Pursuit of the perfect IPA

[GuitarGumption]

Cool thanks for the link.

 

[gwdraper4]

*Update*
Two weeks ago I cracked the first one of the brews and I have to say...wow! After 2 weeks of conditioning it was a fantastic beer, but still a little green...or as my wife said that is really "danky" I let it sit for another week in the fridge and this past weekend I opened another bottle and it was damn close to perfect for my tasted. The color was a medium straw due to the lack of any malts higher than 25L, mostly clear, and good 1-1.5 finger frothy white head. The nose was full of tropical fruit, pine, citrus, and a touch of that herbal/danky characteristic. It was not a faint aroma, it really came jumping out of the glass to the point where you could smell it as the beer was pouring into the glass...simply sublime. The taste was crisp and full of resiny hop flavor...it coated the mouth, but was not puckering or dry at all. The bitterness was very smooth and balanced well by a bready and ever so slighty sweet malt backbone with no caramel at all. To me and the few people that got to try it thought it was one of the best IPAs they have every had. Although some said it wasn't "perfect" because they liked a little more caramel character in their IPAs. But to me, this was exactly what I was going for, a light malt background to support a hefty hop flavor and aroma. As far as changes to the recipe to "tweak" it towards perfection...the only thing I might do is back off a little on the Amarillo in the dry hop and substitute in some more centennial, simcoe, or columbus. Regardless this is a great recipe to go off of, where you could add some caramel malt if you prefer that type of IPA or maybe some rye. If anyone tries this recipe or a variation of it please post and let me know what you did and how it turned out. Cheers ya'll!

 

[jessup]

Subscribed! Your base recipe looks like one of my favorites -
2row pale, crystal 40L, biscuit/victory, honey malt & loaded with hops. Next week i'll be trying this recipe with all NZ hops + citra & chinook. Rakau, monteuka, nelson sauvin, chinook & citra. Now this should be fragrant & hoppy

Fwiw I like calypso & am curious how that batch ends up. Keep us posted on results. A group brew with same base recipe & different single hops would be fun & educational. Hmmmm <gears turning>

 

[zachj9292]

You guys like dry ipas? I hear nathan smith talking about adding corn sugar in the boil to let it ferment out, but thats with double ipas.

What do you guys think about doing this with a 1060 og ipa eh?

My guess is that you have have to scale down on the bittering hops (BUT KEEP THE HOPS AFTER 30min THE SAME!!!) keep it chronic but a little more sessionable... know what im sayn

 

[tre9er]

I've used sugar for imperials and it get's really dry. Use it sparingly. S-05 will eat malt-sugar for a long time, especially if you control the temps at various stages of ferm. Mash lower if you want it drier. Say, 150.

 

[gwdraper4]

You guys like dry ipas? I hear nathan smith talking about adding corn sugar in the boil to let it ferment out, but thats with double ipas.

What do you guys think about doing this with a 1060 og ipa eh?

My guess is that you have have to scale down on the bittering hops (BUT KEEP THE HOPS AFTER 30min THE SAME!!!) keep it chronic but a little more sessionable... know what im sayn

I like dry IPAs, but not over-dry, I think balance is key. The one I brewed for this thread was a 1.061 IPA, I used Briess DME (comparable to a 152ish mash for fermentability) and it finished at 1.012. I would not want it any drier than that especially since I did not have hardly any specialty malts. If you had a good dose of crystal malts, than I can see using a little sugar to get it to 1.010, but beyond that I think it starts to get a little thin. To play a little Devil's Advocate here, if you look at the BYO recipe for New Belgium Ranger IPA, you'll see they use quite a bit of sugar in their recipe and I really like that beer, but I believe it finishes at 1.010. Knowing New Belgium's roots if you look at thier grain bill for that it almost looks like a lower ABV Tripel grain bill, but pale malt instead of pilsner...just my 2 cents.

 

[BEER_4_BREAKFAST]

And in the interest of actually contributing something to this thread I wanted to add this. I just brewed an IPA about a week ago with the following hop schedule;

1 oz - Tettnanger (AA 4.5), Type: Pellet, Use: First Wort
1 oz - Chinook (AA 11) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Cascade (AA 7) for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
0.5 oz - Citra (AA 13) for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Chinook (AA 11) for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Citra (AA 11) at flameout, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil


Although it's only been a week, the krausen just settled today so I took a hydrometer reading, and the 1oz or so of beer that I decided to taste was literally one of the best things to ever happen to my face. My mouth was so happy that the rest of my head got jealous.

After another week for the yeast to flocculate and some carbonation, I'm thinking I might have a good beer on my hands.

Any update?

 

[vrstud]

I am starting out on an adventure to craft and brew the perfect IPA. I know there is no such thing as perfection, but I want to get as close to it as I possibly can...at least for my tastes. So what can make the perfect IPA? For me, it has to be balanced, clean, crisp, and of course have great hop flavor and aroma. There are a number of fantastic commercial examples out there, so I will draw inspiration from them to make my perfect pint. To get to the perfect IPA I will have to no doubt try as many of those commercial examples as possible, but brew a freakin ton of IPAs. The best way I can think to do this is make a 12 pack at a time. This way I can brew a lot more often and have a solid rotation of beers to taste and examine along the way. I"ll start with a base recipe and modify the hops or malt 1 ingredient at a time to learn what each contributes to the beer. I'll probably also throw in some single hop beers to really nail down those profiles for my palate. Let the adventure begin!

Here is my first crack at an initial recipe...any thoughts or suggestions?
(this recipe is formulated for 6 gallons post-boil, which I will scale down to 1.5 gallons for the 12 pack batch)


Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 6 gallons Post-Boil
Anticipated OG: 1.061
Anticipated FG: 1.010-1.012
Anticipated SRM: 6.2
Anticipated IBU: 66
Fermentation: 10-14 days at 68º F

Grain/Extract/Sugars (% of total weight)
Briess DME - Golden Light (91.2%)
Biscuit Malt (25L) (5.9%)
Honey Malt (18L) (2.9%)

Hops AA% (Grams) Boil Time
Simcoe 13.0% 28 60 min.
Centennial 8.1% 28 15 min.
Simcoe 13.0% 28 5 min.
Simcoe 13.0% 28 0 min.
Centennial 8.1% 28 0 min.
Amarillo 8.0% 28 0 min.
Simcoe 13.0% 28 Dry
Centennial 8.1% 28 Dry
Amarillo 8.0% 28 Dry

Yeast
Safale US-05/Wyeast 1056 or 1272

Hi, i'm a newb and trying to learn. Was this an extra base or from a grain mash? I don't have the setup yet to do a mash but I am looking to try a good, strong, hoppy IPA. If not, what would be some good extra alternatives?

Grain/Extract/Sugars (% of total weight)
Briess DME - Golden Light (91.2%)
Biscuit Malt (25L) (5.9%)
Honey Malt (18L) (2.9%)