American IPA Base Pale Ale Recipe for Single hop Beers

[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!

 

[Dgallo]

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!

I’m going to have to give 2019 Idaho 7 a shot then.

 

[optimal_pizza]

Tapped my version yesterday, deviated from the single hop portion of it (went with Chinook, Vic Secret and Summit) but stuck to the water profile and grainbill. That higher Na in the water profile worked out well, really brought out the mouthfeel and bitterness that a lot of my beers have been lacking. Gonna use that profile from now on with my other pale ales and IPAs. Thanks @Dgallo !

 

[Dgallo]

Tapped my version yesterday, deviated from the single hop portion of it (went with Chinook, Vic Secret and Summit) but stuck to the water profile and grainbill. That higher Na in the water profile worked out well, really brought out the mouthfeel and bitterness that a lot of my beers have been lacking. Gonna use that profile from now on with my other pale ales and IPAs. Thanks @Dgallo !

Glad that it worked out well for you!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Was going to wait until Sunday to try these but couldn't hold off any longer. I did a 3 brews in 3 days pale ale experiment back in early April where all three beers were the brewed using this base recipe, only changing the hops used in each batch. Simcoe in the first, Falconers Flight in the second, and Azacca in the third. These were all one gallon batches (each with 2 oz total of hops), yielding four 16 oz bottles and six 12 oz bottles. Each were fermented 18 days and then bottled. They've been in the bottles at room temperature for a little over two weeks, (it's been in the 80's - low 90's here for about a week now). I put all three in the fridge on Wednesday and cracked them open after work today.

First taste. All were sufficiently carbonated. They're all a bit hazy/murky, no surprise since I didn't cold crash or use any post fermentation fining. I have to say, I'm a bit underwhelmed. They all tasted ok, but certainly didn't pop, though to be fair these are pale ales, not ipa's. The third, (with Azacca hops) smelled the best, quite tropical, but didn't have the flavor I would have guessed, judging by the smell. The first, (Simcoe hops) was ok but possibly suffers from oxidation, at least more than the others. The second one (FF), had the brightest hop flavor. None were bad by any means, just not what I was going for. I'll let the rest sit at room temperature until next week then I'll repeat the process, putting three more in the fridge for next weekend. If no improvement then I'll drink the rest but probably give up brewing and bottling one gallon batches of pale ales and ipa's, and just brew those as 5 gallon batches, where I can do closed transfer to kegs to better control oxygen.

 

[eugles]

Sharing a single hop base recipe for pale ale I use when I’m trying out a new variety of hops for the first time. I have not found a hop that does not work well with this beer but Strata, Galaxy, Mosaic, and Mandarina Bavaria have been stand outs so far. I’m going to use Galaxy as the hop in the recipe below;

Grains
10lb - 2row
1Lb - White Wheat
0.5lb - Biscuit

Hops
6oz Galaxy

Yeast
US05 - can use any ale yeast you prefer but like stated earlier this is my base recipe to understand the characteristics of varietal specific hop.

Water profile:
Ca:89
Mg:11
Cl: 154
So4:102
Na: 72

Mash ph of 5.35

Mash - 152* 4 gallons for 60 mins
Sparge - 168* 4 gallons , stir hard and rest for 5 mins, then drain.

Boil Hop schedule
0.5 oz Galaxy @60
0.5 oz Galaxy @10
1.0 oz Galaxy @F.O.

Whirlpool @170* for 30/40 min
2 oz Galaxy

Dryhop
2 oz Galaxy - 3 days before cold crash. Use close transfer and proper post fermentation anti-oxigen procedures.

Co2 Vol
2.5

This beer comes out slightly juicy with great mouthfeel but at the same time it’s dry enough to finish somewhat crisp. It’s a great base recipe to learn about different hops.

View attachment 660474

Thanks for this recipe! I'm starting out basically from scratch with everything I have been assuming and doing. Couple of possibly dumb questions:

1) When you add flameout hops, you add them when killing the flame, and start chilling down to 170 right away?
2) When you hit 170F, you add whirlpool additions, and let temperature fall naturally over the 30-40 min?
3) The batch size of 5.5 gallons is total amount going into the fermenter?

Thanks!

 

[Dgallo]

Thanks for this recipe! I'm starting out basically from scratch with everything I have been assuming and doing. Couple of possibly dumb questions:

1) When you add flameout hops, you add them when killing the flame, and start chilling down to 170 right away?
2) When you hit 170F, you add whirlpool additions, and let temperature fall naturally over the 30-40 min?
3) The batch size of 5.5 gallons is total amount going into the fermenter?

Thanks!

1) Exactly!
2) I try my best to maintain the 170 by wrapping my kettle with an insulated blanket. But it still naturally falls to about 150*f during that time.
3)Exactly. My knock out volume is around 6-6.25 gallons so that I can leave the break material and hops in the kettle to put a clean 5.5 gallons in the keg.

 

[eugles]

1) Exactly!
2) I try my best to maintain the 170 by wrapping my kettle with an insulated blanket. But it still naturally falls to about 150*f during that time.
3)Exactly. My knock out volume is around 6-6.25 gallons so that I can leave the break material and hops in the kettle to put a clean 5.5 gallons in the keg.

One more question if you don’t mind...going to brew and his recipe this weekend to try and solve my oxidation woes. When you say dry hop 3 days before cold crash...is the beer at terminal gravity or at the tail end? The dry hopping is at fermentation temps? Curious about your process with you fermonster setup I saw on the other neipa thread. Thanks dude, just trying to get the exact process details from someone who doesn’t oxidize every single hoppy beer they have made

 

[Dgallo]

One more question if you don’t mind...going to brew and his recipe this weekend to try and solve my oxidation woes. When you say dry hop 3 days before cold crash...is the beer at terminal gravity or at the tail end? The dry hopping is at fermentation temps? Curious about your process with you fermonster setup I saw on the other neipa thread. Thanks dude, just trying to get the exact process details from someone who doesn’t oxidize every single hoppy beer they have made

The beer is at fg when I dryhop. I aIso soft crash the yeast out before hand and the let it warm back up to about 62-64*f. I do this because I can manage oxidation well with my set up If you can’t manage o2 you should dryhop just as fermentation slows down. That will provide you best protection against it.

 

[matt_m]

I brewed this last weekend substituting MO for the 2 Row just because and Melanoidin for the Biscuit because I didn't have the latter and supposedly they are the same. Hop choice was Mosaic. Looking forward to trying it.

 

[Dgallo]

I brewed this last weekend substituting MO for the 2 Row just because and Melanoidin for the Biscuit because I didn't have the latter and supposedly they are the same. Hop choice was Mosaic. Looking forward to trying it.

I love mosaic. It has so much complexity between fruit, dank, and earth notes that it's just a great hop for a single hopped beers.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Anyone here do this recipe with mandarin bavaria? Curious to see what y'all have experienced with this hop.

 

[DVCNick]

I did this recipe to the letter yesterday using Citra. Mainly because I have another Citra recipe (2 row and 20L) that is all Citra except for the initial bittering charge, so I want to compare them directly and then branch out into other runs with a different hop.

I just went by weight with the hops and didn't even think about matching AAUs. Since Citra is also pretty high AA anyway, it is probably fine, but when using a single hop with a much lower AA, do you still go by the weight in the original post, or do you adjust weight up to get a similar AAU? Thanks

 

[Dgallo]

I did this recipe to the letter yesterday using Citra. Mainly because I have another Citra recipe (2 row and 20L) that is all Citra except for the initial bittering charge, so I want to compare them directly and then branch out into other runs with a different hop.

I just went by weight with the hops and didn't even think about matching AAUs. Since Citra is also pretty high AA anyway, it is probably fine, but when using a single hop with a much lower AA, do you still go by the weight in the original post, or do you adjust weight up to get a similar AAU? Thanks

on Hotside I would match AAU and then make up any difference in amount in the dryhop. Citra and Galaxy are very similar in AA so I probably wouldn’t make any changes.

 

[Saffersa]

Sharing a single hop base recipe for pale ale I use when I’m trying out a new variety of hops for the first time. I have not found a hop that does not work well with this beer but Strata, Galaxy, Mosaic, and Mandarina Bavaria have been stand outs so far. I’m going to use Galaxy as the hop in the recipe below;

Grains
10lb - 2row
1Lb - White Wheat
0.5lb - Biscuit

Hops
6oz Galaxy

Yeast
US05 - can use any ale yeast you prefer but like stated earlier this is my base recipe to understand the characteristics of varietal specific hop.

Water profile:
Ca:89
Mg:11
Cl: 154
So4:102
Na: 72

Mash ph of 5.35

Mash - 152* 4 gallons for 60 mins
Sparge - 168* 4 gallons , stir hard and rest for 5 mins, then drain.

Boil Hop schedule
0.5 oz Galaxy @60
0.5 oz Galaxy @10
1.0 oz Galaxy @F.O.

Whirlpool @170* for 30/40 min
2 oz Galaxy

Dryhop
2 oz Galaxy - 3 days before cold crash. Use close transfer and proper post fermentation anti-oxigen procedures.

Co2 Vol
2.5

This beer comes out slightly juicy with great mouthfeel but at the same time it’s dry enough to finish somewhat crisp. It’s a great base recipe to learn about different hops.

View attachment 660474

Many thanks for sharing your recipe.
I look forward to trying to do it justice some time in the near future and hopefully not mess it up royally.
Have only just recently discovered Mandarin Bavaria hops and now I'm just itching to order some for a future brew.
Keep well

 

[Dgallo]

Many thanks for sharing your recipe.
I look forward to trying to do it justice some time in the near future and hopefully not mess it up royally.
Have only just recently discovered Mandarin Bavaria hops and now I'm just itching to order some for a future brew.
Keep well

If you follow the recipe and minimize o2 pick up it will be very good, so don’t stress. Keep us posted

 

[Taiters]

Well my first go of this using the original recipe with Galaxy hops turned out amazing. Galaxy hops also happen to be my wife's favorite, so we killed the keg much faster than I am used to. My second iteration of this recipe with Cascade is probably halfway gone (also delicious) so I need to get going on a third version. I'm going to try something a little different by going with Nugget, which I have only used a few times before.

 

[Dgallo]

Well my first go of this using the original recipe with Galaxy hops turned out amazing. Galaxy hops also happen to be my wife's favorite, so we killed the keg much faster than I am used to. My second iteration of this recipe with Cascade is probably halfway gone (also delicious) so I need to get going on a third version. I'm going to try something a little different by going with Nugget, which I have only used a few times before.

Thanks for sharing! I personally love cascade too. Nugget is a cool hop for sure. I’ve never single hopped it but when I’ve used it it provides that earthy true hop flavor that really help to add some depth. If you go ahead with it please report back. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what nugget can do at a higher rate and as a single hop.

 

[Taiters]

Yeah, I'm prepared for it to be a bit earthy. If it proves to be a bit much on it's own, I can blend it at the tap with the cascade version. After this one I plan to do a mosaic version, which would also blend really well with Nugget. I believe Toppling Goliath's Golden Nugget used that pairing. That was such a good beer.

 

[DVCNick]

Kegged my Citra version this morning at 1.009, sample was juicy and delicious. Looking forward to this one.
I think I'll do Galaxy next.

 

[Taiters]

I'm sure I'll do a Citra version myself eventually. That's such a good variety but I have never done a single hop beer with it.