How do you jazz up an IPA?

[OneGallonGal]

Hey guys,

I've wetting my toes in the homebrew game for coming up on a year now it seems. I recently got a 1 gallon IPA kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. My husband's sister and dad are coming down week after next and they're interested in the brewing process. Now, I brewed the IPA two weeks ago, racked to the secondary last week and I *had* planned to bottle tomorrow or Sunday, however, since they're coming down, I thought it'd be fun if we bottled what I have before we brew together so they can see more of the whole process. Since I have an extra week or so before bottling, I was thinking of throwing in a little somethin-somethin to jazz it up a bit. I have a couple ideas, i'm open to other ideas and I was hoping for some input from you guys.
Idea 1: I've previously attempted an Earl Grey Some-sort-of-ale-thing-I-made-up. I steeped the tea in the water I used for the mash and I believe I used more tea for the sparge (this was a 1 gallon recipe so going all grain was no biggie). The beer was good--if a bit bitter--but not very earl-grey-y. I was thinking of taking another stab and making an Earl Grey Beer and dry hopping the IPA I have in the closet.
Idea 2: Lavender or some other nice floral herb. Also thinking of dry hopping with this.
Idea 3: Post on the internet and ask for more ideas

If I wanted to dry hop with these, does anyone have any suggestions for how much/how long? I was thinking of throwing some in the grain bag I have from the mash and stuffing that into the fermentor (little 1 gallon growler). I hear tea has some natural anti-bacterial properties and since my beer is already fully fermented, i'm hoping I shouldn't have to worry *too* much about sanitization. Could i maybe bake the additives prior to adding them? I'm afraid to boil them because then all the flavor would be lost in the "tea" and I don't want to add more non-beer liquid to my beer.

I'm also open to non-herby ideas, would fruit do well in an IPA? As i'm writing this and thinking about it, the lavender does sound pretty interesting. I'm afraid the tea might add MORE bitterness to an IPA but I wouldn't expect too much bitter from lavender.

Thanks in advance for your help!! (Sorry for the long post...)

 

[Euphist]

Personally, I would dry hop it. Throw a half ouce or so in until bottling time.

 

[cyclonite]

If you used citrusy hops, I find that apricot is really good in an IPA. The easiest to use is extract (just put 2-6 oz in when you go to bottle). Purée gives the best fruit flavor, but is the most expensive and gets lost a bit in an IPA (great in a blonde, amber, or lightly hopped pale).

 

[STLExpat]

I started with the Everyday IPA, from the feedback I got it could do with some dry hopping. But it will be good regardless. Be prepared for it to be overcarbonated though.

 

[OneGallonGal]

@cyclonite Would you pasteurize the apricots first? If I wanted to use the real fruit, would I just puree some dried apricots?
I thought about apricots too since i've tried the Dogfish Head ApriHop, but I was a little disappointed w/ the lack of apricotness.

@STLExpat 1) Sorry you're an expat. There's no place like the Lou. 2) Would you recommend decreasing the amount of honey added at bottling to prevent the overcarbonation?

Apricot is sounding rather tempting now....

 

[STLExpat]

To be honest, I think a different priming sugar would be better. From what I've read and been told honey is extremely fermentable. My director had an extra bag of dextrose and gave it to me so I'm going to try it and see if there is an improvement with my next two batches.

And thanks for the kind words. Southern Maryland isn't bad, but St. Louis it isn't. If the Blues can hang on I'm going to try and make it back for a playoff game.