American IPA Base Pale Ale Recipe for Single hop Beers

[Noob_Brewer]

Well after going back and forth on what to try with this pale ale recipe, Im going to try it with Idaho 7. After some differing experiences from others in another thread called Best NEIPA hop combos, I thought it would be good to experience myself what Idaho 7 by itself brings to the table. Going to take the same grain bill as @Dgallo posted in the OP but with WLP001 California Ale yeast. Total hop amount will be same at 6oz but might try to bring out the "orange" character many seem to get from I7 so will whirlpool slightly lower temp. Excited for this! Will brew it this friday (or saturday).

 

[Noob_Brewer]

I ordered ingredients to brew three 1+ gallon batches of this. Each with a different single hop. No idea when everything will arrive.

@BongoYodeler reading your "in fermenters" I see you got an Azacca Pale Ale. If this is a single hop, Im curious to hear of your experiences with what you get out of it. Please keep us posted.

 

[BongoYodeler]

@BongoYodeler reading your "in fermenters" I see you got an Azacca Pale Ale. If this is a single hop, Im curious to hear of your experiences with what you get out of it. Please keep us posted.

Will do.

 

[AzOr]

Hello- Thanks for great recipe base.

I do have some q's-
I just ordered Azacca hops but have never brewed with them.
(1) Would they be good as a single hop?
(2) If not, I have the following on hand; citra, mandarina, mosaic, wakatu. As well as traditional hops; mt hood, tetts, cascades.
Would any of the above compliment the Azaccas?

I would like to stick w mostly Azaccas but am open to suggestions since I've never brewed with them before.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Dgallo]

Hello- Thanks for great recipe base.

I do have some q's-
I just ordered Azacca hops but have never brewed with them.
(1) Would they be good as a single hop?
(2) If not, I have the following on hand; citra, mandarina, mosaic, wakatu. As well as traditional hops; mt hood, tetts, cascades.
Would any of the above compliment the Azaccas?

I would like to stick w mostly Azaccas but am open to suggestions since I've never brewed with them before.

Thanks for your time.

If you don’t have experience with azacca then that’s the exact reason to do a single hop beer with them. It will show you it’s character and let you see how it is across the board.

 

[AzOr]

If you don’t have experience with azacca then that’s the exact reason to do a single hop beer with them. It will show you it’s character and let you see how it is across the board.

Sounds good I was just wondering if it was one of the weaker hops.
I’ll go ahead and use all Azaccas.

 

[Taiters]

Brewed this a few weekends ago. Ended up using 8oz of Galaxy instead of 6oz. It turned out really good.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Tonight I'm planning on dry hopping the first of three different batches of this currently in fermenters. Since I'm going to end up bottling all three I've pushed out the fermentation schedule to 2 1/2 - 3 weeks.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Thought Id report on my idaho 7 pale ale recipe now while it is fresh on my mind. Visual signs of fermentation have been over for a couple of days, but just now took the hydro sample today (day 8). I have the exact grain bill that @Dgallo stated in the OP. My hot side hop schedule was 60minute boil (0.5oz), 10min boil (0.5oz), 45min WP @ 170 (1oz). then 30min WP 2 160 (2oz).

Impressions so far from the hydro sample that is not dry hopped: first and foremost it tastes good! lol. I get a nice blend of pine, earth/black tea, subtle fruitiness. The pine is very smooth and not in your face. The earthiness/black tea is also very smooth but definitely there but it isn't at all like a "strong spice" you can get from tea. The fruitiness is difficult for me to say whether its citrus or just orange but the fruitiness it is a little subdued compared to the other things Im getting but you definitely pick it up. While Ive read that people get "dank and orange" from I7, I got zero dank/weed quality from this but the orange/citrus is present but not like the big banger citrus hop varieties.

Overall - I think this is a great hop and I can now see why a lot of people like it as a "base" hot side hop (which is predominately how Ive been using it). It has a lot of great qualities that make it complex (pine/fruit/earthy) but with only 4 oz in the hot side, it really isn't as pungent (in your face) as Ive read others perceive it to be.

Can't wait to taste the final beer of this and eagerly anticipating what I get from this after the dry hop addition. Just wanted to report on my hydro sample since I have read a lot of people like this more as a hot side hop. I can definitely see why it can play very well with a range of hops with its versatility though.

 

[Dgallo]

Tonight I'm planning on dry hopping the first of three different batches of this currently in fermenters. Since I'm going to end up bottling all three I've pushed out the fermentation schedule to 2 1/2 - 3 weeks.

Which hops did you choose

 

[BongoYodeler]

Which hops did you choose

Simcoe
Falconers Flight
Azacca

 

[Localhopper]

Hey,

I’m looking at giving this a try again but changing the recipe slightly I would like to try and do cashmere again. However, I also have a pound of Cascade and Centennial so I’m thinking about maybe switching It ups and not using just the cashmere.
Any thoughts ?

 

[BongoYodeler]

@BongoYodeler reading your "in fermenters" I see you got an Azacca Pale Ale. If this is a single hop, Im curious to hear of your experiences with what you get out of it. Please keep us posted.

I bottled the Simcoe version on Monday, the Falconers Flight version yesterday, and the Azacca version tonight. These were each a little over 1 gallon packaged, and I was able to fill up four 16 oz flip top bottles and six 12 oz bottles with each batch. I ended up with exactly the same FG on all three, 1.014, according to my hydrometer, (I had just enough left from each batch to fill the test jar enough to take a measurement). All three ended a bit higher abv than I expected, around 6.5%. I'm getting a little better efficiency lately and haven't yet adjusted Beersmith values accordingly. So what do I call these, an Imperial Pale Ale? LOL. Tonight's Azacca batch smelled really tropical with strong guava/papaya notes. Tasted the hydrometer sample and it was much the same, tropical, with just a slight bitterness on the back end. Now, I wait.

 

[Shenanigans]

I bottled the Simcoe version on Monday, the Falconers Flight version yesterday, and the Azacca version tonight. These were each a little over 1 gallon packaged, and I was able to fill up four 16 oz flip top bottles and six 12 oz bottles with each batch. I ended up with exactly the same FG on all three, 1.014, according to my hydrometer, (I had just enough left from each batch to fill the test jar enough to take a measurement). All three ended a bit higher abv than I expected, around 6.5%. I'm getting a little better efficiency lately and haven't yet adjusted Beersmith values accordingly. So what do I call these, an Imperial Pale Ale? LOL. Tonight's Azacca batch smelled really tropical with strong guava/papaya notes. Tasted the hydrometer sample and it was much the same, tropical, with just a slight bitterness on the back end. Now, I wait.

Sounds promising.
Maybe you can call them extra pale ales

 

[Immocles]

I bottled the Simcoe version on Monday, the Falconers Flight version yesterday, and the Azacca version tonight. These were each a little over 1 gallon packaged, and I was able to fill up four 16 oz flip top bottles and six 12 oz bottles with each batch. I ended up with exactly the same FG on all three, 1.014, according to my hydrometer, (I had just enough left from each batch to fill the test jar enough to take a measurement). All three ended a bit higher abv than I expected, around 6.5%. I'm getting a little better efficiency lately and haven't yet adjusted Beersmith values accordingly. So what do I call these, an Imperial Pale Ale? LOL. Tonight's Azacca batch smelled really tropical with strong guava/papaya notes. Tasted the hydrometer sample and it was much the same, tropical, with just a slight bitterness on the back end. Now, I wait.

What were your hop addition quantities for the small batches? There's a few that I know would be a complete win and wouldn't mind having a case of in my fridge. But the ones that I'd be interested in testing out, I'm leaning towards busting out the one gallon gear.

 

[BongoYodeler]

For each of the three it was:

4.32g @ 60 mins.
4.32g @ 10 mins.
11.34 g @ flame-out
19.84 g @ whirlpool starting at 170° for 30 mins.
17.0 g @ dry hop for 3 days

That adds up to 2 oz of hops for each batch.

 

[ajbosley2015]

Well after going back and forth on what to try with this pale ale recipe, Im going to try it with Idaho 7. After some differing experiences from others in another thread called Best NEIPA hop combos, I thought it would be good to experience myself what Idaho 7 by itself brings to the table. Going to take the same grain bill as @Dgallo posted in the OP but with WLP001 California Ale yeast. Total hop amount will be same at 6oz but might try to bring out the "orange" character many seem to get from I7 so will whirlpool slightly lower temp. Excited for this! Will brew it this friday (or saturday).

If you are looking for an overwhelming "orange" character...I think Minnesota Axe Julius is a great standalone hop for this purpose

 

[Sauls]

You guys think this recipe would work with jalapeños? Looking for a recipe and stumbled on this thread.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

You guys think this recipe would work with jalapeños? Looking for a recipe and stumbled on this thread.

funny you should ask that lol. My wife wanted me to brew this with jalapeño. I just kegged my idaho 7 pale ale yesterday and will report back once it’s carbed and ready. But last week I made a tincture with jalapeño and vodka for a future brew. Today I brewed it. Used same base recipe as in the OP but used California ale and used centennial as the single hop. I will be using this to add the tincture too. Even though my tincture is only a week old, my wife wanted to try it in the idaho 7 pale ale. We added 0.5ml of the tincture to a 15oz glass. It added the jalapeño flavor but very little heat which is what we wanted. I will say that the jalapeño flavor frowns out the hop flavor. So that’s why I chose centennial (I had a full pound of it) for the jalapeño pale ale. The centennial I got from hops direct and cheap! The AA on the package were a little lower than expected (8.6 AA) so I added a little more 6.6 total ounces to get into the 40IBU range. I think I was at 41.5 by beersmith calcs. In the end it’s a good NE style pale ale and very simple. The centennial recipe I just brewed will be good I think with a little jalapeño flavoring

 

[Sauls]

Please let me know how it turns out!

 

[Dgallo]

@Sauls I’d probably add some mango with jalapeño. Single hop mosaic ipa with mango and jalapeños. Like @Noob_Brewer mention make a tincture. jalapeños vary greatly so being able to actually scale it first with a tincture will prevent you from adding too much

 

[Sauls]

What does that mean to scale it? Assuming taste the tincture before just dumping it in?

 

[Noob_Brewer]

@Sauls I’d probably add some mango with jalapeño. Single hop mosaic ipa with mango and jalapeños. Like @Noob_Brewer mention make a tincture. jalapeños vary greatly so being able to actually scale it first with a tincture will prevent you from adding too much

Agreed. My wife favorite jalapeño beer is BirdSong Jalapeño pale ale which really doesn’t have heat but good jalapeño flavor. So once another week passes (two weeks on the tincture total) we will put a syringe of tincture to a 15oz glass of the Idaho 7 pale ale when my wife likes the dosage, I will scale it up and add the scaled up tincture to the beer in the fermenter just as if I was dry hopping. Our intention is to focus more on jalapeño flavor vs heat so I don’t think we will be adding but a couple ounces to the fermenter.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

What does that mean to scale it? Assuming taste the tincture before just dumping it in?

If 0.5ml in a 15oz glass taste good then I’ll know how much to add to 5gallons of beer in fermenter. It’s more strategic than just dumping 4-8oz of tincture and praying lol

 

[Dgallo]

Like @Noob_Brewer briefly touched upon. He tried the tincture he made in a glass of beer first with 1/2 milliliter in 16 oz of beer. Now since there are 40 - 16oz beers 5 gallons. To scale that up for 5 gallons, he will multiply .5 ml by 40 and will get 20 ml of tincture to add to the keg

 

[Noob_Brewer]

The only downside to adding the jalapeño tincture to the recipe that @Dgallo posted in the OP is that you really won't get a feel for what the hop brings to the table. When I compared a force-carbed glass of the idaho 7 that I kegged just yesterday to my wife force-carbed glass with jalapeño tincture, you really lose out on the subtle nuances of what the hop brings to the table by itself.

 

[Sauls]

Oh math! Thanks guys!

 

[kcayton]

Well done. Newbee question, but what do you mean by whirlpooling? Are you just constantly stirring for that 30 -40 mins at 170?

 

[Dgallo]

Well done. Newbee question, but what do you mean by whirlpooling? Are you just constantly stirring for that 30 -40 mins at 170?

Constant would be ideal but every 5 minutes or so is fine

 

[Noob_Brewer]

So my Idaho 7 pale ale has been conditioning/carbing for about a week now. recipe is exact to the OP grain bill and hop rates on hot and cold side. But I did steep a little lower than the OP at 160. Overall - as its conditioned the two best/strongest descriptors I can give for flavor are smooth pine/resin with overripe orange. I really like this. The 'black tea' is really not there for me but I only used 2oz of dry hops so wondering if the black tea-type spice would be more prominent if I dry hopped at a higher rate. One thing that still holds true to my hydrometer sample, and was a surprise to me, is that I really don't get any 'dankness' from this at all now. By dank - I specifically refer to strong marajuana/joint smell. Its simply non-existent. The aroma is primarily fruit/orange but more but more subtle earthiness/pine. Its not an in your face type of aroma. I stated "over-ripe" orange earlier because its not like its a bright fresh orange that would give that tart/punch-like orange: its very sweet and smooth orange. The orange follows the smooth pineyness on the tongue.

Overall a great hop! Given the vast descriptions Ive seen of this hop - Im wondering if the dank and black tea qualities varies more by lot and/or by increasing dry hop rate. But its great! Honestly, in NEIPAs I can't see it as a showcase hop (because its not as in your face as other hops like galaxy for example) but its a great base hop in my mind to pair with either other fruit forward hops OR other piney hops in order to amplify or compliment those characteristics of Idaho 7. This is exactly how Ive been using it too. I do see this hop though as a fantastic fit for pale ales! this is very easy drinking at 6.0% ABV and very pleasant.

Thanks @Dgallo for this recipe. its been fun and informative doing my first single hopped beer!

Cheers!