Recipe: NE IPA - Haze Craze

I have a knack for brewing IPAs that non IPA drinking folks really like to drink.  I’ve always brewed my IPAs with a restrained bitterness, dry finish, but softer mouthfeel, and leaning heavy on finishing hops.  I don’t brew these so that non IPA drinkers will drink them, I brew them because I much prefer them to the bulk of the IPAs I can get here in the PNW.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to get a well-made and bitter IPA, but I only tend to have one.  We recently got Founder’s here in Oregon, and I had an All Day IPA.  It literally took me all day to drink it.  It was out of balance, with an edgy bitterness that made the finish firm instead of refreshing.  When I drink an IPA, I want each sip to leave you wanting another.  I crave balance.  So once I put down the alien hop juice Brett IPA, I naturally was drawn to brewing a NE IPA.

NE IPAs are known for being hazy to downright murky.  This tends to turn off many “sophisticated” beer drinkers here in the PNW who think all beer has to be bright and clear (except Hefe and Wit).  While I prefer my IPAs on the brighter side (too much hop polyphenols in suspension can actually give off a false bitterness and grassiness), I still like some natural haze (read, naturally hazy from the grain bill and water profile, not from yeast sludge and hop debris).  These beers are also known for their soft mouthfeel and big juicy hop character.  The soft mouthfeel is from high levels of Chlorides and flaked grains, as well as a yeast strain that gives off perceived body.  The juiciness is a concert of stone fruit (peach, apricot, nectarine) esters from the British yeast strain and large doses of late hops.  The yeast strain choice also helps with hop oil bio-transformation, which can take the hop oils present and rearrange them into bigger juicer flavors and aromas.

OG 1.060

FG 1.011

ABV 6.6%

IBU 67

SRM 6

60 mins mash @ 150

67% Vienna Malt

11% Dark Wheat

11% Flaked Oats

5% Sugar

3% Carapils

2% Carastan

2% Acid Malt

Calcium Chloride

30 min boil

30 Columbus

10 Citra, Simcoe

FO Citra, Simcoe, Columbus

DH1 Citra, Simcoe, Columbus (Primary)

2 weeks @ 67+

West Yorkshire 1469

Kegged
Keg 1 - Single DH
Keg 2 - DH2 Simcoe & Citra