Um yeah I'm gonna need a mod edit to call this one a DIPA. This is easily the most delicious IPA I have made and one of the best beers I have made. Huge, sweet, complex tropical fruit aroma you can smell a few feet from the glass. The fruity tropical flavor follows suit except it is balanced by a modest citrusy backbone and enough light dankiness to remind you what your dealing with here. Clear but not dominant grapefruitish "sauvignon blanc" type notes from the Nelson. The hops are intense, as much so as any DIPA I have had without a hint of anything objectionable to my palette. The honey malt is probably just right at 8oz. or 3.4% in this. (thanks Drez). It seemed too prominent in the sample I took when pushing to the keg but now it seems to have taken a backseat role and that is very complementary to what's going on in this beer.
This beer relates to some recent topics here so I'll discuss that a little. I did a separate alpha rest on this beer. 148F/30 and 158F/45. WY1450 took it from 1.069 to 1.012 or 82% AA. No simple sugars in the recipe. As noted above, the recipe was written for an OG of 1.066. I got 1.069 probably from better conversion as discussed.
Dry hopping was done as follows. All 135g went into the primary with the intention to add more to the keg if necessary. I left them there for 4 days and then closed transferred to the keg. More hop particulate was transferred along with it than I like but it's not surprising given the lack of a cold crash. (I normally cold crash and will again in the future) After kegging it sat cold for a week (33-34F) while carbonating. Tons of sludge coming from the tap and still a bit harsh/tannic so I gave it 1 Tbsp. of Biofine and waited 48 hrs. more. The idea again being to get rid of the yeast and that if I dropped too much hop flavor out of the beer in doing so I would dry hop again in the keg. Biofine made only a mild improvement in clarity but that wasn't the point. Tons of sludge came out in the first 1/2 pint and now the beer is phenomenal. What I am hoping going forward is that very little more flavor will drop at this point because right now it is absolutely perfect. I guess we'll see. The intention is to drink this one down over about the next 3 weeks with family and friends.
