Master Exploder: a 12% ABV, 200 IBU IIIPA

[weirdboy]

If you like hop bombs, this one is for you.


The hops bag was FULL at the end of the boil and there was an oil slick on the surface of the wort, I believe from all the hop oils in there. I am not sure what kind of utilization I actually got, but this is extremely hoppy. A member of my brew club called it "the most bitter beer I've ever had".

Original gravity going into the fermenter was about 5 points short of where I wanted to be sans sugar. C'est la vie. I guess 1.101 is close enough.

The sugar was NOT added at the end of the boil as the recipe seems to indicate, but after one week in the fermenter, added as a simple syrup. I am not sure how to specify that in Beersmith without making a custom ingredient, which I am too lazy to do. This was allowed to ferment out for another 2 weeks before the first round of dry hops.

Dry hops are shown in the recipe as 7 days or 14 days. It is NOT when I put them in, but merely a way for me to organize it in Beersmith. This is two rounds of dry hopping. The first round got shoved into a sanitized hops bag and racked onto out of primary. For the second round, I simply pulled the first bag out, and dropped in a second bag.

Another note is that I originally planned to pitch 2 packets of US-05, but when I looked at my packets they were pretty old. Already expired, in fact. So, I decided to pitch 4 packets instead.

Attenuation was incredible; over 90%. I was hoping for it to dry out very well, and it did.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 8.13 gal
Estimated OG: 1.106 SG
Estimated Color: 8.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 202.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 43.48 %
07 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US - BULK (2.0 SRM) Grain 30.43 %
01 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
01 lbs Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
01 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
01 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
2.25 oz Simcoe 2009/07/02 [13.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 69.4 IBU
1.72 oz Magnum (2010/06/12) [13.20 %] (60 min) (FWH) 59.9 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial - 2009/05/22 [8.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 21.1 IBU
0.70 oz Chinook 2009/12/16 [11.50 %] (60 min) (FWH) 21.2 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus 2009/05/22 [14.00 %] (20 min) Hops 20.3 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial - 2009/05/22 [8.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus 2009/05/22 [14.00 %] (5 min) Hops 6.7 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial - 2009/05/22 [8.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe 2009/07/02 [13.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 oz Centennial - 2009/05/22 [8.00 %] (Dry Hops #1) -
1.00 oz Columbus 2009/05/22 [14.00 %] (Dry Hops #1) -
1.00 oz Simcoe 2009/07/02 [13.00 %] (Dry Hops #1) -
1.50 oz Columbus 2009/05/22 [14.00 %] (Dry Hops #2) -
1.00 oz Centennial - 2009/05/22 [8.00 %] (Dry Hops #2) -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hops #2) -
2 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 8.70 %
2 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 21.00 lb
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Single Infusion Add 31.50 qt of water at 159.5 F 150.0 F


Ferment at 61F for 7 days before adding 2lbs. sugar.
Ferment at 61F for another 14 days before adding first round of dry hops.

 

[shauntraxler]

Sounds like heavenly nectar.

 

[1Mainebrew]

Why the melanoiden malt in this brew?

 

[weirdboy]

I just like the flavor it adds.

 

[Lee-Ryan]

Wow! I gotta know how this turns out!

 

[weirdboy]

I can tell you that now because I have been drinking it for a week. It is AWESOME. But, you really gotta like the hop bombs. I cannot stress that enough.


And it is a bit boozy, but at 12% ABV I wasn't really expecting otherwise.

 

[1Mainebrew]

It sounds really good. How many volumes of co2 are you at? Is it champagne like in carbonation and body or carbed at the normal 2-2.5 volumes?

 

[weirdboy]

It is carbed at 12 PSI @42F. So around 2.4 volumes.

 

[o4_srt]

Any plans for a wonderboy wit?

 

[1Mainebrew]

That just keeps sounding better. I may try this.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Some interesting choices here such as 4 different hops for 60 min bittering additions and a lot of "malty" specialties.

 

[weirdboy]

Ah I noticed something those 60 minute hops are all supposed to be First Wort Hops additions, but somehow the text got cut off when I cut & pasted it.

I also saw the text was cut off on some of the dry hops additions. I went ahead and fixed the text on those and also reorganized them so they are in the order you're supposed to add them. For whatever reason Beersmith really likes to scramble up the hops additions in the recipe.

Part of the reason I used 4 different hops, as was noted, is that I basically ended up using all of the remaining Amarillo, Columbus, Simcoe, Chinook, and Centennial I had left in my freezer to make this recipe. So I couldn't really just stick one in there for all the bittering.

 

[MadRok]

I thought I was crazy for my IIPA 1.081 OG 8% abv, but this is a whole other level.

 

[Skelator]

what was your fg? How long did you ferment/age it?

 

[weirdboy]

Original recipe of this had an OG of 1.101 (including sugar additions, which happened after primary fermentation) and finished at 1.010 for 12.0% ABV.


I recently made another batch of this that for whatever reason I got much better efficiency on, so it started out at 1.109 and ended up at 1.014 for 12.7% ABV.


It takes a while for the fusels to condition out. On my first batch, I basically did it like I would do a regular IPA, and added the dry hops a few weeks after fermentation had finished, but it was still pretty fusel, and wasn't really drinkable, IMO, until a couple of months later.

On the second batch, I waited until about 6 weeks after brew day before I finally added the first round of dry hops. By the time the two rounds of dry hops were done, I had cold crashed/gelatin, and then kegged & carbonated, it was approximately 10-11 weeks from brewday before I pulled a pint off the tap. Essentially no fusels, and hammers you over the head with hops. It does not really come off as a 12+% beer at all.