All Centennial IPA

So I just tapped my all Columbus IPA which I made with pellets and locally grown cone hops. While it is tasty, I think the all columbia hops is a little to grassy and earthy for my tastes. I want to make an all Centennial IPA next. I made an extract version a few years ago, but back then I used 1lb of crystal 40 and while it was hoppy, it was just too sweet. This is the all grain version I came up with. Let me know what you think.


Mash @ 150

12lbs 2-Row
3.5lbs Munich

1oz @ 60
1oz@ 15
1oz @ 10
2oz @ 5
2oz @ 2

2oz Dry Hop (5 days)

Yeast: White Labs WP001 Slurry pitched from Columbus IPA batch

Calculated:
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.010

ABV: 7.2% abv
IBU's: 67

Thanks,

Joe

The c-40 would have made it very similar to many of the Two-Hearted Clones I've seen floating around. Your recipe should be a good starting place, maybe to see how the hop schedule works for your bitterness and aroma preferences and tweak from there.

I am planning on doing a number of single hop IPAs myself, partly to use up a bunch of hops in the freezer, but also to familiarize myself more with the nuances that certain varieties impart. I will keep the grain bill the same for each recipe so the main variable is the hop.

The golden light LME I used could of caused the weirdness in the first IPA I made. I had no idea the age of the extract.

I like single hop beers. I really does teach you the nuances of different hop varieties.

Food for thought, you might want to switch to small batch brewing while you explore SMASH style brewing. Yes, it is a great lesson on what hops can do (and yeast, and malts) but my reasoning for down scaling your experimental beers is that it's a much cheaper drain pour if you don't like the results.

I think you chose a good hop to do a "solo-hop" beer with, but I'm not sure about your addition times. Your 1 ounce for bittering, in my opinion, is just right. There are too many IPAs that cross the bitter-to-flavor barrier. What I'm not sure about is the massive additions at the end...but no flavor additions in-between. Maybe a 2 ounce addition at 30 minutes, and only an ounce addition at 10, 5, and 2 (though - since I'm not a crazy hop-head - I might omit the 2 minute addition).

Godspeed! Happy Home brewing!

Looks tasty! Maybe one more ounce in the dry hop? It does look like Two Hearted Ale and I envy your keg setup for this one. I've probably had a hundred bottles of Two Hearted, but a really, really fresh draft pour just explodes with Centennial and is considerably different from the experience you get with a bottle that's been on the shelf a while.

Just finished off a batch that is similar to this. Everyone loved it. I like the hop schedule, very similar to mine and will definitely showcase the hop. I am now doing something similar with NZ hops. My Motueka pale ale is just finishing fermenting and I will do a nelson next week.

I love Centennial in combination, but the few all Centennial IPAs I've brewed have been disappointing. FWIW my general feeling these days is minimum 2 types of hops makes for a better IPA. Centennial and Simcoe, Columbus and Summit with a touch of Citra, Amarillo + Simcoe + Centennial is my absolute favorite combination.

FWIW and YMMV and WTF etc...

Steve da sleeve

aiptasia said:

Food for thought, you might want to switch to small batch brewing while you explore SMASH style brewing. Yes, it is a great lesson on what hops can do (and yeast, and malts) but my reasoning for down scaling your experimental beers is that it's a much cheaper drain pour if you don't like the results.

Click to expand...

I agree on the small scale mentality, however it is just a few pounds of grain to scale up to a full 5 gallon batch, with time investment being pretty much equal. I am OK with spending an extra $5 to end up with double the finished beer.

That being said, I am starting with hop varieties that I am pretty sure will turn out well (Simcoe, Amarillo, etc). I would probably do a 2.5gal batch with the Calypso I have based on the reviews I've read.

I just tapped this the other night. While it us decent, it's not very "centennial." Doesn't have the same hop flavor I remember from a all centennial batch. Kind of makes me wonder if I got the right hops. Also, it is rather bitter for a calculated ibu of 67.

FWIW, the only change I made to the recipe posted above was all hop additions other than the dry hop were 1 oz.

Any feedback?

I just made an IPA using centennial, it's still in primary. I based the malt bill off Pliny the Elder, but I didn't add the corn sugar. It was:

12 lbs 2 Row
.5 lb Crystal 40
.5 lb Carapils

JoeSpartaNJ said:

I just tapped this the other night. While it us decent, it's not very "centennial." Doesn't have the same hop flavor I remember from a all centennial batch. Kind of makes me wonder if I got the right hops. Also, it is rather bitter for a calculated ibu of 67.

FWIW, the only change I made to the recipe posted above was all hop additions other than the dry hop were 1 oz.

Any feedback?

Click to expand...

I've done a few beers using Centennial for Bittering and I always find it to be a really harsh bittering hop. Not sure why but that is how it always comes across for me. It's great later in the boil and as a DH though.

I highly recommend brewing an all centennial IPA. My favorite is Bells Two Hearted Ale. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/1093

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/bells-two-hearted-ale-clone-close-they-come-91488/

I've brewed it but used 2 oz dry hop and it tasted amazing. Very close to Bell's

I love bells two hearted and it was the inspiration behind this. Not a clone, but wanted to come close. I have brewed an all centennial before, but the hop profile was totally different, while the hop bill was almost identical.

Where did you get your hops from? Your first batch was local, whole cone... Does that mean home-grown? I think hop harvesting is a lot harder than most people think. If you don't pick or dry it just right it can end up grassy, herbal.

No, the all Columbus was locally grown. The centennial hops were purchased at the LHBS. Pellets. Measured from a hops union bag

I just finished this keg last night and I am bothered on how this turned out.

Given what listed above, the beer had a spicy/over bitter off flavor and I have been trying to figure it out for over a month.

The only things I can think of are that the flavor was effected by my repitching of I wp001 slurry from previous all Columbus batch, and might have over pitched as fermentation did not take off and I pitched another vial of the wp001.

I also mashed on the low end and did not use any crystal malt at all a maybe this was a little to dry to match the 70ish IBUs.

Anyone have ideas?


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I personally would have had a little bit of Crystal and some CaraPils in there if it were me. Also if it finished too dry you could not only try mashing at a higher temp, but you could try mashing for a shorter time period as well.

You might be able to smooth out the bitterness a bit by first-wort-hopping your bittering addition.

I know Stone IPA is mostly Centennial hops, so I know Centennial IPAs can turn out tasty. If you want to stick with it just keep tweaking the recipe and you'll get it dialed in.

13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 94.1 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
5.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.3 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 31.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 5 12.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 7.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days