Thursday, July 16, 2015

Brewery Trial Recipe - IPA 2.0


The beauty and difficulty of working with yeast is that some of the strains out there have the ability to transform the aromatics of the hops into something different than what you were expecting.  This can create amazing new flavors and aromas from the hops than what you were expecting, but it also makes it difficult to put together a hop bill when looking for a specific flavor or aroma.  I tried shifting up my Columbus to try to get some resin in the profile compared to the last batch, and the Chinook and Columbus are just putting out more fruit.  It makes for a wonderful beer, very aromatic and juicy, but it is lacking a little bit of that PNW oomph I want in there.  I don't want much, just a little pine and dankness to take me out of the fruit juice arena a little more.  It is also difficult to get any bitterness to shine through.  The yeast is really impacting the bitterness and making it hard to get a snap on the finish.  Again, it tastes great, but it just needs a touch more bitterness to clarify, yes, this is indeed an IPA.  I really don't want this beer to be a traditional PNW IPA with lots of cattiness and citrus with a walloping bitterness.  I want it to be bold and aromatic with a restrained bitterness, lots of juicy fruits, with a subtle resin and pine.  A marriage of the new juicy East Coast IPAs and the traditional PNW IPA.  Still need to adjust up the Columbus and Chinook with a higher IBU and see how it goes.  Also need to get the ABV back down to 7.0%.  Other than that, this IPA is pretty much spot on.



NAME: Release the Panic
STYLE: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
SIZE: 11.5 gallons
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.007
ABV: 7.5%
SRM: 8
IBU: 74 (Modified Tinseth)

Efficeincy: 89%

Grain Bill:
Pale Ale Malt, Vienna Malt, Flaked Oats, Caramalt 30/37, Dememera Sugar

Hop Bill:
Magnum, Meridian, Chinook, CTZ, Nugget

Yeast:
House juicy, 77*F

Water:
Crisp, dry, bitter

Extras:
None.

2 comments:

  1. I've experienced the disappearance of bitterness from by 100% brett beers as well. I've always been curious about the scientific reason for this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure about the science. I was sitting down with Jamie Floyd from Ninkasi tasting this beer and chatting about the brewery and he said that they even struggle to get the bitterness to really shine with the English yeast they use. He said if you want a truly clean hop expression and bitterness you are forced to use Cal Ale.

      Delete