American IPA 21-A Den of Iniquity
The origin of the recipe takes us back to March of 2016. I had recently entered a beer/food/art pairing competition at a local brewery. Beerfly Alleyfight, which coincided with Chicago Craft Beer Week. This event took place at
Haymarket Brewing Company. The original idea to use a Mosaic hopped IPA and pair it with smoked pulled pork. The pulled pork was smoked naked with nothing but salt and pepper. After it was smoked for several hours, it was dosed with a generous heaping of coriander, lemon peel, and orange peel. The coriander played well with the earthiness of the Mosaic hops while the lemon and orange peel also played complemented the citrus notes that people come to expect from Mosaic hops. The pork ended up winning first place in the competition. Sadly the beer did not place, but it was very well received by many people who gathered at Haymarket that day. I brewed this beer again for a gathering with my wife’s family last summer. Once again the beer was very well received.
I have a bit of an obsession with Mosaic hops. Ever since I first had Scyllas Grasp from Urban Legned, I have determined that Mosaic hops are among one of my favorite hops. I loved it so much that I created a recipe for a BBQ sauce that incorporated Scyllas Grasp. This BBQ sauce was a nice complement with my smoked pulled pork.
Only about five years old, Mosaic hops have certainly made brewers re-think their hop varieties and include this incredible hop to their brewing catalog. Jason Perrault from Select Botanicals and the Hop Breeeding Company (HBC) is know as the person to first start breeding these great hops. Perrault is certainly no stranger to quality hops, as he is known for the breeding of both Citra and Simcoe hops. Speaking of Simcoe, Mosaic has its lineage deriving from both Simcoe and Nugget hops. Much of this info can be read at
https://learn.kegerator.com/mosaic-hops/ Nick Carr does a great job providing more than enough information one will ever need for a single hop. Mosaic hops are known for their tropical, citrus, pine, and even earthy characteristics.
Source: Mosaic: The Hop Chronicles on Brulosophy.com
This recipe prior to June of 2017 was just fine and ready to be cemented in my rotation.
HomeBrewCon 2017 and the invasion of the
Cryo Hops made me think twice how I dry hopped this beer.
Here’s the recipe for Den of Iniquity:
Malt Weight Percentage
Maris Otter 9 lbs. 75%
Vienna 1 lb. 9%
Munich 1lb. 8%
Crystal 40 .5 lb. 4%
White Wheat .5 lb. 4%
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Hops Oz Type Time Alpha Acids IBU
Simcoe 1oz Pellet 60 Min. 13 AA 41.2 IBU
Mosaic 1oz Pellet 10 Min. 12.7 AA 14.6 IBU
Mosaic 1oz Pellet 7 Min. 12.7 AA 10.8 IBU
Mosaic 1oz Pellet 5 Min. 12.7 AA 8 IBU
Mosaic 2oz Pellet Flameout 12.7 AA
Mosaic 2oz Pellet Dry Hop 12.7 AA 4 Days
Mosaic Cryo Hops YCH Dry Hop 12.7 AA 4 Days
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Yeast Attenuation
Fermentis Safale US-05 81% Attenuation
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Batch Size 5.5 Gallons
Boil Size 8 Gallons
Efficiency 82%
OG 1.067
FG 1.013
Color 7.8 SRM
Bitterness 69.5 IBU
The third and forth time I brewed this beer was going to be for some competitions. I was currently talking to my friend Brian about water chemistry and he helped me come up with the amount of brewing salts that I have listed below. I measured out my brewing salts since I was using RO water for this particular batch and needed to build the minerals back up. I used the following:
Gypsum CaSo4 5.6g
Table Salt NaCL 0 g
Epsom Salt MgSO4 9.9g
Calcium Chloride CaCl 2.9g
Baking Soda NaHCO3 2.3g
Chalk CaCO3 5.4g
Checking mash temp after mashing for 45 minutes. Started at 152 degrees and only dropped lost 2 degrees. Kettle is wrapped with an old bedroom quilt. Works great for keeping the heat contained.
Check out some reviews for The Brew Bag
Aroma
Bright tropical fruit, grapefruit, ripe melon, and low maltiness.
Appearance
Golden, slightly hazy, white creamy head that persists throughout drinking.
Flavor
Mild biscuit, bready malt with bright floral and fruity hop flavors. Light sweetness with a firm and quite aggressive bitterness. Dry finish with a sweetness that lingers.
Mouthfeel
Medium bodies, moderately carbed. Feel crisp to the tongue.
Here’s what the BJCP Guidelines say about the American IPA:
https://guidelines.beerstyles.co/2015-21a-american-ipa/
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I entered this beer into two competitions in the last few months. First competition was Drunk Monk, which is a very well populated homebrewing competition. There are usually between 700-800 entries every year. This year Den of Iniquity proudly took third place in Drunk Monk.
The second competition was the
National Homebrew Competition run by the
American Homebrewers Association. Although there the hardware is forthcoming, the online notification will serve as proof that I took second place in this year’s first round.
