Thursday, February 13, 2014

RECIPES: #57 Hop Hedonist (IPA) & #58 Identity Crisis (Black IPA)

No matter how hard I try to get away from it, I can't escape that reality that I am a Hop Head.  The aromatics of tropical fruits, pine, citrus rinds, resins, they are just so alluring.  With a pulling bitterness in the finish and a mild malt backing to support the hops, an IPA is truly a thing of beauty.  Yes, there are many out there who hate bitter beer, but maybe it is because I am from the North West, I gotta have them hops.  And it had been too long with out them.  I blew my keg of Autumn IPA a month ago and have been fiending for the hops ever since.  I bought some Dale's Pale Ale, Hopothermia, and Palate Wrecker and it just isn't cutting it.  Finally I got a chance to brew up 2 IPAs.  

This is essentially the same recipe I did last year at this time which gave me a smaller batch than desired Black IPA and a full batch of 2nd Place IPA which was my first kegged beer.  This iteration had a couple swaps on the hops, and a much higher efficiency than I was expecting.  The added efficiency gave me some extra ABV, which is fine, but it also ended up with the beers finishing a little higher on the FG than I wanted.  No biggy, the hops will still shine.  I started off with a base of Pale Ale malt and added in some Dark Munich and Dark Wheat for color and complexity, and finished off with Demera sugar to drop the FG a little and add some richness.  On top of this backdrop I layered in quite a bit of Chinook for that spicy piney grapefruit thing, along with Cascade and Centennial blend for floral and grapefruit, Mosaic for that tropical and peach kiss, and Blisk for its tropical, resiny, piney, citrus kick.  A huge dose of dry hops will finish them off to get that punch in the sinuses.

Before brew day I cold steeped some Midnight Wheat for 24 hours then boiled it to a syrup which I added to the fermenter for the Black IPA.  This worked great last year and it allows me to get 2 very different IPAs from a single brew day with not much extra effort.  Single mash, single boil, split to different fermenters with different yeasts, and different dry hops.  I had also gotten a pitch of Conan from a buddy at the brew club and stepped it up for both beers.  It smelled off when I got it and I could definitely tell it was infected on brew day, so I had to scramble for yeast that afternoon.
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Stats:  IPA & Black IPA
Gallons: 5.20 & 5.20
OG: 1.073 & 1.073
FG: 1.015 & 1.019
ABV: 7.7% & 7.1%
IBUs: 58 & 58
SRM: 6 & 25
Efficiency: 91% (total batch extract)
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Fermentables:
11.00# Pale Ale Malt (Weyermann) (49.4%)
5.25# Pale Malt (Great Western) (23.6%)
2.25# Wheat Malt, Dark (10.1%)
2.25# Munich II (Weyermann) (10.1%)
1.50# Sugar, Dememera (6.7%)
0.50# Midnight Wheat (Cold Steeped for Black IPA)
Mash 10 hours @ 150*F
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Boil: 60 mins
60 1.20oz Zeus 16.4%AA
30 1.00oz Chinook 12.0%AA
15 1.50oz Mosaic 12.4%AA
15 1.50oz Cascade/Centennial Blend 10.0%AA
5   2.00oz Chinook 12.0%AA
WP 25 1.50oz Cascade/Centennial Blend 10.0%AA
WP 25 2.00oz Blisk 11.0%AA
WP 25 1.00oz Chinook 12.0%AA
IPA Dry Hops: 1.0oz Simcoe, 2oz Mosaic 1.0oz Blisk, 1.0oz Calypso
Black IPA DH: 1.0oz Blisk, 2.0oz Chinook, 1.0oz Mosaic, 1.0oz Simcoe
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Kettle Additions:
Gypsum Mash 2 2/8 tsp Boil 1 7/8 tsp
Epsom Salts Mash 5/8 tsp  Boil 3/8 tsp
Calcium Chloride Mash 6/8 tsp Boil 5/8 tsp
Pickling Lime Mash 4/8 tsp
Yeast Nutrient 5 taps
Whirfloc 1 each
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Fermentation:
Cooled to: 58*F
WY1469 West Yorkshire (Slurry from Stephen) - IPA
WY1968 London ESB (Ninkasi Slurry) - Black IPA
65*F 3 days
68*F 4 days
72*F 7 days
40*F 2 days
65*F 3 days (Kegged on Dry Hops)
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Notes:
1/20 Got 40ml of Conan slurry from brewclub member, pitched into 1L stirred starter. Put in fridge morning of 1/22.  Stepped up to 2L that night.  Crash cooled on 1/24.

1/22 Added Midnight Wheat to French Press with cold water, placed in fridge for 24 hours.  1/23 strained off liquid and sparged to 1qt of wort.  Boiled down to 1 pint and sealed in boiled mason jar in fridge until brewday.

1/24-25  Brewed with Callen (kind of, he mostly brewed his own beer using leaves, mashed grains, water, and oatmeal, but he had tons of fun) while dealing with the stomach flu on Saturday.  Mashed in @ 150*F at 9:50 pm Friday.  Cooled to 135*F over 9 hours.  Sparged and collected 12.5 gallons, of 1.052 wort; boiled and added hops according to recipe.  Whirlpooled for 30 minutes.  Chilled to 58*F in 35 mins.  Transferred to 2 Better Bottles (one containing Midnight Wheat syrup). 

Smelled the Conan starter and it was off, sour.  Tracked down Ninkasi pitch for the Black IPA, got a 1469 from Stephen at church from his 15 gallon conicle of IPA for the regular IPA.

Good fermentation at 17 hours.

Fermented at 65 for 3 days, then raised to 68 for 4 days, then to 72 for 5 days to finish strong.  

2/6 Pulled samples, both are at 1.021 which is really high, jumped up temp to 75 and roused yeast.  Winter storm hit and knocked out power on 2/9, beers no longer on heat.  Allowed to cool for a few days.

2/10 Electricity is back on.  Samples read 1.015 for the IPA and 1.019 for the Black IPA. Continued to drop temps to get yeast out of suspension.

2/11  Racked each to keg with dry hops in nylon sack attached to the pressure relief valve inside with SS ring clamp.  Had some issues with pressure relief valves, but got them to hold.  Kept at 65*F for 3 days.

2/14 Put in fridge to chill and set to 10 psi for 2.3 vols CO2.  

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