IPA - clearing methods & quality techniques

[BrewToHeugh]

so here's an update...

cold crashed for about a month..

here's the result. not as clear... tastes great but the hop flavor wasnt as strong as i would have liked. maybe because of the cold crashing?? pretty much an IPA lager lol

 

[BansheeRider]

so here's an update...

cold crashed for about a month..

here's the result. not as clear... tastes great but the hop flavor wasnt as strong as i would have liked. maybe because of the cold crashing?? pretty much an IPA lager lol

You want to drink IPA's young and fresh because over time they loose hop aroma and flavor.

Looks like you have a little chill haze. I get chill haze on all my beers and can't figure out how to prevent it without adding something else like gelatin. I have beer that's been in the keg for a month and still has chill haze.

 

[JuiceyJay]

There is nothing wrong with a cloudy IPA. Some of my favorite IPA/imperial IPA's are cloudy, but if you want to clear it up, I found using a little Irish moss in the boil works pretty well!!!

 

[Calichusetts]

Cold Crash BEFORE you dry hop or transfer to the secondary...this is been my most recent change and I just cracked my first bottle of an IPA batch and it was crystal clear, only two days in the fridge.

Cold crashing after a dry hop will strip the aroma and flavor from it. The oils attach to the yeast and floc out as well. I've just started experimenting with a no secondary (gotta try everything, especially if you want to say x is better than y) and this is what I've come up with:

Ferment as normal...reach FG, then I cool crash (basically build a stonehedge of ice packs around the carboy) overnight and stick it in a fridge for two days...give it a day to warm, dry hop a week, then cool crash before bottling.

I was so disappointed when I went to bottle my first primary-only. It was still very cloudy, much more than when I used a secondary (and I never actually cold crashed my secondary method, just cool crashed, racked, dry hopped, then cool again).

BUT, the first bottle was so clear and no haze at all. I usually get haze, probably from the insane dry hop schedule I use on basically every batch, but its gone once it warms. This was out of the fridge, pour, and I could watch TV through it. That was only after two days!

 

[Puddlethumper]

This thread has been an interesting read. Now I have some questions for you IPA gurus ...

I'm just at the tail end of making my first IPA. Following Palmer's recipe for Victory & Chaos IPA out of his book and, so far, I've followed his directions about as close to the letter as I can. Moved to secondary after one week and dry hopped one ounce at that time. The beer has been held at about 65F for the past three weeks and most of the hops have settled off the top with only a very thin krausen layer remaining.

I brought the beer in yesterday to let it warm up to room temp before cold crashing with the idea I would bottle this coming Monday or Tuesday evening. I just noticed that I'm getting some bubbling activity in the airlock this morning. The beer is now at about 74F.

I have two questions about this batch:

1. The activity in the airlock tells me there is still some fermentation going on. I'm thinking I should just leave it alone until that stops. Don't need any bottle-grenades. Right? Wrong?

2. To cold crash or not?

Thanks!

 

[BrewToHeugh]

This thread has been an interesting read. Now I have some questions for you IPA gurus ...

I'm just at the tail end of making my first IPA. Following Palmer's recipe for Victory & Chaos IPA out of his book an...............

I have two questions about this batch:

1. The activity in the airlock tells me there is still some fermentation going on. I'm thinking I should just leave it alone until that stops. Don't need any bottle-grenades. Right? Wrong?

2. To cold crash or not?

Thanks!

I'm deff not the person to answer this but i thought id point out some important things about my batch and my thoughts...

I think cold crashing is a good idea but maybe my approach was a little off. first off, i left it in primary for about a month and then cold crashed it in my cellar during the winter which is typically around 30 degrees. I used a glass carboy and noticed it did clear a lot after a month. When i bottled my brew, and i think this is where i went wrong, i intentionally sucked up extra trub thinking that my carbonation might have been affected since it was cold crashed for so long. I actually got the idea from someone's advice in this forum because i was worried about my yeast levels(levels is it?). Well maybe i sucked up too much because there's a good amount of trub in each bottle so i have to carefully pour each bottle. Also my head retention is wild... the minute i pour a huge amount of foam develops and remains well after a minute. My take on this is A. shorter cold crashing might keep the hop taste stronger, like someone mentioned before B. dont bother with extra trub (siphoning should get enough) C. beer tastes great, fu*k it.

I'm going to make a short video and post to show the head.