First NE IPA

[Morrey]

With the help of Braufessor and multiple HBT members, I zeroed in on my first NE IPA. But there is a bit of background....

Several years ago my doctor directed me to start taking BP medications while explaining I could not drink grapefruit juice any longer since there were contraindications with the meds. Besides my beloved beer, my other favorite was vodka with grapefruit juice and a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Well.....no more I was told! I followed his orders.

When I drew a sample of this NE IPA (Galaxy/Mosaic/Citra) I noted it looked exactly like grapefruit juice. My first take was very grapefruit, not only in appearance, but in taste as well. I could not be more pleased! The beer is only half carbed with set and forget in keg, but I can't stay off the picnic sample tap. OMG this beer is so darn good. The flavors are very reminiscent of a good old "Salty Dog", but the hop profile is quite more complicated as we all know. For all the great HBT members who helped me work on this recipe.....I can't be more pleased!! WOW!!

 

[hellesyeah]

With the help of Braufessor and multiple HBT members, I zeroed in on my first NE IPA. But there is a bit of background....

Several years ago my doctor directed me to start taking BP medications while explaining I could not drink grapefruit juice any longer since there were contraindications with the meds. Besides my beloved beer, my other favorite was vodka with grapefruit juice and a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Well.....no more I was told! I followed his orders.

When I drew a sample of this NE IPA (Galaxy/Mosaic/Citra) I noted it looked exactly like grapefruit juice. My first take was very grapefruit, not only in appearance, but in taste as well. I could not be more pleased! The beer is only half carbed with set and forget in keg, but I can't stay off the picnic sample tap. OMG this beer is so darn good. The flavors are very reminiscent of a good old "Salty Dog", but the hop profile is quite more complicated as we all know. For all the great HBT members who helped me work on this recipe.....I can't be more pleased!! WOW!!

Excellent. I don't suppose this "Juicy" IPA will be around long. It would be better if it can hit the full carb volume you intended, so see if you can stretch it out that long...hehe.

 

[Morrey]

Excellent. I don't suppose this "Juicy" IPA will be around long. It would be better if it can hit the full carb volume you intended, so see if you can stretch it out that long...hehe.

Thanks hellesyeah^^^^. This one surprised me in that I got nice grapefruit and the overall flavor balance is beyond outstanding. For some reason I have been focused on Nobel hops, and at best, experimentation with Cascade and Amarillo. These GMC hops were a new adventure for me and I am having a great time with great results. Got a single hop Mosaic IPA in the pipeline now.

 

[Morrey]

Another one of my new "techniques" besides whirlpooling is using Yakima Valley hop extract (CTZ) for my bittering addition at 60. This seems very convenient and reduces my vegetal matter in the wort. I know it is a process just really catching on now, so far so good. I am not able to detect any flavor difference between this extract or the actual pellet version. I used BeerSmith to calculate the IBU at 61.1 % AA. Potent stuff.

 

[Braufessor]

That is awesome. I agree - Citra-Galaxy-Mosaic combo is really, really hard to beat. The "grapefruit" flavor is exactly what I get as well, especially in a 1:1:1 combo.

I have trouble staying away from mine too. My friends demolish the kegs about as fast as I can brew them. I basically need to brew this 3 x month in order to not run out of it.

 

[Morrey]

That is awesome. I agree - Citra-Galaxy-Mosaic combo is really, really hard to beat. The "grapefruit" flavor is exactly what I get as well, especially in a 1:1:1 combo.

I have trouble staying away from mine too. My friends demolish the kegs about as fast as I can brew them. I basically need to brew this 3 x month in order to not run out of it.

My oh my, I am altering my "pipeline" to get another one started right away. I hate to be tinkering with a winner, but may I ask your opinion? I used a balance of 134 chloride to 67 sulfate with this version, and I am more than pleased. Just wondering if I should simply stick with a known winner balance or should I experiment around some since I'll have something to compare heads up? If I did alter my balance, what would be a good suggestion? I hate to tinker, but if I don't, I'll never know the difference.

 

[Braufessor]

My oh my, I am altering my "pipeline" to get another one started right away. I hate to be tinkering with a winner, but may I ask your opinion? I used a balance of 134 chloride to 67 sulfate with this version, and I am more than pleased. Just wondering if I should simply stick with a known winner balance or should I experiment around some since I'll have something to compare heads up? If I did alter my balance, what would be a good suggestion? I hate to tinker, but if I don't, I'll never know the difference.

I actually did 3 x 5 gallon batches in the same weekend. Did 3 different water profiles of Sulfate:Chloride.
150:75
75:150
125:125

I had all 3 on tap at the same time. In blind triangle testing I could not reliably tell the difference, and most others could not either. I felt I could perceive some difference upon the first sip or two..... but after drinking a few ounces, I thought they were all fairly similar. Not enough to worry extensively over anyway.

So, basically, I would say that as long as you are approximately 75-150 on both sulfate and chloride, you are going to be in the ball park. You "might" find something you seem to prefer a little better. Nothing in that range will be "bad" though. So, you can feel fairly confident experimenting and knowing you are not going to ruin the beer or anything like that.

 

[bobeer]

awesome! I love it when a beer turns out to be one of the best beers you've ever had.

Mind sharing the recipe?

 

[plazola86]

I like to go "extreme" on my water profiles to really taste the difference if any. My latest NE IPA I went with 300 ppm Chloride to 50 ppm Sulfate. This style benefits from higher chloride, everyone mentioned the beer had a really nice body and soft mouth feel. I still got a huge amount of aroma and hop flavor out of it. My west coast style IPA's I do the reverse 300 ppm sulfate to 50 ppm chloride and really like the results there as well.

 

[Morrey]

I actually did 3 x 5 gallon batches in the same weekend. Did 3 different water profiles of Sulfate:Chloride.
150:75
75:150
125:125

I had all 3 on tap at the same time. In blind triangle testing I could not reliably tell the difference, and most others could not either. I felt I could perceive some difference upon the first sip or two..... but after drinking a few ounces, I thought they were all fairly similar. Not enough to worry extensively over anyway.

So, basically, I would say that as long as you are approximately 75-150 on both sulfate and chloride, you are going to be in the ball park. You "might" find something you seem to prefer a little better. Nothing in that range will be "bad" though. So, you can feel fairly confident experimenting and knowing you are not going to ruin the beer or anything like that.

I am glad to hear that the balance doesn't or wont make a world of difference. I may tweak it a tiny bit to hit the 150:75 ratio, but seems I am in the ballpark anyway. Many thanks to you sir for the inspiration and support to brew a beer that is second to none.

awesome! I love it when a beer turns out to be one of the best beers you've ever had.

Mind sharing the recipe?

This is Braufessor's (posted me above) recipe that he modified in one of his recipe threads. The modified version was deep in the thread, but I'm sure if he sees this he can post you a link. I followed his recipe very closely although he provides several options of how to do things. One option is yeast and I used 1318 since I found it at my LHBS. Since you'll do dry hop addition #1 in the fermenter during the final stages of fermentation, it is important to catch the gravity at the right time. I hit 1.020 on day two so I had to hustle to get the hops in before the end of attenuation. In others words, if you do use 1318, it is a fast attenuating yeast for sure!

I like to go "extreme" on my water profiles to really taste the difference if any. My latest NE IPA I went with 300 ppm Chloride to 50 ppm Sulfate. This style benefits from higher chloride, everyone mentioned the beer had a really nice body and soft mouth feel. I still got a huge amount of aroma and hop flavor out of it. My west coast style IPA's I do the reverse 300 ppm sulfate to 50 ppm chloride and really like the results there as well.

You got courage! I'd be scared to death to go that deep with Cl, but I bet it really makes it interesting. Would you go that reversed balance - high sulfate to low chloride - with a California Commons? I have that beer scheduled right after this next NE IPA.

 

[Braufessor]

awesome! I love it when a beer turns out to be one of the best beers you've ever had.

Mind sharing the recipe?

Here is the link to the recipe he is referring to. There is a link in post #1 that takes you to an updated version in post #1418. It is a really good starting point for a NE type IPA.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=568046

 

[Morrey]

awesome! I love it when a beer turns out to be one of the best beers you've ever had.

Mind sharing the recipe?

Braufessor shared his recipe with you above. I printed out his modified recipe and "studied" it for several sessions while making my final decisions. I took his info and plugged it into BeerSmith with my profiles and efficiency numbers. As stated, the results are stellar.

 

[plazola86]

You got courage! I'd be scared to death to go that deep with Cl, but I bet it really makes it interesting. Would you go that reversed balance - high sulfate to low chloride - with a California Commons? I have that beer scheduled right after this next NE IPA.

Not sure for a common never tried making one but I would probably stick closer to 150 ppm sulfate. I like my west coast IPA's/pales to be dry and crispy. Mashing at 148 and high sulfate helps.

 

[marjen]

Glad it went well! These beers are the best. My latest is on tap and just delicious. I am realizing that 5 gallon batches is not enough. Looking to go to 10 or 15 gallon batches some time soon.

By far my best hop combination (twice now) is columbus to bitter, with heavy mosaic, and citra and experimental grapefruit as supporting. Think my totals were as follows:

3 oz columbus
3 oz citra
2 oz experimental grapefruit
8 oz mosaic

Soo, good. Going to start experimenting with some other hops this weekend, ordered some HBC 438, Zythos and Ekuanot today. Going to try a couple of those in support of mosaic next.

Congrats on the beer.

 

[Morrey]

Well darn...I am "officially" spoiled. Even though my NE IPA keg is not totally carbed, I took a big sip today and love this stuff. Problem is...not much else can compare. Soft yet full, rounded but assertive, rich but easy on the taste buds. Darn....where have you been all my life? LOL

So to ease the pain of the wait I opened a commercial IPA. Ok, it sucks. Like a mouth full of soap suds. So bitter on the front end and stays bitter thru the finish. My NE IPA is amazing. I love this stuff.

 

[bobeer]

Here is the link to the recipe he is referring to. There is a link in post #1 that takes you to an updated version in post #1418. It is a really good starting point for a NE type IPA.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=568046

Thank you!!

 

[isomerization]

Well darn...I am "officially" spoiled. Even though my NE IPA keg is not totally carbed, I took a big sip today and love this stuff. Problem is...not much else can compare. Soft yet full, rounded but assertive, rich but easy on the taste buds. Darn....where have you been all my life? LOL

So to ease the pain of the wait I opened a commercial IPA. Ok, it sucks. Like a mouth full of soap suds. So bitter on the front end and stays bitter thru the finish. My NE IPA is amazing. I love this stuff.

That is the one downside to loving NE IPAs (at least to me), is that my palate is basically wrecked (or sophisticated if you want to be an optimist!) for bitter IPAs. Strangely I still find that I enjoy the maltier DIPAs, must be a balance thing?

 

[VagueSkunk]

Well darn...I am "officially" spoiled. Even though my NE IPA keg is not totally carbed, I took a big sip today and love this stuff. Problem is...not much else can compare. Soft yet full, rounded but assertive, rich but easy on the taste buds. Darn....where have you been all my life? LOL

So to ease the pain of the wait I opened a commercial IPA. Ok, it sucks. Like a mouth full of soap suds. So bitter on the front end and stays bitter thru the finish. My NE IPA is amazing. I love this stuff.

Welcome to the dark side
I was a hardcore west coast-style IPA guy for many years...the more IBUs the better was my view. Until the 1st time I tried a NE style IPA (from Monkish in Torrance CA...I think it was "Beats is Infinite")...it was like the clouds opened up and I heard angels...my mind was blown. Life hasn't been the same since that day and now I find myself chasing that juice lol.
I just wish that there were more commercially available beers in this style.

 

[plazola86]

I just wish that there were more commercially available beers in this style.

Don't worry INBEV will have these on the shelf's nationwide by the end of the year! LOL

 

[VagueSkunk]

Don't worry INBEV will have these on the shelf's nationwide by the end of the year! LOL

Dont go there! lol

 

[Sbe2]

Welcome to the dark side
I was a hardcore west coast-style IPA guy for many years...the more IBUs the better was my view. Until the 1st time I tried a NE style IPA (from Monkish in Torrance CA...I think it was "Beats is Infinite")...it was like the clouds opened up and I heard angels...my mind was blown. Life hasn't been the same since that day and now I find myself chasing that juice lol.
I just wish that there were more commercially available beers in this style.

I felt the same way on from my first heady and Dr J (Julius), been chasing the juice ever since.

 

[Morrey]

Welcome to the dark side
it was like the clouds opened up and I heard angels...my mind was blown.

I am with you bro! Now that my NEIPA is carbing up and conditioning nicely....Wow times 2X

 

[TravelingLight]

Awesome work, Morrey! As you may remember from our chats, I've got my 4th NEIPA attempt finishing up in the carboy now. Each time I've gotten another variable right but still haven't gotten it spot on. I've got high hopes I nail it with this one. The last one I did was almost perfect, except it didn't quite have the color I wanted and wasn't hazy enough. So I made a yeast change for this one and hoping it turns out how I want it. I had been using the F1 hybrid that @suregork grew up from Conan x WLP644. I love the yeast but I think it floccs too much for this style. So I did WLP008 on this one. I was considering 1318 like most use but I've got a buddy who swear by 008 and after having one of his last weekend, I was sold. I'll report back in a week or so when this is in the keg.

 

[Jtk78]

Congrats. I've also opened my first NEIPA this week. Every time I pour one, I like it more. I want to share it, but I hate giving any away.

 

[Morrey]

I have a normal pipeline of other beers going, so 2 weeks to carb up one with set and forget is pretty standard procedure. In fact, most beers get much more than two weeks on gas as they are cold keg conditioning anyway.

However, I just experienced the longest two weeks ever waiting for this beer to carb up. I didn't want to burst carb it since I have gas on other beers at the same time. BUT I did just get in the mail a specialty keg lid with a carbing stone built in that drops into the bottom of the keg. BTW...I am brewing my second NEIPA today so shall see how the carb stone works in short order.

 

[Morrey]

Awesome work, Morrey! As you may remember from our chats, I've got my 4th NEIPA attempt finishing up in the carboy now. Each time I've gotten another variable right but still haven't gotten it spot on. I've got high hopes I nail it with this one. The last one I did was almost perfect, except it didn't quite have the color I wanted and wasn't hazy enough. So I made a yeast change for this one and hoping it turns out how I want it. I had been using the F1 hybrid that @suregork grew up from Conan x WLP644. I love the yeast but I think it floccs too much for this style. So I did WLP008 on this one. I was considering 1318 like most use but I've got a buddy who swear by 008 and after having one of his last weekend, I was sold. I'll report back in a week or so when this is in the keg.

I'll take a pic this weekend and post on this thread. If this beer had no head on it, I'd swear it was straight up grapefruit juice. Seems the 1318 is staying in suspension, but as we have discussed, most any beer will drop out and clear somewhat given long enough in cold kegs. I had a Hefe last year that cleared darn near as much as a German Pilsner.

Will be interested in the reports on 008.

Not quite fully carbed, maybe 20% to go, plus I am sampling from a picnic tap which can cause issues as well. Once I get inside in my BevAir kegerator, all will settle off. Nevertheless, the best beer ever!!