My attempt at a "Vermont Style DIPA"

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

Hey HBT'ers,
After a recent trip up to VT (from MA), I can't help but be inspired! I've been brewing for about one year now and I've focused on DIPAs right from the beginning (although I did brew a session IPA that came out nice). Each batch has been based around the same recipe which is an Avery Maharaja clone - I swapped the American 2-Row for Irish Ale Malt as a base and then just did numerous slight alterations here and there. Well, I'm tired of that recipe and I'm going to give it a rest!

I've scoured the WorldWideWeb looking through DIPA recipes with just a couple of factors in the criteria; Citra, Citra, more Citra, and Vermont Ale yeast. These are the two things that I want to highlight my next 5gal batch. So, while cruising through recipes, I also looked for ingredients that seemed to be common players in the recipes that stood-out to me. This is my first time designing a recipe. I actually 'went at' the grain bill with perentages in mind once I figured out what I wanted to use - though I did limit the quantities to 'whole' or 'half' pounds (to keep it simple). Also, built the hop schedule with IBUs in mind - I knew I wanted to land as close to 100 IBU without having to deal with fractions of ounces. With all that being said, here is what I came up with.

OG 1.080
FG 1.016
ABV 9%-ish (depending efficiency and attenuation)
IBU 101.25
SRM 5.20

12.5# Pale 2 Row
2.5# Vienna
1# Carapils
1# Flaked Oats
1# Dextrose

(Roughly 70%, 15%, 5%, 5%, and 5%)

@60 - 1.5oz Columbus
@10 - 2oz Citra
@5 - 2oz Citra
@0 - 3oz Citra
DH - 2oz Citra
DH - 2oz Amarillo
DH - 2oz Mosaic

Vermont Ale Yeast (not sure who to order from yet. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!)

Mash @149F for 45mins. Raise to 154F for 15mins. Collect 7.5gals wort, 60min boil.

Pitch starter in the low 60's. Ferment at 65F until slowed. Raise temp to 68F.

1:1:1 Dryhop on day 7
1:1:1 Dryhop on day 11


Well, that's about it. Please feel free to chime-in if anything sounds wacky or questionable.. or if you think it looks like a tasty recipe!!

Cheers to all!!!

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

DISCLAIMER - I have never used a step mash. But, I can't see what it would add to a DIPA recipe.

Based on my experience, including a DIPA that just finished fermenting - Assuming you can hold your mash temp spot on for 75 mins, I'd mash at 149 for 75 mins. If your mash temp drifts down 1 or 2 degrees, start at 150.

I have never used oats in my DIPA. I think I would drop the oats.

I like the other malts and the hops and schedule.

 

[m00ps]

I like the recipe as is. Oats are great in an IPA. I personalyl like 20% wheat or so, especially with Conan. They both contribute a soft mouthfeel that makes the hops seem juicy.

Ive used gigayeast and omega yeasts versions of Conan. Both very good. If you harvest it, successive generations do higher attenuation ive found. Ferment in the mid 60s for a good apricot peach thing

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

Thanks for the feedback guys!! I'm excited about this recipe. Just need to procure a burner before brewing this one - I have been doing split-boils on the kitchen stove and realized (especially with my last batch) that I'm losing efficiency during the boil. For instance, my preboil gravity last time showed a 79% efficiency from the mash. Then, after the boil, my OG showed a 69% efficiency - not cool!!

I'll keep this thread alive when I brew the VT DIPA.

Cheers

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

Brewed this badboy last weekend and I am a little (only slightly) discouraged after six days of fermentation. Attenuation is wherein my worries lie.
OG was 1.085 (I rounded up the 2-row and Vienna to 13# and 3#, respectively) and after six days in the ferm-fridge, I'm only down to 1.034.

Activity is still steady and I've raised the temp from 64F to 68F to help the yeast finish their job. I pitched a healthy 2L starter from a pre-pimped vial of Vermont Ale yeast by Yeastbay -- I grew the vial one week ahead of time and propagated 6 mason jars of clean yeast, then grew the starter a couple days before brewday from just one of the 6 mason jars. I'm calling my strain 'Grownan' haha.

The good news is, this stuff tastes un-freakin-believable!! We (myself, brew-partner, and another buddy) tasted the gravity sample and were absolutely floored by it. It is a tropical-juice-bomb with a silky, smooth texture. I can only imagine how this thing will taste/smell after it dries-out further and all the dry-hops are added - I tossed 1oz of each Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo last night and the smell wafting from the blow-off jug is heavenly!! One more addition of the same varieties/amount will happen a few days from now.

I'll keep this thread going all the way to the glass since the recipe has had quite a few views. Maybe my notes will encourage another HBT'er to give it a shot.

Cheers

 

[m00ps]

im guessing upping the temp will help it finish out. I use conan exclusively for my IPAs and usually only keep it in the fridge for the first 7-8 days because I need room for the next batches. After that, its just at 68F ambient room temp and I never have had off flavors from it

also, Ive found Conan gets stronger attenuation the more you use it on successive generations. Ive found this in both the gigayeast and omega yeast offerings but havent tried yeast bay. The attenuation goes from like mid 70s to low 80s

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

Right on! I'm sure it will show a decent attenuation, I was just expecting to see a good portion completed after six days - and then a slow stroll down to the target FG.

I'm even stoked about the appearance of the beer already. It's super hazy and a lovely deep yellow to light orange color.

 

[ryancrook]

The recipe you have there is close to a double sunshine clone. I've made this a bunch of times and did extremely well in competitions. The oats will add a nice creaminess to the mouthfeel.

 

[ryancrook]

Except the dry hops. DS uses all citra except first addition

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

The recipe you have there is close to a double sunshine clone. I've made this a bunch of times and did extremely well in competitions. The oats will add a nice creaminess to the mouthfeel.

Lol dude I just realized the similarity today after stumbling on the Double Sunshine clone. Admittedly, I'm sure I saw that same recipe earlier-on when I was formulating this one; at that time, I had flipped through dozens of recipes and just kept a mental note of the ingredients that I thought made the most sense for what I wanted to end-up brewing.
If my memory serves correct, the only difference in the grain bill is the DS clone has Caravienne. Then, a little variation in the hops. And lastly, I don't think the clone uses the Conan yeast.
I've had SOS before but never DS. All I know is (as long as nothing screwy happens before this batch gets kegged) this beer is going to be a total knockout! Fingers crossed

 

[phishheadmi]

Sounds like a winner!!

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

Second round of dry-hops last night and another gravity reading. This beer smells heavenly already though I think all the dry-hops are going to take away from the Conan (peachy) aroma slightly. The gravity is down to 1.022 (from 1.034 four days ago). I'm planning to keg on Tuesday which will be exactly 2 weeks of fermentation. I'll hold-off a couple days though if it's still reaching for the FG.

Taste -- Well, I actually enjoyed the mouthfeel more with the previous sample when the beer was at 1.034. Now, she's dried-up a bit more and literally seems like a fruit juice - not a bad thing really. We imagined what the carbonated final product would be like and ultimately agreed on Pineapple Soda. It's quite interesting how this yeast interacts with the hops. Numerous people mention that Conan creates a perceivable juiciness to the hops - I couldn't agree more!

I'll be back

 

[m00ps]

My next IPA i want to try basically making it fruit juice. Going to shoot for an orange/tropical juice vibe. Putting some wheat flour int he mash and a few tbsp in the boil so it looks like OJ. Calling it Sunny D-IPA

 

[frettfreak]

Looks great!! I love conan yeast! I can vouch for the fact that attenuation gets MUCH better on successive rounds though. I would also say that when i do my step up temps in fermentation, i usually get it up to about 70 to really pull as much out as possible. I start around 65, usually for 3 days, bump to 68 for a day or 2, then finish at 70.

Oats are GREAT in ipa's, i use them alot myself, but lately i have been trying crystal oats (golden naked oats) and been loving those as well. Not that same as flaked, but good for sure!

Good luck. Sounds like its gonna be a great beer!

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

So, the BigJuicy is carbed-up and the results are in..

This beer is amazing! The best I've brewed yet. I'm going to have to show some restraint though; I want to see how this beer evolves in the keg. I actually brewed the same recipe again yesterday with the only difference being water treatment - I work at a dialysis clinic and have easy access to treated water so this is how I typically collect brew water:
Mash Water - filtered, softened, de-chlorinated, then treated with 1tsp gypsum and 1tsp calcium chloride.
Sparge Water - RO, no adjustments.

This time around, I bypassed the softener, added the same amounts of gypsum and calcium chloride, then (for the first time ever) added lactic acid to bring the pH (7.5) down to 5.2. The sparge water was straight RO as usual.

We hit our mash temp like professionals lol.. usually I overshoot the dough-in temp and then freakout and stir like a madman trying to get down to the rest temp as quick as possible.

One other difference was that we used a muslin bag for boil additions for the first time. What a charm!! No kettle hops in the fermenter

Happy Monday

 

[pricelessbrewing]

So, the BigJuicy is carbed-up and the results are in..

This beer is amazing! The best I've brewed yet. I'm going to have to show some restraint though; I want to see how this beer evolves in the keg. I actually brewed the same recipe again yesterday with the only difference being water treatment - I work at a dialysis clinic and have easy access to treated water so this is how I typically collect brew water:
Mash Water - filtered, softened, de-chlorinated, then treated with 1tsp gypsum and 1tsp calcium chloride.
Sparge Water - RO, no adjustments.

This time around, I bypassed the softener, added the same amounts of gypsum and calcium chloride, then (for the first time ever) added lactic acid to bring the pH (7.5) down to 5.2. The sparge water was straight RO as usual.

We hit our mash temp like professionals lol.. usually I overshoot the dough-in temp and then freakout and stir like a madman trying to get down to the rest temp as quick as possible.

One other difference was that we used a muslin bag for boil additions for the first time. What a charm!! No kettle hops in the fermenter

Happy Monday

just a heads up, your water isn't supposed to be 5.2 your mash is. So you may have added to much acid and brought your mash down too low. Would have to check with bru'n water

 

[Sweetwort-Hopkins]

just a heads up, your water isn't supposed to be 5.2 your mash is. So you may have added to much acid and brought your mash down too low. Would have to check with bru'n water

Uh-oh.. do you mean adjust the pH with the grain in the MLT??

 

[m00ps]

once you add the grains and mix them in, the mash pH should be in the low 5s. If your water was 5 before mashing though, I dont think you wouldve even gotten conversion. This probably wouldnt have even really made beer so I would guess somehow youre in the clear

 

[pricelessbrewing]

once you add the grains and mix them in, the mash pH should be in the low 5s. If your water was 5 before mashing though, I dont think you wouldve even gotten conversion. This probably wouldnt have even really made beer so I would guess somehow youre in the clear

This.

Use bru'n water to claculate your expected mash chemistry, then add the additions to your strike and mash water so that your mash PH and mineral content, etc etc, at the the target values. Once you add the grains and dough in, the PH will drop from 7~ to 5.3~ depending on water content and grain bill.