American IPA Base Pale Ale Recipe for Single hop Beers

[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.

 

[Steven Barrett]

I'm interested in this thread because buying individual 1 oz packets of hops is not cost effective, plus my process is still resulting in beers without noticeable hop aroma or flavor, despite whirlpooling and dry hopping at the suggested rates and trying to minimize O2 as much as reasonable.

 

[Dgallo]

I'm interested in this thread because buying individual 1 oz packets of hops is not cost effective, plus my process is still resulting in beers without noticeable hop aroma or flavor, despite whirlpooling and dry hopping at the suggested rates and trying to minimize O2 as much as reasonable.

Yakima Valley Hops has really fair prices for their two oz packs. If you buy 8-2oz packs you only pay about 3-4 dollars more for a pound that way but you keep the hops fresher if you don’t have you’re own vacuum sealer.

Everyone has their own best practice for eliminating o2 for their system. For example I have modified the lid of my fermonster with a liquid and gas keg posts and now it’s practically a keg so that I can pressurize it, purge serving kegs with fermentation co2, coldcrash, and close transfer all without any o2 exposure.

What are you fermenting in? And are you bottling or kegging?

 

[Steven Barrett]

I don't mean to hijack your thread since I've already posted by sob stories elsewhere on HBT but I fermented and dryhopped in my serving keg which prior to any temperature drop, I pressurized with CO2. It seems the cold crash took all the hops and aroma with it. I'm using a floating diptube, so it was taking very clear, light beer off the top. I gave the keg a little shake in hopes it would redistribute the hop flavor/aroma, which it did to some extent, but it seems I'm the odd person out here, since most people separate the beer completely from the hops with their transfer and I've never heard anyone say the physical separation pulled away the flavor/aroma. Last time cleaned out my keg hopped beer after it kicked, the aroma in the remaining hop sludge was overwhelming and pleasant. Yet I can't seem to get that to infuse into the beer.

 

[Taiters]

Dgallo, funny that you mentioned Yakima Valley Hops. I just ordered a pound of the 2019 Galaxy crop from their Friday Flash Sale specifically to brew your single hop beer a few more times with it. So far I have done Galaxy, Cascade, and then Nugget this weekend. After that, it's Galaxy again, then Mosaic, Simcoe, and finally Amarillo.

 

[Steven Barrett]

@Taiters do you have a detailed review of each for our benefit?

 

[Dgallo]

Dgallo, funny that you mentioned Yakima Valley Hops. I just ordered a pound of the 2019 Galaxy crop from their Friday Flash Sale specifically to brew your single hop beer a few more times with it. So far I have done Galaxy, Cascade, and then Nugget this weekend. After that, it's Galaxy again, then Mosaic, Simcoe, and finally Amarillo.

I'm glad you are enjoying the recipe. I just love how simple it is but has big flavors. Mosiac is one of my favorite single hop varieties. It has a lot of complexity.

 

[Taiters]

@Taiters do you have a detailed review of each for our benefit?

I could do a followup for each variation I do, mainly because I upped the hops to 8oz from the 6 that the original recipe uses so the hop schedule is a little different. I did this because I bought a bunch of hops from YVH in 8oz and 16oz packages. The beauty of this recipe is that the grain bill is fairly neutral but the little bit of wheat and biscuit gives it just enough flavor and it looks amazing in the glass. Check out my profile pic. It serves as a wonderful showcase of whatever hop you want to brew with.

 

[Rainy]

I don't mean to hijack your thread since I've already posted by sob stories elsewhere on HBT but I fermented and dryhopped in my serving keg which prior to any temperature drop, I pressurized with CO2. It seems the cold crash took all the hops and aroma with it. I'm using a floating diptube, so it was taking very clear, light beer off the top. I gave the keg a little shake in hopes it would redistribute the hop flavor/aroma, which it did to some extent, but it seems I'm the odd person out here, since most people separate the beer completely from the hops with their transfer and I've never heard anyone say the physical separation pulled away the flavor/aroma. Last time cleaned out my keg hopped beer after it kicked, the aroma in the remaining hop sludge was overwhelming and pleasant. Yet I can't seem to get that to infuse into the beer.

I had similar problems like you when I was dry-hopping in my 11liter fermenter kegs after a cold crash, before I transfer them to my serving kegs. I didn't seem to be able to extract enough from the hops. I read up a bit here on the board and it seems it could be a combination of lots of things: the pellets just dropping straight to the bottom (pellets being too cold when dropped in, and my kegs being shorter than 19l kegs and resulting in a shorter travel time from top to bottom), still too much yeast present in the fermentation keg dragging down hop oils, and the inability to rouse the hops without bringing the yeast back in suspension.

So I switched to the following steps:
* purging my 9.5liter serving kegs (that are filled to the brim with star san) with fermentation CO2 from my 11 liter fermentation kegs
* no dry hops before terminal and cold crash
* cold crashing my fermentation kegs to 0-2C for 2 days to get as much yeast to drop out
* taking my hops out out the freezer plenty of time before dry hopping and also squashing the package a bit, so the pellets already break up a bit
* using a mix of T90 and Cryo (1:1) for dry hop to reduce the amount of plant matter in my serving kegs
* dropping those pellets in the purged serving kegs while flowing CO2 into the serving keg
* closed transferring my beer from the fermentation keg (which has a CBDS) to the serving keg (which has a CBDS) by using gravity
* dry hopping for 3 days at room temperature and 20-30psi in the serving kegs (the pressure helps to lock in the aroma in the beer), while flipping the kegs twice a day, in order to let the hop particles "travel" a sufficient long road through the beer. (see comment later about professional brewers and residence time of hops)
* finally cold crashing the serving kegs

I've only done this once, but I now have a 5.5% Citra pale ale ( 4oz of Citra T90 in the whirlpool, 3.5oz of Citra T90 and 3.5 oz of Citra cryo in the dry hop) for a 5 gal batch on tap which is bursting with flavour and aroma and which has a defined citra hop character and a stable haze.
It is definitely the best hoppy beer I have ever brewed and I hope I will not get any vegetal flavours later on from the hops still being in the keg.

I think the key is dropping out as much yeast out as possible and moving the beer to a purged vessel so you can sufficiently agitate the beer by gently flipping the keg twice a day. Professional brewers have less this problem of extraction as the hops have to travel a longer time when they are dropped in at the top of the fermenter and travel to the bottom of the fermenter and even they still rouse the hops with CO2 to get full extraction. In the end extraction is all about the residence time of the hops in the beer and the environment they see while travelling through the beer (temperature and hop oil concentrations). The flipping also helps with the mixing of the beer, so the hops see less high concentrations of hop oils while travelling through the beer so there will be more extraction for that specific hop particle at that specific time.

The only problems I see in this approach is leaving the beers on the hops for the whole time they are in the serving keg, but if you think that the problem in your and mine old approach was that the hops were sitting at the bottom not getting enough extraction, I'm thinking that in this case it is a good thing that the hops are sitting at the bottom of my serving keg with only slow extraction any kind of vegetal flavours at the slow rate while the beer is taken from the top of the keg with the CBDS.

Another problem I could have is possible diacetyl because of hop creep. Solutions for this could be adding a small amount of pellets during fermentation so the creep takes place when sufficient yeast is still in suspension resulting in no diacetyl or dry hopping after terminal at lower temperatures (< 16C)

Big shout out to everyone on this board and especially the regular contributors to the Northeast Style IPA thread for helping me find a way to make bright hoppy beers which are on par with a lot of the NEIPAs that are now in the market. My specific method is just an adaptation of what other people on this board have been suggesting for a while now to my specific situation where I work with shorter 11l kegs to fit in my fridge.

 

[Steven Barrett]

@Rainy thank you for the advice; this is encouraging.

Also, it seems ironic that IPA is considered one of the easiest style to brew since the hops hide other brewing flaws, when simultaneously, it's one of the most revealing styles for highlighting oxygen ingress flaws.

 

[Dgallo]

@Rainy thank you for the advice; this is encouraging.

Also, it seems ironic that IPA is considered one of the easiest style to brew since the hops hide other brewing flaws, when simultaneously, it's one of the most revealing styles for highlighting oxygen ingress flaws.

That’s a myth that those who are really in to traditional styles or malt forward styles use to discredit those who brew heavily hopped beers