Excellent! I have been wandering all over looking for info on the best NEIPA. Do you have a recipe that you feel is a good one? I see hop usage is all over the board. Some use 6-7 ounces for various additions, while other can add up to a full pound of hops which I feel may be a waste. Malt bills...some use oats, some not. Ideas?
I've done three NEIPAs now. The first one was pretty meh. Way too much in your face west coast bitterness. Batches 2 and 3 used the same grist but I tweaked the hops. I'm pretty happy with this grist. It works out to...
2-Row 76%
Flaked Oats 14%
Wheat 10%
Two things I changed from batch 1 to batch 2 that made the absolute biggest difference:
(1) FWH for bittering. I did a standard 60 minute charge for the first batch and it was just heavy heavy bittering, like a west coast. I switched to FWH and it smoothed out a lot of that bittering.
(2) Water calcs. In fact, NEIPAs are what forced me to finally get my water in check. People are all over the place on this, but I've found I personally like about a 2:1 chloride:sulfate ratio.
One final point...after the FWH for bittering, I don't do any hops until flameout or after. I just kegged the 3rd attempt and it is (so far) my best one yet. Just to give you an example, here's my hop schedule for it...
1 oz Nugget @FWH
1 oz Citra @FO
1 oz Mosaic @FO (I let the FO hops steep about 30 mins, temp down to ~180)
1 oz Citra @WP
3.5 oz Mosaic @WP (Whirlpooled for 30 minutes starting at 170, wort was at 140 when I finished whirlpooling)
3 oz Mosaic @DH1 (About 3 days into fermentation, just after high krausen)
3 oz Mosaic @DH2 (end of fermentation
1 oz Citra leaf @Keg hop
In total, I had 7.5 ounces of hops on the hot side, and 7 ounce on the cold side.
Forgot to mention, dry hopping early made a huge difference too. Also, FWIW, all three times I've done these I've used the F1 hybrid strain from that thread I linked above. Haven't even brewed with the F1/C4 yet. Lemme know if you want some of these yeasts and I can hook you up.
