would suggest
you replace all or some of the sugar with more two-row malt
to achieve an abv around 8 to 9 percent.
Yeast may not be the first thing you think
about when crafting a Double IPA, but
don’t let this decision fall by the wayside.
After all, the yeast is what brings together
all the flavors from all the ingredients
(including the yeast) in your beer. I personally
like California Ale Yeast/Chico Ale
Yeast to brew any and all IPAs. Stay away
from any yeast that will leave any diacetyl
in the final beer.
For hops, I like what would be considered
traditional hops in American style IPAs
and Double IPAs. Hops such as Amarillo
(apricots and peaches), Cascade (floral
and citrus), Centennial (fruity), Chinook
(peppery), CTZ (Columbus, Tomahawk,
Zeus–dank, onion, garlic, spice) and
Simcoe (pine) all make a beautiful Double
IPA. There is nothing like the aroma of
a beer using these hops. But these hop
aromas are fairly volatile, so don’t age
your Double IPA (or regular IPA). Drink
it fresh to realize the explosive hop aroma
and flavor.
Techniques for Brewing a Double IPA
Now that you’ve built your recipe, let’s
talk about a few techniques that I employ
in making Pliny the Elder that I think
will help you make a better Double IPA.
I prefer to mash at 151° F (152° F tops).
Keeping the mash temperature low will
not only yield more fermentables, but
you’ll get a lighter bodied beer that will
let the hops push through more. This is
of course also a personal preference; if
you want more body, raise your mash
temperature.
We ferment Pliny the Elder between 66
to 68° F; anything above this range might
yield diacetyl. The only thing worse than
a Double IPA with too much crystal malt
is one with diacetyl.
Dry hopping is obviously a must; consider
not only a single dry hop addition,
but a second dry hop addition. For Pliny
the Elder, we dry hop for 12 to 14 days.
Furthermore, we dry hop at somewhat of
a warmish temperature that starts at 60°
F. At the end of fermentation we drop the
temperature of the fermenter to 60° F for
two days. We remove as much yeast as
possible and add the hops through the
top of the tank. If you are transferring
your homebrew from a primary fermenter
to a secondary fermenter, be sure to add
your dry hops after the beer has been
transferred so the hops can settle out
through the beer.
We also turn off the glycol so the beer
won’t get any colder; in fact, the beer will
free rise in temperature several degrees
during the dry hopping. On a large scale
we need to be able to remove yeast for
future fermentations, this is why we drop
the temperature to 60° F. Previously we
would go down to 52° F, but we found
that we could get just as much yeast out
at 60° F and we gained 8 degrees, which
left us with even more aroma. As a homebrewer,
you can dry hop at your fermentation
temperature of 68° F and get even
more hop aroma.
With five to six days to go in the total
number of days of dry hopping, we add
a second dry hop addition through the
top of the fermenter. Once the second
dry hops are added we push the initial
dry hops (which are now in the cone of
the tank) back into suspension in the
fermenter. We do this with a CO2 push
through the base of the cone. As a homebrewer,
you can swirl your carboy or
bucket. With two days to go on the dry
hops, the beer is dropped to 32° F.
One final technique I want touch on is
the concept of purging the secondary
vessel, transfer tubing, kegs and bottles
with CO2. This is something that can be
applied to all beers you brew at home
and is a regular technique used in com-
mercial breweries. I emphasize this even
more with a Double IPA because hoppy
beers can oxidize so fast and anything
you can do to prevent oxidation will help
in the end.
Pliny the Younger
Once we had brewed Pliny the Elder
and we learned that Pliny the Elder had
a nephew (and adopted son) Pliny the
Younger, it was obvious that we had to
make an even hoppier beer named Pliny
the Younger. It may seem a simple decision
to bump the malt and sugar bill up
to raise the abv, which in turn would play
well with an increase in hops. But I actually
considered going the other direction.
I thought about going from 8 percent abv
(Pliny the Elder’s alcohol level) to 6 or 7
percent and raising the hop quantities.
The thinking here was that with a lower
abv, more hops would blast through the
mouthfeel as there would be less of a malt
foundation for the hops to sit on. This is
still something that I’d like to explore, but
in the end, we chose to take the abv up to
10.5-11 percent and significantly raise the
quantity of hops.
To make Pliny the Younger, we take our
Pliny the Elder recipe and add more two row
malt and dextrose sugar to bring
up the abv. We add in a good portion
of Amarillo hops, which Pliny the Elder
does not see. The Amarillo hops work
hand in hand with the Simcoe hops,
which is the signature hop in Pliny the
Elder. The choice of these hops is very
much by design, since these hops are
very fragrant and fruity. With the Simcoe
hops having a big pine-like aroma and
flavor and Amarillo having a big apricot
and peach character, these hops will help
mask some of the big alcohol flavors that
usually come through in a beer that is
high in abv.
Where the recipe is not so simple is in the
dry hop schedule. As I mentioned, Pliny
the Elder is dry hopped twice. This is a
technique that I really believe should be
a part of all Double IPA recipes. But with
Pliny the Younger, we dry hop four times.
The basis of a quadruple dry hop is not
just about adding more hops on top of
more hops. Often when dry hops are left
too long in your beer, you actually lose
some hop aroma. With this technique
of quadruple dry hopping, we make the
first dry hop addition and let it sit for
one week. We then remove the first dry
hops from the bottom of the tank via
the cone where the hops have settled
to. From there we will make the second
dry hop addition. These hops sit for one
week. At this point, we remove the second
dry hops from the cone of the tank.
A third and fourth addition of dry hops
are added following the same procedure.
Throughout this entire process the beer
is between 60 and 66° F. Only with two
days to go on the fourth and final dry hop
addition do we drop the temperature to
32° F where the beer is then fined, but
not filtered.
By making four dry hop additions, you
are not leaving the hops in contact with
the beer too long where hop aroma can
sometimes be lost. Obviously to employ
this technique you need to have a cone
bottom fermenter. But if you don’t have
one, you might want to consider transferring
your beer off the dry hops from one fermentation vessel to another and then
make your next hop addition. Don’t forget
to purge your secondary vessel, though.
What’s Next?
So now that we have talked about using
“traditional” IPA ingredients in an even
bigger version of a Double IPA, where
can you go from here? To begin with,
you could explore the idea of making a
super hoppy beer with a lower abv, such
as what I considered when I was formulating
the Pliny the Younger recipe. Oak
chips could also be used in a Double IPA.
In fact, when I was making the original
Blind Pig IPA and Double IPA at Blind
Pig Brewing, each and every batch had
an oak chip addition along with the dry
hops. We chose to go with American oak
chips as they had a harder edge and were
not as soft in flavor when compared to
French oak.
Another idea I’ve thought of exploring
is the use of non-traditional IPA hops.
Maybe instead of the usual suspects such
as Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, CTZ,
Amarillo or Simcoe, try something different
such as Sterling. Or dare I say, East
Kent Golding or Styrian Golding for an
English Double IPA.
To conclude, a simple malt bill with a
small crystal malt addition, a low mash
temperature, a sugar addition in the boil,
and a second dry hop addition are just
a few things you can do to make a great
Double IPA. I’ve shared my own opinions,
ideas and techniques that I employ
when making Pliny the Elder. In the end,
though, you need to make a beer that you
want to drink. After all, that’s what homebrewing
is all about!
