Falling out of love with IIPA's

I've been on the IPA train for some time now and have learned so much about use of hops, which hops I love the most– both blended and single hopped– and they have taught me now that I don't love the malt flavors in big ales that I once did.

Maybe there are no yeasts that can fully attenuate these big brews, or maybe there simply is no way to avoid the sweet taste of a high gravity ale, regardless of bittering and dry hopping because of the size of the grain bill, but I know I'm losing interest in the Double IPA.

I'm experimenting with single grain IPAs now to land in the 7% ABV area, no sweetness and a medium to dry mouth feel.

Maybe it's the big brewers that are just doing it wrong. I'm going to figure it out one day.

R.I.P. IIPA


/Will always still be figuring it out/

Once upon a time I went through a similar phase. I took a break for a while and when I came back to them, I found that I actually enjoyed the big malt flavors juxtaposed against the big hop character. If you want a IIPA that doesn't go so big on the malt, try Sixpoint Resin. It's a very dry finishing IIPA. As far as brewing them goes, you're on the right track. Base malt only or just a tiny bit of character malt, low mash temp, and maybe a longer mash... 90 min should do the trick. Longer mashes have been associated with a more fermentable wort.

Excellent. Thanks for the helpful reply. I've been at low temps lately and getting into water chemistry more. I'll have to try a 90.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

Speaking of water chemistry... try making your chloride to sulfate ratio < .77 (according to EZ Water Calculator) and total sulfates over 150 ppm or so. It's been working for me for getting the hop character to pop and bitterness to be accentuated which increases the perception of dryness.

I'm not understanding what you're saying. it sounds somewhat similar to "I don't like Belgians.", and I refuse to comprehend such a thing. kinda like jumbo shrimp.

Time to move on to Gose. My sources tell me that they're the new craze.

I've started to make what I call 'Session IPAs'. OG about 1.045, low amount of crystal, mash low, add ~10% sugar, end about 1.006 (~5% abv). With IPA hop schedule and big dry hop ------ Love it, and I can drink more!

Session IPAs are huge now but they can be tricky to brew... Or at least form a recipe. I've found you don't want to go much below 1.050 or there's just not enough base malt to stand up to the bitterness of an IPA. You can still brew a crazy hoppy pale ale but low gravity and high ibus just don't go together. Maybe if a large portion of your IPA was specialty grain?

I do a lot of beers that are either session IPAs or very hoppy pale ales. I have been doing a lot of SMaSH brews, no crystal malt or anything like that. Mashed low they can be super dry and crisp, mashed high they can be sweet and delicious. It's definitely changed the grist on my IPA type brews, making me lean on the base malt and mash temps rather than big crystal additions.

All you have to do is try Hill Farmstead's Abner and you'll fall in love all over again

Billy-Klubb said:

I'm not understanding what you're saying. it sounds somewhat similar to "I don't like Belgians.", and I refuse to comprehend such a thing. kinda like jumbo shrimp.

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I think I'm saying sweet beer sucks, hop bitterness and citrus aromas are awesome and possibly I need to experiment with Belgian and champagne yeasts.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

Bamsdealer said:

Session IPAs are huge now but they can be tricky to brew... Or at least form a recipe. I've found you don't want to go much below 1.050 or there's just not enough base malt to stand up to the bitterness of an IPA. You can still brew a crazy hoppy pale ale but low gravity and high ibus just don't go together. Maybe if a large portion of your IPA was specialty grain?

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You definitely have to learn to achieve your needed mash efficiency using your gear. Your calculators will tell you what it (should) be, but it's your job to make it happen. IBUs can swing real far in the "undesirable" category of bitterness if you're not getting the needed gravity for balance in a session or SMaSH, no doubt. I have one in the cooler now, fermenting, that I'm a little nervous about.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

typebrad said:

You definitely have to learn to achieve your needed mash efficiency using your gear. Your calculators will tell you what it (should) be, but it's your job to make it happen. IBUs can swing real far in the "undesirable" category of bitterness if you're not getting the needed gravity for balance in a session or SMaSH, no doubt. I have one in the cooler now, fermenting, that I'm a little nervous about.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

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Absolutely. I've found I enjoy all the bitterness I can get in anything over about 7% but bitterness can quickly turn undesirable if there's no malt to lean on. Another thing that can play a role is water. My water is really hard and I can get some harshness in certain very light brews. Mix in a lot of hops and it can go south quickly

Bamsdealer said:

Absolutely. I've found I enjoy all the bitterness I can get in anything over about 7% but bitterness can quickly turn undesirable if there's no malt to lean on. Another thing that can play a role is water. My water is really hard and I can get some harshness in certain very light brews. Mix in a lot of hops and it can go south quickly

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I live in a suburb of a fairly large city but couldn't find water reports for the suburb I live in so I was doing all of my water chemistry based on the nearby city reports (which has amazing water btw). After months of emailing city departments, someone finally replied to tell me we had a full point higher pH in our water out in the suburbs.

typebrad said:

I think I'm saying "Jumbo Shrimp"


/Will always still be figuring it out/

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you're still not making any sense.

After attempting to write off Doubles in this thread, I have to confess my love for Green Flash's West Coast IPA. Finishes very nice.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

Billy-Klubb said:

you're still not making any sense.

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I have no clue what you're talking about, or if you're serious. Troll, or just stupid?


/Will always still be figuring it out/

typebrad said:

I now know what you're talking about. You are a mad genius, yo.

/Will always still be figuring it out/

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thank you for noticing.

I live in Memphis and judging from the Dead Elvis tattoo as your avatar , I know a tool bag is operating your account. Cool people don't have Elvis tattoos. Love, Memphis


/Will always still be figuring it out/

I'd say just take a break and come back to them later. I find that if I drink IIPAs and nothing else for a while, all other beers kinda taste empty, which isn't a good thing because I love a solid Blonde Ale, Pale Ale, Kolsch, (insert any light bodied, moderately hopped ale you want). That being said, if I could only drink one beer for the rest of my life, it would be the IIPA. Not to be a pretentious beer snob, but like 75% (that's a guess) of the most epic beers produced right now fall under that style.

KendallAdkins said:

I'd say just take a break and come back to them later. I find that if I drink IIPAs and nothing else for a while, all other beers kinda taste empty, which isn't a good thing because I love a solid Blonde Ale, Pale Ale, Kolsch, (insert any light bodied, moderately hopped ale you want). That being said, if I could only drink one beer for the rest of my life, it would be the IIPA. Not to be a pretentious beer snob, but like 75% (that's a guess) of the most epic beers produced right now fall under that style.

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I love a good pale ale, and finally brew my favorite. And there are dozens of IIPAs out there I'm sure I would love. Being in a small craft beer market, I just drink as many as I can when I travel. My options here are limited at best.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

typebrad said:

I live in Memphis and judging from the Dead Elvis tattoo as your avatar , I know a tool bag is operating your account. Cool people don't have Elvis tattoos. Love, Memphis


/Will always still be figuring it out/

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you're fun. and that ain't Elvis. I'm sorry you live in Memphis. I tend to agree with Hank III on the subject of Memphis, TN in regards to music.

threads like this one pop up quite frequently. especially about Belgian styles. I like to use sarcasm to give some light ribbing. I would say that I'm sorry that you can't recognize and/or handle it, but I'm not. you could just get a little chuckle from the original comment, or continue to ruffle your feathers. you'll have to forgive some of us (there is quite a few) for our sarcastic comments, but it is mostly good natured and meant to be taken as humor. have a good day, Captain Crunch and my the Force be with you.

typebrad said:

I live in Memphis and judging from the Dead Elvis tattoo as your avatar , I know a tool bag is operating your account. Cool people don't have Elvis tattoos. Love, Memphis


/Will always still be figuring it out/

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Cool people don't have Elvis tattoos... ? That is like saying you're not a brewer unless you have a beard... please do not group people together.

/Learn proper English grammar please/

Try stone, unapologetic IIPA... and be less of a ******... and by less of a ******, I mean do not be a used ****** nozzle...

Billy-Klubb said:

you're fun. and that ain't Elvis. I'm sorry you live in Memphis. I tend to agree with Hank III on the subject of Memphis, TN in regards to music.



threads like this one pop up quite frequently. especially about Belgian styles. I like to use sarcasm to give some light ribbing. I would say that I'm sorry that you can't recognize and/or handle it, but I'm not. you could just get a little chuckle from the original comment, or continue to ruffle your feathers. you'll have to forgive some of us (there is quite a few) for our sarcastic comments, but it is mostly good natured and meant to be taken as humor. have a good day, Captain Crunch and my the Force be with you.

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I'm sorry I live in Memphis, too. A curse I was born with. I can take the ribbing, just had to check out what I was dealing with seeing as how I don't know you or anything about jumbo shrimp. I'm chill.


/Will always still be figuring it out/

Rivenin said:

/Learn proper English grammar please/



Try stone, unapologetic IIPA... and be less of a ******... and by less of a ******, I mean do not be a used ****** nozzle...

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You're on the internet, and in a brewer's forum. If a line of not-perfectly-written prose is going to piss you off so badly, you need more than a beer. Try anti-psychotics to start.




/Will always still be figuring it out/

Bwahahaha, you're a fun one!