30 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

I mentioned OVER HERE that I had a great Session IPA in Bloomington, IN last week. I contacted the brewery for some information but have not heard anything... yet. Based on my mental tasting notes and the beer's description they have on their website, I'm formulating a recipe and plan to make it next week. This was a very refreshing, balanced, citrusy, piney pale-colored ale. In that other thread, it was mentioned that in some of these IPAs, the brewers are trying to "get the maltiness out of the way" which is an interesting concept. Many of these citrusy pale ales I've had have a good portion of wheat in them so that's where I went here too. I just got back from the LHBS and picked up a pound of various hops all in 1-oz bags.

Ken's Session IPA

5 lbs Rahr Pale Ale Malt
3.25 lbs Belgian Wheat
4 ounces Carafoam
1 oz Amarillo pellets 8.9% for 60 minutes
1 oz Amarillo pellets 7.7% for 10 minutes
1 oz Amarillo pellets 8.9% plus 1 oz Simcoe pellets 12.3% into the whirlpool/hopstand for 20-30 minutes between 160-175°.
1 oz Amarillo 8.9% plus 1 oz Simcoe 12.3% as a 10-14 day dry hop
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

OG: 1.048, FG: 1.012, IBU: 51, SRM: 4-5, ABV: 4.6%

I will mash at 151°, single infusion. I'm going to use 100% filtered tap water and add equal parts gypsum and calcium chloride (1.5 grams each) which will give me modest numbers of 45 (Cl) and 55 (SO4). I used Amarillo as a bittering hop in another pale ale and that beer came out really nicely. The vast majority of the bitterness will come from that one charge but all those late hops should bring out the citrus & pine. Feel free to poke holes or steer me in another direction if you think I've gone wrong. I picked up 4 ounces each of Citra, Amarillo and Simcoe today with some other APAs planned. Cheers.

Edited by Village Taphouse, 15 May 2015 - 12:42 PM.

[HVB]

If it was me I would up the SO4 up to at least 100 and I would also add in 1oz of citra in both the steep and dry hop.  If you do not want to citra in the beer, I can understand some say it overpowers, I would do at least 3oz for both the steep and dry hop.  I also would not be afraid to go to 149 for a mash temp but that is splitting hairs.  I assume the yeast will be some Chico variety?  Oh one last thing, IMO there is no need for a dry hop that long.  4-5 days is all you need.  You should be able to turn this beer around in 14-18 days grain to glass.

 

Oh and Brew it and drink it!

[neddles]

Looks nice. There are few things I would do differently but mostly minor stuff based on my system. I am assumimg 1056 for yeast? Also I agree with drez on hop quantities and duration of dry hopping.

[Big Nake]

Okay, so adding an additional ounce of hops to the whirlpool and dry hop is no problem. I could go 1½ ounces of each in both spots, no problem. As far as the Citra goes, I make a lot of other beers with Citra or Citra + Amarillo and I don't think this commercial beer had Citra in it. I bought some for these other beers I make but they're not going in here. So the last thing is this SO4 and mash temp. I'm concerned that SO4 of 100 plus all these hops plus a low mash temp is going to produce a mouth-puckeringly dry beer and I don't mean that in a good way. For me, having more SO4 in the beer than chloride is almost unheard of so consider what I typically do. I could lower the mash temp a bit but 149 is also relatively unheard of on my system so I would be a bit concerned about too many things pointing in the same direction. Is that paranoid of me? Also... On my last dry hop I went with 2 ounces for 10 days and I think it came out really nice. I have heard the 5 days can be plenty so maybe between 5-10 days could be considered the sweet spot?

Edited by Village Taphouse, 15 May 2015 - 12:48 PM.

[neddles]

10 days dry hop will probably be fine. It's just 5-7 days longer to wait for no reason in my experience. But if you are in no hurry you're fine.

 

Also I can see your concerns with too many things contributing to dryness. Maybe stick with your typical water composition for the first iteration of this beer.

[Big Nake]

Also I can see your concerns with too many things contributing to dryness. Maybe stick with your typical water composition for the first iteration of this beer.

I think it may be a good idea since this style is new to me and I'm already moving things in that hoppy direction anyway. If I make it and it comes out "good" but I feel like it could benefit from more punch (additional sulfate or whatever), then I can adjust. I once made a pale ale and went over the top on sulfate... I forget how much I added but it was someone else's suggestion... and the beer tasted like Alka-Seltzer. Really, really dry and chalky, absolutely no sweetness to counter any of the sulfate or hops. I don't want to take that chance so let's see how this goes. I will add more late hops and also just do the short dry hop. That's a few times now that brewers have mentioned that a shorter dry hop is perfectly acceptable. So change the recipe to show 1.5 ounces of each hop in the whirlpool and in the dry hop for a total of 8 ounces.

[Big Nake]

Made this beer early this morning. It ended up being 5.25 pounds of Rahr Pale Ale Malt, 3.25 lbs of Belgian wheat and 4 ounces of Carapils. An ounce of Amarillo to bitter, another with 10 mins left, 1.5 ounces each of Amarillo & Simcoe in the whirlpool (20 minutes) and I will dry hop with 1.5 ounces of each. The color came out very close to what I expected. The smells from these two hops put together was really nice. I added 1.5 grams of CaCl and CaSO4 to the mash which gave me overall numbers of 45ppm of chloride and 55ppm of SO4. I wonder about this "more chloride" thing that Drez is talking about and wonder about my ratio. But my numbers are small enough that it really should not matter much, right? My numbers are "balanced" so I'm thinking it's good.

[johnpreuss]

Quick thought on the dryhopping.... why bother... just keg hop it..

[Big Nake]

Quick thought on the dryhopping.... why bother... just keg hop it..

I don't want to open a can of beer here but a local pro brewer that I know and respect mentioned to me that dry hopping should take place at room temp to extract more of the hop oils that you want to get from that process. He also mentioned that dry hopping at serving temps can bring out more vegetal flavors from the hops. Take all of that lightly because I am very much a dry-hop newbie but I am getting more interested in styles like this (and the hoppy blonde recipe posted by Drez) for their hoppy kick but standard ABV. I know a lot of people who add hops to the keg and enjoy what they get. I have a muslin bag of Mt. Hoods floating in a cold keg of cream ale as we speak and it seems fine. It may also have to do with the variety of hops because I have actually experienced this vegetal character from adding hops to cold kegs.

[HVB]

just keg hop it..

[Big Nake]

On Monday 6/22, I added 3 ounces of pellets to this secondary (1½ each Amarillo and Simcoe) and that muslin bag of hops is the size of a 16" softball now. I did this in anticipation of a keg going down this week and (as envisioned) my keg of 2002 pilsner went down last night. I will keg this session IPA tonight (probably), get it cold and carb it. The color is very pale and the beer was really clear. The addition of the hops has made it slightly cloudy but my guess is that it will be an attractive beer as well as a delicious beer. If all goes as planned, I should be able to pull a cold & carbed sample from the keg on Monday night.

[matt6150]

On Monday 6/22, I added 3 ounces of pellets to this secondary (1½ each Amarillo and Simcoe) and that muslin bag of hops is the size of a 16" softball now. I did this in anticipation of a keg going down this week and (as envisioned) my keg of 2002 pilsner went down last night. I will keg this session IPA tonight (probably), get it cold and carb it. The color is very pale and the beer was really clear. The addition of the hops has made it slightly cloudy but my guess is that it will be an attractive beer as well as a delicious beer. If all goes as planned, I should be able to pull a cold & carbed sample from the keg on Monday night.

So if you just started dry hopping Mon and its looking cloudy why not just move the whole secondary to cold crash for a couple days then when you keg it should clear up. It will give the hops another day or so in the beer as well. Just a thought. Unless you really wanted to get it to the taps then I can see that.

[Big Nake]

So if you just started dry hopping Mon and its looking cloudy why not just move the whole secondary to cold crash for a couple days then when you keg it should clear up. It will give the hops another day or so in the beer as well. Just a thought. Unless you really wanted to get it to the taps then I can see that.

You're right... that's a thought. I actually don't have the fridge space for a secondary so that's one issue. Plus, I do want to get this one to the taps because I would like to get the hops when they're bright and fresh. I don't really do this a lot so when I do, I want to give the hops a fair chance. When I say that the hops clouded things up, I mean to say that it's a "1" on the cloudiness scale (1=pretty clear, 10=pretty cloudy). The secondary was unbelievably clear before I added the hops and they just barely clouded it up. I plan to move it to the taps very soon after carbing it.

[matt6150]

You're right... that's a thought. I actually don't have the fridge space for a secondary so that's one issue. Plus, I do want to get this one to the taps because I would like to get the hops when they're bright and fresh. I don't really do this a lot so when I do, I want to give the hops a fair chance. When I say that the hops clouded things up, I mean to say that it's a "1" on the cloudiness scale (1=pretty clear, 10=pretty cloudy). The secondary was unbelievably clear before I added the hops and they just barely clouded it up. I plan to move it to the taps very soon after carbing it.

Gotcha, carry one then. And post a pic!

[neddles]

You're right... that's a thought. I actually don't have the fridge space for a secondary so that's one issue. Plus, I do want to get this one to the taps because I would like to get the hops when they're bright and fresh. I don't really do this a lot so when I do, I want to give the hops a fair chance. When I say that the hops clouded things up, I mean to say that it's a "1" on the cloudiness scale (1=pretty clear, 10=pretty cloudy). The secondary was unbelievably clear before I added the hops and they just barely clouded it up. I plan to move it to the taps very soon after carbing it.

Did you gel as per your normal process before the dry hop?

[Big Nake]

Did you gel as per your normal process before the dry hop?

I did. On some of these higher-hopped beers in the past, I have gelled and what I get from the resulting glass of beer is clear, hoppy beer. Remember that my standards are not as rigid as some of you guys here when it comes to uber-hoppy character. I get what I expect and I have never shaken my fists at the sky and said, Damn you gelatin! You stole my hop character!

[neddles]

I did. On some of these higher-hopped beers in the past, I have gelled and what I get from the resulting glass of beer is clear, hoppy beer. Remember that my standards are not as rigid as some of you guys here when it comes to uber-hoppy character. I get what I expect and I have never shaken my fists at the sky and said, Damn you gelatin! You stole my hop character!

Well I ask because thats a process I have yet to try. It's the clarification after dry hop that has me cursing the gelatin. 

[Big Nake]

Well I ask because thats a process I have yet to try. It's the clarification after dry hop that has me cursing the gelatin.

If this was a pilsner, helles or something along those lines and I was concerned with clarity (I would not be dry-hopping those styles but still), I might be inclined to add gel solution to the keg once the beer was cold but I will not do that here. My guess is that the beer will be mildly cloudy at first but eventually drop bright as it sits cold.

[Big Nake]

Okay, this beer is in the keg. The beer smelled lovely with an intoxicating citrusy and piney aroma. It suffered very little in terms of cloudiness. I feel like the Better Bottles allow some amount of yeast to stick to the sides of the vessel and gel solution may compound that issue because it can be sticky. What I know is that this is probably (almost definitely) the first time I have used 8 ounces of relatively high-alpha hops in 5 gallons of beer. Should be very interesting to sample. Cheers Peeps.

[neddles]

Okay, this beer is in the keg. The beer smelled lovely with an intoxicating citrusy and piney aroma. It suffered very little in terms of cloudiness. I feel like the Better Bottles allow some amount of yeast to stick to the sides of the vessel and gel solution may compound that issue because it can be sticky. What I know is that this is probably (almost definitely) the first time I have used 8 ounces of relatively high-alpha hops in 5 gallons of beer. Should be very interesting to sample. Cheers Peeps.

Its a good thing I don't live nearby. I'd be right over to help with that sample.