Non-citrus DIPA

I fell in love with Pliny the Elder on a recent visit to California. What struck me was how "light" the beer is - both in color and sweetness, in complete contrast to traditional ideas of balance - and yet the result doesn't seem one dimensional or off balance, but just tastes right. I've been wanting to brew something similar for awhile. I've recently been on a more traditional British kick, the universal citrus-y cascade/amarillo/etc. profile which I used to love has just been so overdone that I'm sick of it. I think I'm not alone, Pliny and many other beers seem to have moved towards the pine end of things, with Simcoe the new hop of choice. I quite like these beers, but I don't have that style of hop on hand (and didn't find them in my last trip to the LHBS). So I've been trying to come up with a DIPA with a similar style - little or no caramel/crystal, low FG, light color, etc. but using more traditional hops (and perhaps an English yeast instead of the ever-present 1056/001/s05). In another thread I asked about a good substitute from Simcoe in a Pliny clone without anything that really sounds promising, so I'm coming back to trying something more radical.

In short: Does anyone have a good recipe for a non-American style DIPA that isn't too sweet? I worry that just copying the American versions but with, say, British hops and yeast will lead to a beer that tastes like perfume and where the hops and yeast esthers are in conflict. Are there any commercial or homebrew examples of anything successful along these lines?

There are a lot of breweries around here using English yeasts with very hoppy IPA's and such. I really enjoy the fruity esters in combination with citrusy or piney aroma hops. So brewers are doing what you are after, though I don't think you're going to find much of my local brews around Chicago.

Try Columbus or Palisade. Both are very powerful aroma hops and don't smack you with grapefruit. Columbus is piney and dank while Palisade is like flowers. Be careful with Columbus though, I find its perceived bitterness is higher than the IBU's. If I wanted to substitute simcoe I might try a mix of columbus and summit. As for the yeast, go with a bigger attenuator like Burton WLP023 or maybe WLP007.

jmo88 said:

There are a lot of breweries around here using English yeasts with very hoppy IPA's and such. I really enjoy the fruity esters in combination with citrusy or piney aroma hops. So brewers are doing what you are after, though I don't think you're going to find much of my local brews around Chicago.

Try Columbus or Palisade. Both are very powerful aroma hops and don't smack you with grapefruit. Columbus is piney and dank while Palisade is like flowers. Be careful with Columbus though, I find its perceived bitterness is higher than the IBU's. If I wanted to substitute simcoe I might try a mix of columbus and summit. As for the yeast, go with a bigger attenuator like Burton WLP023 or maybe WLP007.

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I've got a bunch of Columbus on hand, but will just one hop be too simple? I also have Willamette, Tettnanger, EKG, Magnum, and Saaz (as well as some more "American" varieties) but I'm not sure if any of those will complement Columbus well. As for yeasts, I have a big slurry of Wyeast 1028 I was hoping to use - does that sound reasonable? I also have Denny's 1450 on hand if that'd be better.

If you're more into the British side of things why not look at an old style British IPA? From my reading it seems as if the first known ones had fairly high gravity and relied on very high hopping rates, a long maturation (which settled out some of the bittering to a more rounded finish) then dry hopped for travel/preservation.

Obviously you can make it as strong or as hoppy as you like but pale hoppy beers like Young's Special London are very tasty. You could up the proportions of everything to increase the IBU and dry hopping amounts. ABV is already around 6.5 but you could push that if need be. Fuggles, EKG and target, dry hopped with ekg and target. Marris Otter and crystal malt. Target does have a citrus characteristic but it's more subtle than most c-hops.

BTW - not suggesting young's is an IPA, just that british malt and hops could be used to good effect.