Among my homebrewing friends I have found essentially two types. Those that focus one style and perfect it, and those that brew different beer styles to continuously push their boundaries. I am definitely of the latter group, but it doesn’t reflect my favorite go-to choice when I’m at a craft bar – the American IPA. There are some great commercial breweries that have amazing hop-focused beers (Hill Farmstead for example), and I know a handful of homebrewers that have perfected the IPA. In particular, Fritz Frenow of NYC, is masterful at creating beautifully hoppy beers.
I have very high standards for brewing an American IPA. Partly because this style is so ubiquitous in the American craft beer scene, the huge sample size allows me to determine what I specifically crave:
- High attenuation. For me the beer needs to be dry with little residual dextrins. Malty, thick IPAs and double IPAs are not for me. Forget the crystal malts.
- Clean bitterness. Some hop varietals are grating to me and reflects their high cohumulone content, such as Chinook.
- Clean yeast character. This is an obvious characteristic, but some commercial IPAs brewed with American yeast strains produce fruity esters at higher fermentation temperatures.
- Fresh dry-hopping. This provides the best flavor and aroma in my opinion.
For all of these requirements and the fact that it is my favorite style, I have trouble brewing this beer. My first attempt at an American IPA came out too harsh. There was an astringent character arising from phenolics or high alcohol. My second attempt was probably my best so far, but the beer lacked in bitterness and resembled more of a pale ale. My third attempt was an IPA that focused on hop-bursting where all hop additions are added towards the end of the boil. I was really disappointed in the lack of hop flavor from this beer. For my fourth IPA, I brewed solely with Simcoe. The beer was good but still needed something extra (perhaps it was one-dimensional?).
I’m often very critical of my work (whether it is brewing or work related) and perhaps my IPAs suffer from this. However, given the high bar that I set for this style, I think I have room for improvement. This next IPA (my fifth) uses a blend of American type hops, with Warrior setting the tone for bitterness. I have heard this hop has a very clean and smooth bitterness. As this is my second batch of beer in Pennsylvania, I will be brewing with local water, which is very hard and high in bicarbonate. Lastly, my unfinished basement stays at a constant 63°F which will keep my fermentation clean.
Recipe (6.5 gallons):
- 8 pounds of Pale malt (2-row)
- 6.5 pounds of Munich malt (9.0 SRM)
- 1 pound of White Wheat malt
Mashed in with 1.4 qts per pound of grain targeting 144°F for 30 minutes. Raised temperature to 156°F for another 30 minutes. Mashout temp reached in 3 minutes (goodbye kitchen stove!!). Vorlaufed as usual and collected about 4 gallons of 1.083 wort. 2nd runnings: 1.045. Collected a total of 6.75 gallons of 1.071 wort, which is still short of my target 7.5 preboil volume. Added 1.2 gallons of water to dilute wort and began boil.
- 1 oz of Warrior at 60 minutes (16.7% AA)
- 1 oz of Falconers Flight at 15 minutes (11.4% AA)
- 1 oz of Cascade at 10 minutes (6.2% AA)
- 1 oz of Cascade at 5 minutes (6.2% AA)
- 1 oz of Simcoe at 5 minutes (13% AA)
- 1 oz of Chinook at flame-out
- 2 oz of Citra at flame-out
- Nutrient and whirlfloc at 15 minutes.
Dry hopping (continuous in the keg):
- 1 oz of Simcoe (whole leaf)
- 1 oz of Amarillo (whole leaf)
Cooled wort to 65°F and aerated with pure O2 for one minute. Pitched 2 liter stepped-starter of San Diego super yeast (WLP090). Other notes:
11/29/12: In morning, the beer was already throwing off blow off. By the time I got home, rubber stopped came clear off carboy and yeast was spewing out. Temp unknown, but assumed to be in mid to low 60°F (Oatmeal cookie ale ambient was 61°F).
12/5/12: Gravity: 1.016. Still going so I decided to bring upstairs on heat vent to raise temps.
12/6/12: Activity increased slightly. Tasted young and very hoppy. Looking forward to trying this.
12/7/12: Hardly any activity so I brought it downstairs into basement.
12/12/12: Went down to 1.014. Final gravity. 6.7% ABV
12/17/12: Racked to keg at 30 psi.
Victuals:
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.014
IBUs: ~78 (Tinseth)
ABV: 6.7%
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I know exactly what you mean about having trouble perfecting this style, especially when it comes to aroma/flavor. I think I’ve perfected getting a clean, dry base (big starter, cali yeast, no or very little crystal malt) and first wort + late hopping helps with clean bitterness, but I threw something like 8 ounces of hops in the last 15 minutes, plus over a week of dry hopping with 4 ounces of pellets, and I can’t seem to smell a damn thing unless I shove my nose in the glass. The hop flavor is good though. Maybe my hops aren’t fresh enough? If you ever figure this out, be sure to let the rest of us in on the secret!
I’m with you on this. I have put in over 8 ounces of hops late in the boil (though never did 4 ounces of dry-hopping!) and my response has been “meh”… The mad fermentationist has had some success using the hop-rocket as a hop-back after the boil.
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/11/hoppy-wheat-with-march-pump-hoprocket.html
Another idea would be to use a Randall:
http://www.dogfish.com/company/tangents/randall-the-enamel-animal.htm
I’ve had success with first wort hopping (no 60 minute addition) plus hop bursting (every 5 minutes for the last 15 minutes), targeting a 1:1 BU/GU ratio. I steep my 0 minute addition for ~15-20 minutes as I’m readying the chiller and cleaning up a bit. That and kegging ASAP with keg hops have help quite a bit.
I just wanted to chime in on the Hop Rocket. We recently used the Hop Rocket on a porter. We did 10 gallons with the Hop Rocket and 10 gallons without. The Hop Rocket did make a big different in flavor. The non-HR batch went into a Bourbon Barrel and the HR batch is in kegs now.
It is also awesome to use as a randall in the keezer.
Setting up the Hop Rocket as a randall in the kegerator or keezer properly to avoid spilling was not as easy as we expected, so we posted and article that shows how to setup ball valves and quick disconnects. Your readers might be interested in that setup as well!
I just read a great article over at Beersmith that discussed the various boiling temps for the four main hop oils: http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/ It makes me want to run an experiment over at my blog to test if whirlpooling at or below 147 Fahrenheit would create a better flavor profile by protecting the Myrcene oil from volatalizing out of solution. I wonder if whirlpooling at or just below this temp and holding for 30 minutes would help get more hop flavor into your ipa and other american style brews.
I was consistently getting “too bitter” on my score sheets in competition, it has been greatly helped by keeping the BU:GU ratio to 1 or lower. Don’t discount the 20 or 30 minute hop addition for flavor. I have had some really great aroma from IPAs that I didn’t dry hop at all, just an ounce at flameout. Not that this is helping you all that much, but it seems the only difference is in how fast you can cool and the quality of your hops. I started buying in bulk from a small hop dealer who packages properly and it has made significant difference in my beers, especially the hop forward ones.
Cool page, thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
I agree – fresh hops, and fast cooling is a great way to preserve hop aroma and flavor. I’m making a Rye IPA this weekend and I’m going to revisit a 20 or 30 minute addition
Good stuff here. I just did an 8 oz Soraci Ace saison a few months ago and used .5 oz at 60 .5 oz at 30, 5 oz at flame out and 2 oz dry hop for 4 days. with the french saison yeast 3711. 90 min boil. The hop character of Sorachi Ace at this qty for 5gal was spot on. This is now my standard hop schedule base on all my IPAs If this doesn’t achieve what i want in flavor and aroma i up the qty by 1 to 2 oz at flame out and dry hopping. I just made a citra IPA based on this schedule but used 1oz FWH and added 1 oz at 5 min for flavor. But kept the .5 oz at 60 and 30 and 5 oz fame out. This hops i’ve been getting from Bitters and Esters have been quality hops and that is also key.
Last note, is the chill time with those flame out hops is key. My chill time was only 23 mins on the CItra using my home made copper coil chiller. I didn’t record the time on the Sorachi Ace batch but i usually don’t go over 30 mins.
Based on this post i might up my dry hops on the Citra to 3 oz for 4-5 days. Or space out my dry hops w/ 1 oz per day for 3 days with a total of 5 days dry hopped. I will keep in touch to let you know how this works out…
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