NEIPA - Trying to achieve perfection

[BugAC]

I’ve been on a quest to make the perfect NEIPA. My last attempt was my best by far but I think there is more progress to be made. I’ve been thinking of some of the tools to make an NEIPA what it is. All of the tools combined generally gives you a good NEIPA, but I’ve been wondering how the beer changes by reducing, changing,or eliminating some of the standard practices.

1) yeast selection - how much does yeast selection impact the profile of the beer. IMO, yeast is what drives the character of the beer. Those less flocculent strands tend to be more fruity. But I’m wondering, if the less floculent strands mask some of the hop aromas. This would be difficult to prove and a less floculent strand is the essence of the NEIPA when you add your bio trans hops, seeing as the hop oils attach themselves to the yeast cells. And prevent some of those cells from dropping out of suspension. However, I’m wondering if the bio trans addition is enough to keep the hop oils in suspension in a more floculent strain, but still clear out some of the cells that are not “coated” by the hop oils.
2) bio trans addition and late hopping - I believe this step is 100% vital to brewing a NEIPA and couldn’t see altering this process. The only question I have here is the law of diminishing returns.
3) Oats/Wheat, etc... in grain bill - I’ve already messed with percentages of “mouthfeel” grains in the grist and so far, have found these amounts could easily be reduced and possibly improve the beer. I’ve gone from 14% if the grist to down to 7/8% in this last batch and the results appear to be great.
4) Brew salts - I’ve also been messing with the chloride to sulfate ratio and have found the beer much more pleasant with a more neutral water profile in terms of salts as opposed to the heavy mouthfeel profile. May further “dry out” the beer in terms of brew salts and make it a touch more to the side of an IPA profile, but a balanced profile seems to be great right now.
5) Lactose - I’ve not made an ipa with lactose or a “milkshake” IPA, but it is my belief that lactose mutes the hop aroma and is not something I’ll put in an NEIPA.
6) Base Grain Profile - Not sure how much impact this has, but I really enjoyed using Golden Promise in my grain profile as opposed to Vienna.

Here was my recipe for my last NEIPA for reference.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.04 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.29 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 6.15 gal
Estimated OG: 1.066 SG
Estimated Color: 4.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 44.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU

WATER (Baton Rouge Water Base)

5.84 gal NE IPA (Lower Chloride Level) Water 1 -
4.31 gal NE IPA (Lower Chloride Level) Water 2 -
5.77 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
4.25 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 4 -
3.18 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 5 -
2.35 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 6 -

GRAINS

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 64.5 %
4 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcet Grain 8 27.4 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9 4.8 %
8.0 oz Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 10 3.2 %

HOPS

1.25 oz Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 11 44.7 IBUs
1.50 oz Azacca [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Galaxy [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Citra [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 m Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

YEAST

1.0 pkg Chardonnay (Bootleg Biology #BB99301A) Yeast 15 -

BIO-TRANS HOPS

1.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Azacca [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

DRY HOPS

2.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
2.18 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Azacca [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 21 0.0 IBUs

 

[stickyfinger]

1) yeast selection - how much does yeast selection impact the profile of the beer. IMO, yeast is what drives the character of the beer. Those less flocculent strands tend to be more fruity. But I’m wondering, if the less floculent strands mask some of the hop aromas. This would be difficult to prove and a less floculent strand is the essence of the NEIPA when you add your bio trans hops, seeing as the hop oils attach themselves to the yeast cells. And prevent some of those cells from dropping out of suspension. However, I’m wondering if the bio trans addition is enough to keep the hop oils in suspension in a more floculent strain, but still clear out some of the cells that are not “coated” by the hop oils.

lots of room to play around here i think. i've most enjoyed WLP095, GigaYeast Conan and WY1318 I think.

2) bio trans addition and late hopping - I believe this step is 100% vital to brewing a NEIPA and couldn’t see altering this process. The only question I have here is the law of diminishing returns.

you might try using just one addition sometime during the primary fermentation. i last used one dryhop at 48hrs from pitching, and it seemed to work well. i don't know on the amounts. i've gone up to 1 lb in a 5.5G batch for the dryhop. I've kind of settled on 1-1.5oz/gal, and it seems to give a lot of hop flavor without too much astringency.

3) Oats/Wheat, etc... in grain bill - I’ve already messed with percentages of “mouthfeel” grains in the grist and so far, have found these amounts could easily be reduced and possibly improve the beer. I’ve gone from 14% if the grist to down to 7/8% in this last batch and the results appear to be great.

i don't think any flaked adjuncts are necessary at all personally. i've never really been able to taste any difference adding them. i am going to try oat malt next time. i think that might change the flavor to be more like oats. i usually just use base malt and a little crystal/honey malt or just base malt. never had any impact from carapils or flaked grains that i could taste.

4) Brew salts - I’ve also been messing with the chloride to sulfate ratio and have found the beer much more pleasant with a more neutral water profile in terms of salts as opposed to the heavy mouthfeel profile. May further “dry out” the beer in terms of brew salts and make it a touch more to the side of an IPA profile, but a balanced profile seems to be great right now.

i think this is also pretty variable. i've made great ones that had my low salt tap water all the way up to 150ppm of added sulfate and/or chloride. They all taste good. Sulfate does tend to dry out the beer more to my taste, so i try not to go too high with that anymore.

6) Base Grain Profile - Not sure how much impact this has, but I really enjoyed using Golden Promise in my grain profile as opposed to Vienna.

lots of room here again. pale malt, english malts, pils. they all make great beers.

GRAINS

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 64.5 %
4 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcet Grain 8 27.4 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9 4.8 %
8.0 oz Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 10 3.2 %

try dumping the flaked oats and carafoam and playing with the base malts maybe?

HOPS

1.25 oz Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 11 44.7 IBUs
1.50 oz Azacca [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Galaxy [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Citra [0.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 40.0 m Hop 14 0.0 IBUs


BIO-TRANS HOPS

1.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Azacca [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

DRY HOPS

2.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
2.18 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Azacca [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 21 0.0 IBUs

you could try just dumping in one load of hops during fermentation. many find this to work well. i have noticed though that if i add dryhops and then let them sit in the beer for only a day or two before racking, they do tend to have a different/danker flavor that i am not as much of a fan of. my friend loves that flavor though. it's up to your own sense of taste on that. my favorite hop combo is from Brau's thread - citra-mosaic-galaxy.