Style: India Pale Ale
Date Brewed: 08.16.2015
Over this summer I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Burlington, VT during the Vermont Brewer's Festival. In addition I visited Shaun Hill's magical brewery in Greensboro, VT, and I got lucky enough to bring two 4-packs of the fable Heady Topper back with me to North Carolina.
The pale ales, IPAs, and IIPAs of this region really stood out to me as something unique. They all shared a softer than usual mouthfeel, incredible aromatics, an interesting collaboration between yeast and hop aromas, and less-than flocculant yeast. This beer is my humble attempt to replicate some of these features. I am quite sure that this will be a long process to develop the skills and knowledge to brew a truly fantastic "North East style" IPA. But it's a process I am excited about.
I usually love IPAs with a huge citrus nose and flavor, so I went with Citra, Amarillo, and Galaxy hops. Originally I was going with 80% Citra, 20% Amarillo (to keep the Citra from becoming too overwhelming, or even catty as some have reported) but I decided to cut in some Galaxy to add some depth of flavor. I also decided to add some Simcoe to the dry hop in order to add a touch of pine and grapefruit and provide a little "seasoning" that I hope will add some pop to the citrus aromas.
The grain bill is designed to emphasize body, at the cost of clarity. So I went with flaked oats over wheat malt, hoping to get some of that slick stout-like feel to the beer. Crystal 40 is for color, more body, and head retention.
The grain bill is designed to emphasize body, at the cost of clarity. So I went with flaked oats over wheat malt, hoping to get some of that slick stout-like feel to the beer. Crystal 40 is for color, more body, and head retention.
I selected Wyeast 1318 "London Ale III" to ferment this beer, as it is rumored to be the primogenitor of Shaun Hill's house yeast and Tired Hand's house yeast. Recently I've seen this yeast pop up in a number of home-brew blogs that I follow, and thought it was worth a try. London Ale III is a very expressive yeast, but apparently a poor flocculator.
Recipe
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Batch Size: 5.5 gallons into fermentor
Measured OG: 1.060
Anticipated IBUs: 60.8
Anticipated SRM: 5.9
Actual Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.3%
Boil Time: 60 mins
Malt
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75% [9.5#] - Pale Malt (American 2-row)
15% [1.88#] - Flaked Oats
10% [1.25#] - Crystal 40L
Hops
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5mL of HopShot Extract @ 60 mins (50 IBUs)
2.76 AAU [0.3 oz, 9.2%] - Amarillo @ 5 mins
8.4 AAU [0.6 oz, 14.0%] - Galaxy @ 5 mins
6.6 AAU [0.6 oz, 11.0%] - Citra @ 5 mins
4.6 AAU [0.5 oz, 9.2%] - Amarillo - 20 minute hopstand
14 AAU [1.0 oz, 14.0%] - Galaxy - 20 minute hopstand
11 AAU [1.0 oz, 11.0%] - Citra - 20 minute hopstand
1.0 oz - Amarillo - Dry hop
1.0 oz Simcoe - Dry hop
2.0 oz Galaxy - Dry hop
1.0 oz - Amarillo - Dry hop
1.0 oz Simcoe - Dry hop
2.0 oz Galaxy - Dry hop
2.0 oz Citra - Dry hop
Extras
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1 Whirlfloc tablets @ 15 mins
0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 mins
Yeast
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2 packs of Wyeast 1318 London Ale III from 06.24.2015
Water
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Winston Salem, NC municipal water treated with 1/2 of a potassium metabisulfite tab and brewing salts added to achieve the following ion content:
75 ppm Calcium, 5 ppm Magnesium, 94 ppm Sulfate, 15 ppm Sodium, 93 ppm Chloride, and an alkalinity of 28 ppm Bicarbonate
Mash water treated with 5 mL of 88% Lactic Acid to achieve mash pH of 5.3
Sparge water treated with 0.5 mL of 88% Lactic Acid to achieve pH of 5.4
Mash
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Saccharification Rest - 18.75qt @ 150 F
Batch Sparge in 3 steps with 4.87 gallons total @ 170 F
Notes
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08.16.2015 - Brewed with a friend from out of town. He actually handled much of the boil solo as I had a church event that I had forgotten about when planning when to brew. Chilled to 75 F quickly but warm groundwater meant it wasn't getting much cooler, so the beer was racked to a 6 gallon Better Bottle and placed in my fermentation fridge with my SC-1000+ set to 62 F. Once cool the two packs of yeast were pitched.
08.19.2015 - Ramped up to 68 F over 12 hours to keep fermentation moving.
08.23.2015 - Half of the dry-hop was added. I'm hoping that the still somewhat active fermentation hoping to allow for some interaction between the hops and yeast (inspired by Michael Tonsmeire's recent use of the same technique)
08.26.2015 - Ramped up to 72 F over 12 hours to ensure complete attenuation. Took a small sample and measured the SG with my refractometer and the handy Beer Smith refractometry tool to be 1.007, which puts my ABV higher than I anticipated. Might have to recheck with my hydrometer when I rack to the keg. Sample tastes great! Piney and grapefruit aroma, nice malt flavor without being sweet or actually all that malty. Mandarin oranges and star fruit abound. Psyched to get this in a keg.
08.28.2015 - A second sample measured today had the same SG of 1.007. Began slowly ramping temperature down to 33 F to encourage the yeast to flocculate quickly. Again, I'm not 100% convinced that my refractometer is calibrated correctly as I anticipated a higher final gravity, so when I keg I will double check the gravity with a hydrometer.
09.01.2015 - Moved to a CO2 flushed keg with the remaining half of the dry hops in a hop bag. While transferring, beer appeared cloudy but free from yeast, and a pleasant malty orange color. Cranked the regulator to 30 psi for the next 24 hours and then down to 54 F and 16 psi to hit a nice serving temperature and carbonation of 2.2 volumes of CO2, a little low for this style, but I'm looking for the soft mouthfeel I think this will give me.
09.05.2015 - Tasting notes may be found here.