Returning to classic - American IPA

[elproducto]

I've been brewing a ton of the "new school" West Coast IPA, but am looking to return to my all time favorite style, the classic American IPA.

Think - Dogfish Head 60min, Ballast Point Sculpin, Bell's Two Hearted.


Wondering if anyone has a recipe they've brewed lately that they really like. Bonus points for classic C-hops.

 

[Miraculix]

I've been brewing a ton of the "new school" West Coast IPA, but am looking to return to my all time favorite style, the classic American IPA.

Think - Dogfish Head 60min, Ballast Point Sculpin, Bell's Two Hearted.


Wondering if anyone has a recipe they've brewed lately that they really like. Bonus points for classic C-hops.

In my experience, you cannot go wrong with 95% Pale, 5% Crystal, 40 ibus, all cascade or Chinook, 50/50 60 min/10min Addition plus 2g/l dry. If you want, do hoch kurz mash, but 65 c single infusion also works. Good old us05 1.05 to 1.055 og.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Here's my old classic NW IPA recipe. It leans heavily on the two classic early '90s NW stalwarts, Tomahawk (CTZ) and Cascades. It also features C40, which I'll argue is necessary for a classic NW-style IPA. At the time, a full pound or more of C40 would've been used. My recipe dials that back to a quantity that gets the idea across without cluttering up the beer and getting in the way of the hops. This recipe has been updated to utilize whirlpooling, a more accurate recipe would've had the classic 10, 5, and KO hopping scheme. The Otter is also a more recent addition, a classic NW IPA would've used only domestic pale ale, often the Klages variety which isn't even planted anymore.

 

[mac_1103]

Believe it or not, the "Ugly Fish" recipe at MoreBeer makes a pretty good approximation of Sculpin. I didn't buy the kit, just put it together with local ingredients and hops from my still way too large inventory. Next time I brew it I'm going to back off on the kettle hops a little and bump up the dry hop.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Bell's Two Hearted.

When Bell's General Store had home brewing supplies, they had a 2H clone recipe and sold a kit that included with their "Select Hops" /1/.

The kit instructions also included

(as a hint?) but didn't indicate what water adjustments were done.

---

/1/ For some more details on "Select Hops" (no longer available), see Basic Brewing Radio episode "March 7, 2019 - Lab Testing HSBUs". The guest was involved in the "Hop Sampler" series and provided IBU measurements.

 

[elproducto]

Believe it or not, the "Ugly Fish" recipe at MoreBeer makes a pretty good approximation of Sculpin. I didn't buy the kit, just put it together with local ingredients and hops from my still way too large inventory. Next time I brew it I'm going to back off on the kettle hops a little and bump up the dry hop.

That looks good, but boy that is a lot of kettle hops!

 

[day_trippr]

Hey - that's authentic then! "Back in the day" we hardly did any of that newfangled "dry hopping" you youngsters enjoy so much

My "classic IPA" used the three hops I grew quite successfully for seven years - Chinook for bittering, and Cascade and Centennial for character - all in the kettle, no additions to the fermentors. Aside from the occasional use of a homemade "Randall", post-kettle hops just wasn't a thing here...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

boy that is a lot of kettle hops!

And a huge PITA because I really didn't think it through and clogged up my kettle valve something awful. But the final product was worth it. Here's the first pour, side-by-side with the real thing:



Served them blind to SWMBO and son; they both said mine was better (but being my own worst critic, I don't think I would agree). Think I'll pour one right now.

 

[elproducto]

Hey - that's authentic then! "Back in the day" we hardly did any of that newfangled "dry hopping" you youngsters enjoy so much

My "classic IPA" used the three hops I grew quite successfully for seven years - Chinook for bittering, and Cascade and Centennial for character - all in the kettle, no additions to the fermentors. Aside from the occasional use of a homemade "Randall", post-kettle hops just wasn't a thing here...

Cheers!

I've been brewing since 2007, I remember those days well

 

[kevin58]

That looks good, but boy that is a lot of kettle hops!

Not compared to some of the recipes I've collected from Shut Up About Barclay Perkins. The last two Scottish recipes posted there each had 8+ ounces of of hops in the boil... and one was a stout!

 

[worlddivides]

West Coast IPA is the style I've brewed the most and it's also the kind I still make the most. I still tend to add a decent amount of light to medium crystal/caramel malt, which most modern IPAs do not. I usually do 5% to 8% crystal, but I've gone over 10% in a lot of my old-school recipes (which wasn't unusual in the early 2000s and early 2010s). Hops are, as others have said, lots of boil additions, usually with no whirlpool/hopstand (a lot of them were MASSIVE MASSIVE flameout additions, though, which is like whirlpool/hopstand but adding some bitterness and not adding as much aroma). I usually used either Columbus or Centennial for bittering, then would use other C hops for aroma and flavor: Chinook, Cascade, and once it was released, Citra (and yes, I'd use Centennial and Columbus outside of just bittering as well). Also Simcoe is a great one. In fact, Simcoe is one of my all-time favorite hops, period. For West Coast imperial IPAs (double IPAs, triple IPAs), I often bittered with Magnum.

It is kind of funny now to think that I sometimes made West Coast IPAs where there was no dry hopping, which is something I would NEVER consider in my wildest dreams now, but it wasn't that unusual back then. I will say, though, that I tended to prefer the dry hopped versions, which is one of the main reasons why I ALWAYS dry hop my IPAs now.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

going back to #1 and #5, at the moment, 'Internet Archives' has a good "capture" of the 2H kit that was available at Bell's General Store when the store sold home brewing supplies.

• Product information page (link)
• Recipe (link)

eta: 60 min boil, hop additions at 45, 30, and dry hop (no hops at 60 or 0)

 

[InspectorJon]

From the recipe archives right here on HBT India Red Ale
I have made this several times and like it a lot. Pretty similar to Celebration Ale by Sierra Nevada.

 

[Dgallo]

You can adjust your modern west recipe quite easily to get you to the classic American ipa.

Use 12-15% character malt like Munich or Vienna 5-10% crystal. Lower percentage for 40-60 L and higher percentage for 10-20L crystal.

For bitterness, target a .8-1.0 BU/GU

For water, use an equal to slightly so4 leaning ratio.

Hops, go with the C hops. I like Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, and chinook personally, but any combo of those you enjoy.

For hop timing, I’d make sure I have a 20 minute addition that works for you IBU, but I would still whirlpool like I typically would for a west coast and then dryhop at the rate your comfortable with. I’d say atleast 1 oz per gallon but I wouldn’t dryhop too heavy like a modern ipa

 

[elproducto]

You can adjust your modern west recipe quite easily to get you to the classic American ipa.

Use 12-15% character malt like Munich or Vienna 5-10% crystal. Lower percentage for 40-60 L and higher percentage for 10-20L crystal.

For bitterness, target a .8-1.0 BU/GU

For water, use an equal to slightly so4 leaning ratio.

Hops, go with the C hops. I like Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, and chinook personally, but any combo of those you enjoy.

For hop timing, I’d make sure I have a 20 minute addition that works for you IBU, but I would still whirlpool like I typically would for a west coast and then dryhop at the rate your comfortable with. I’d say atleast 1 oz per gallon but I wouldn’t dryhop too heavy like a modern ipa

I think part of the issue is that the new school hops like Citra and Mosaic have ruined my palate. I keep chasing the way I think IPA tasted in 2007, but the C Hops just don't have the punch that the new oil rich hops have.

The beers I'm making with C Hops are always just underwhelming. I think I'll take your advice and start building a recipe. Maybe do some small batches and make adjustments to hop schedules to get closer to what I'm chasing.

 

[Dgallo]

I think part of the issue is that the new school hops like Citra and Mosaic have ruined my palate. I keep chasing the way I think IPA tasted in 2007, but the C Hops just don't have the punch that the new oil rich hops have.

The beers I'm making with C Hops are always just underwhelming. I think I'll take your advice and start building a recipe. Maybe do some small batches and make adjustments to hop schedules to get closer to what I'm chasing.

Use 50% of your whirlpool/dryhop with lupomax or cryo of the c hop. That should give them more punch!

 

[kurds_2408]

Here is my Epic Day Clone. It's a DIPA but is the classic American style. I don't think anyone on here has brewed it yet.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/epic-day-clone.736972/

 

[Dgallo]

Here is my Epic Day Clone. It's a DIPA but is the classic American style. I don't think anyone on here has brewed it yet.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/epic-day-clone.736972/

At 101 IBUs that’s would push it into the west coast style and at double strength in my opinion. But dropping the ibus would get if there for sure