Specialty IPA: Rye IPA Denny Conn's Wry Smile Rye IPA

[BreezyBrew]

Is what you're experiencing truly astringency? No offense intended, but I find that's one of the most misidentified things in the beer world. Are you sure it isn't just bitterness? Have you taken your water into account?

No offense taken. I've recently moved, and thankfully the water is less hard where I'm at now. Your recipe was the third beer at the new residence and the lingering "off" flavor seems to be gone. Definitely do not know if it was astringency, per se, but the beer was overly harsh. My process hadn't really changed. So I'm attributing the flavor to water profile. I've been using bru'in water for some time and am now able to measure my pH with a calibrated meter. Now that I have more confidence in the way the beer will taste, I'll certainly be making the recipe as written sometime.

While I've got your attention... I typically dry hop with 3 Oz of hops for IPAs. What are your thoughts?

 

[Denny]

No offense taken. I've recently moved, and thankfully the water is less hard where I'm at now. Your recipe was the third beer at the new residence and the lingering "off" flavor seems to be gone. Definitely do not know if it was astringency, per se, but the beer was overly harsh. My process hadn't really changed. So I'm attributing the flavor to water profile. I've been using bru'in water for some time and am now able to measure my pH with a calibrated meter. Now that I have more confidence in the way the beer will taste, I'll certainly be making the recipe as written sometime.

While I've got your attention... I typically dry hop with 3 Oz of hops for IPAs. What are your thoughts?

Maybe your alkalinity was too high before it if seemed harsh?

No problem with 3 oz.! If you keg, I'd recommend 1 oz. in secondary for a week or so, then 2 more oz. in the keg.

 

[BreezyBrew]

Maybe your alkalinity was too high before it if seemed harsh?

No problem with 3 oz.! If you keg, I'd recommend 1 oz. in secondary for a week or so, then 2 more oz. in the keg.

I did have to add quite a bit of lactic and cut my brewing liquor with some percentage of RO to get down to the desired pH and alkalinity. Maybe that had something to do with it. Nowadays I'm just glad I can use 100% tap water. Funny thing is that I went to a new brewery in the area last weekend and they seem to be having the same problem.

I haven't dry hooped in the keg before, but I may give it a twirl. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[juggabrew]

I recently moved to Denver and brewed this beer using prong water. Does anyone know if I could just use tap water? The belief is that Denver has good water, thinking as a Ohioan.

 

[juggabrew]

I recently moved to Denver and brewed this beer using prong water. Does anyone know if I could just use tap water? The belief is that Denver has good water, thinking as a Ohioan.

...spring water

 

[juggabrew]

I meant spring water...auto correct

 

[BreezyBrew]

The best thing to do is get your water tested from Ward Labs. Then you will know if you have to spend money on spring water or not. It's too hard to tell what your water is like because Denver probably uses multiple sources for its water that could change throughout the year. Once your water is tested, you will have an idea of the contents vs. not really knowing with spring.

 

[SuperX]

This is the profile to shoot for. I've been increasing the sulfate in the recipe and I like this...

Ca 119
Mg 7
Na 11
SO4 227
Cl 29
HCO3 52

It gets broken down like this....

Mineral Additions Mash (g) Sparge (g)
Gypsum . 7.8 4.0
Epsom Salt 0.0 0.0
Canning Salt 0.0 0.0
Baking Soda 0.0
Calcium Chloride 1.4 0.7
Chalk . 0.0
Pickling Lime 0.0
Mag Chloride 0.0 0.0

Thanks!

OG 1.073. I just went to dry hop in my secondary and took a FG reading... 1.006. This reading was with my new refractometer, adjusting for alcohol using beersmith. I pitched at 60-ish F and kept the fermentation around 60 for 2 weeks then the last week I raised it to 68F. I'll filter next week and pour a sample off the keg to see what FG is on the hydrometer. Can't wait to try it!

 

[juggabrew]

So I just transferred to sec. And dry hopped after 3wks in primary. The gravity is at 1.012 from an OG of 1.070. Quick question, I tasted the sample I pulled and it taste like crap. I'm thinking this is normal cause my last bells 2h clone was the same but turned out great after bottling. But it does make me nervous. Let me know if I'm alone on this.

 

[Denny]

"Tastes like crap" covers a pretty wide range. Can you describe it any more?

 

[juggabrew]

"Tastes like crap" covers a pretty wide range. Can you describe it any more?

Well maybe not crap...I exaggerate. But I really didn't taste any of the hops and had that stale left over beer feel to it. It was super cloudy too. It's a nice bright orange color though

 

[haberdasher]

that's pretty much how mine tasted at transfer. but when it's finished... man it's fantastic.

 

[Denny]

Well maybe not crap...I exaggerate. But I really didn't taste any of the hops and had that stale left over beer feel to it. It was super cloudy too. It's a nice bright orange color though

Maybe it's your water?

 

[juggabrew]

I used spring water from Safeway. All I did was add 5.2. Should i be adding anything else?

 

[Hanso]

Maybe it's your water?

No it's the fact that it is a flat, unconditioned, warm sample.

 

[Denny]

I used spring water from Safeway. All I did was add 5.2. Should i be adding anything else?

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Most likely it's the 5.2. That stuff not only doesn't work, it makes your beer taste like...well, crap! The heavy sodium load in it is likely what is muting your hops perception. I used it about 5 times before I realized how bad it was making my beer. Things improved markedly when I stopped using it. Find out what's in the spring water and adjust it with Bru'nwater. Or, at the very least, stop with the 5.2 and just add a coule tsp. of gypsum.

 

[Denny]

No it's the fact that it is a flat, unconditioned, warm sample.

I can't count the number of flat, unconditioned, warm samples of that beer I've had. The hops should still come through.

 

[juggabrew]

No it's the fact that it is a flat, unconditioned, warm sample.

That's true. Just wondering how other people think their samples taste good...when none of mine never have until conditioning

 

[JerzGuy51]

Hey I just brewed this and took the OG before adding the final flame out hops. The reading is 1.050 which is waaaaaay off! Am worried I used too much H2O (16.26 liters mash at 151 and 8 gallon sparge at 185). Can anybody help me figure this out? Do I need to add LME to make this recipe work?

 

[BreezyBrew]

Tapped this on Friday night. Simply stated, it's delicious. The different malt melds together beautifully, and the rye spiciness is just the right amount. There's plenty of luscious citrus in my batch. It ends nice and bitter, not too much exhaust.

All together great beer that's seriously difficult to stop drinking. Cheers to a "nother beer" ! Thanks Denny!

 

[juggabrew]

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Most likely it's the 5.2. That stuff not only doesn't work, it makes your beer taste like...well, crap! The heavy sodium load in it is likely what is muting your hops perception. I used it about 5 times before I realized how bad it was making my beer. Things improved markedly when I stopped using it. Find out what's in the spring water and adjust it with Bru'nwater. Or, at the very least, stop with the 5.2 and just add a coule tsp. of gypsum.

Really!!! Yeah I'll cut that out for my next batch. So what does the gypsum do for the water profile? Is bru'nwater a product? Thanks for your help Denny!

 

[Denny]

Really!!! Yeah I'll cut that out for my next batch. So what does the gypsum do for the water profile? Is bru'nwater a product? Thanks for your help Denny!

Bru'water is a free spreadsheet to help you figure out how to adjust your water. You plug in your water profile and it helps you figure out how to adjust it for different beer styles. It's at https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ .

The gypsum mainly accentuates the hop bitterness and adds a dry finish to the beer. Secondarily, it provides calcium for the yeast which promotes better fermentation.

 

[JerzGuy51]

Ok so the OG wasn't 1.050 but 1.060. Should I be worried this will affect the flavoring of this batch? LME needed anyone think?

 

[Denny]

Ok so the OG wasn't 1.050 but 1.060. Should I be worried this will affect the flavoring of this batch? LME needed anyone think?

I dunno. Make a guess and do what you think. I'd probably leave it alone and try to brew it again.

 

[JerzGuy51]

All right cool thanks. Looking forward to it. Had to use American Ale Yeast (and they were churning like mad this morning) instead of Denny's Fav 50 because that's working on my "Deception Cream Stout" right now. Will use your stuff next time though no doubt....hopefully at proper OG. Thanks again

 

[juggabrew]

Bru'water is a free spreadsheet to help you figure out how to adjust your water. You plug in your water profile and it helps you figure out how to adjust it for different beer styles. It's at https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/ .

The gypsum mainly accentuates the hop bitterness and adds a dry finish to the beer. Secondarily, it provides calcium for the yeast which promotes better fermentation.

man I tried to go through and punch in the profile. this is confusing and some cells are locked. maybe ill just stick with the gypsum.

 

[Denny]

man I tried to go through and punch in the profile. this is confusing and some cells are locked. maybe ill just stick with the gypsum.

There shouldn't be any locked cells where you need to enter data. Try shooting an email to Martin Brungard, or send him a PM here. He's on this board.

 

[juggabrew]

There shouldn't be any locked cells where you need to enter data. Try shooting an email to Martin Brungard, or send him a PM here. He's on this board.

Thanks. On another note, Im thinking of doing the extract version of this from northern brewer/imported from beersmith . Im going back to extract for now as I am in an apartment now

Denny, any tips for the extract version?

Ive read earlier you noted that scaling down the AG recipe can't be done, "brew as is". is this still not recommended?

 

[Denny]

Thanks. On another note, Im thinking of doing the extract version of this from northern brewer/imported from beersmith . Im going back to extract for now as I am in an apartment now

Denny, any tips for the extract version?

Ive read earlier you noted that scaling down the AG recipe can't be done, "brew as is". is this still not recommended?

I designed the extract kit for NB myself, so make sure you either get that or that your recipe is accurate. Here's the recipe...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/DennysWrySmileIPA.pdf

 

[juggabrew]

I designed the extract kit for NB myself, so make sure you either get that or that your recipe is accurate. Here's the recipe...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/DennysWrySmileIPA.pdf

So I found the scale recipe tab in beer smith. If I scaled down to 3 gal batch with the AG version. Shouldn't I get the same results Denny? just less beer