Never ever brewed a New England style IPA before. Sounds like it's a bit challenging. Water profile matters, oxidation must be avoided, hop amounts are massive, and hops are added in unusual ways at unusual times.
Found this recipe in BYO magazine, and decided to give it a go. It's definitely very similar to other recipes I've seen. Grain bill is typical, and the Galaxy/Citra/Mosaic hop combo is popular. I will nudge the dry hop numbers a bit though, to reduce the amount of leftover hops. Since it's very hot both outdoors and indoors, I'll use Omega's Voss (kveik) strain.
The original recipe recommends building up the water profile from RO water, and since I'm curious about getting into water chemistry I figured I do that too. Although it'll be distilled instead of reverse osmosis water.
- Volume: 2.5 gal
- 60 minute boil
Water treatment (5 gal distilled water):
- 1/4 tsp 10% Phosphoric Acid (to pH 5.5 @ room temp)
- 3/4 tsp Calcium Chloride
- 1/4 tsp Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum)
Grain:
- 4.5 lbs Pale 2-Row
- 1 lb Golden Promise
- 8 oz Flaked Wheat
- 6 oz Flaked Oats
- 3 oz Rice Hulls
Hops and schedule:
- First wort -- 0.75 oz Amarillo
- Flameout
- 0.75 oz Amarillo
- Hopstand (20 min)
- 0.5 oz Citra
- 0.5 oz Galaxy
- 0.5 oz Mosaic
- Dry hop (near end of primary fermentation):
- 1.5 oz Citra
- 1 oz Galaxy
- 0.5 oz Mosaic
Mash at 152 F for 60 minutes. Hop stand for 20 minutes when wort is cooled to 180 F after boil.
Predictions (from BYO):
- OG: 1.061
- FG: 1.012
- ABV: 6.5%
- IBU: 56
- SRM: 5
Noticed that Brewer's Friend puts OG at 1.070 though. Haven't looked into that.
Water chemistry! Pretty excited about this. Since I really don't know what the hell I'm doing, I decided to just follow the BYO instructions and take lots of notes along the way. I bought a pH meter as well for that purpose.
It would be fantastic if I could transfer this beer via the fermenter spigot in order to minimize oxygen exposure. This is important for New England style IPAs. To that end, I got a new nylon mesh bag for hops. Also made sure to include some rice hulls in the grain bill. Primarily to make recirculation flow smoothly, but I suppose it'll help clear the wort too.
Building on top of 5 gallons of distilled water. Couldn't find a 1/4 tsp measure, so instead I dissolved 1 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid in 2 cups of (distilled) water, and poured 1/2 a cup of that into the 5 gallons. The 2.5% diluted acid had pH 2.4. I went with 1 g calcium sulfate and 3 g calcium chloride instead of measuring it by volume. The internet said these masses are roughly equal to the prescribed volumes. At this point, the water came in at pH 4.7.
Kept 3 gal in the Foundry, 1 gal in a kettle for sparging and ~1/2 gal extra in case I needed to dilute later on. Heated to 160 F and added the grains. Set mash temp to 152 F. Let it sit for 15 minutes before starting recirculation, and then kept that going for another 60 minutes. Sparged with the 1 gal at 170 F. Had about 3.5 gal in kettle IIRC. Wort had pH 5.5 - 5.4 during recirculation, which I believe is in the ideal range.
First wort hops went in right after the sparge. Added 5 drops Fermcap and brought it to a boil. 60 minutes later, heat off and flameout hops into the hop bag. Waited until temp dropped to 180 F and added the hopstand hops. Let that sit for another 20 minutes.
Cooled to room temperatue (28 Celsius atm!) and whirlpooled as best I could with a (vary large) spoon. Let it settle for 1 hour. 2.5 gal in kettle. Transferred 2 gal to fermenter. Clear wort almost all the way; the hop bag paid off. As did the whirlpool this time. Could clearly see how a lot of the cold break and gunk had formed a bit of a cone in the center.
Aerated by shaking, pitched yeast and plopped in the Tilt.
- OG: 1.065 (Hydrometer)
- OG 1.066 (Tilt)
Curious to see what this looks like after fermentation. When the break had settled a bit in that sample the wort came out very clear. Definitely doesn't look like a NEIPA. Not yet at least.
Btw, the yeast smelled a bit sour. Not sure if it should smell that way, but it did. I'm sure it'll be fine. Btw #2: I added whirlfloc and yeast nutrients near end of boil.
Tilt reports SG around 1.025. Seems like a good time to dry hop. The remaining 10 or so gravity points should flush out any oxygen added in the process.
Boiled my hop bag and filled it with 1.5 oz Citra, 1.5 oz Galaxy and 0.5 oz Mosaic. Gently lowered into fermenter.
Tilt has reported 1.013 - 1.012 for two days. Stable enough. Primed with 39 grams sugar in 3/4 cup of water. Forgot to take out the airlock at first when I transferred, so probably got some extra star san in there. No worries though. Purged the keg with CO2 before, after and during transfer. Was worried that the hop bag would clog the spigot, but no problems there. Could easily have gotten a bottle or two out of this as well.
The keg turned out to have lost pressure since I last cleaned it. Either that, or I forgot to pressurize it, but I doubt it. Checked for leaks by pressurizing and spraying star san, but found none. Did notice though that the liquid post's poppet was a bit tilted. Disassembled the post and found that it had an extra poppet resting on the tube, right underneath the poppet spring. So now I have a spare poppet. Weird.
- OG: 1.009 (Hydrometer))
- OG: 1.012 (Tilt)
- ABV: 7.3%
The diff between tilt and hydrometer is no surprise. There was a big ass hop bag floating around next to the tilt, so it was almost bound to be off to some extent.
Poured a sample. Tastes great. Beautifully yellow and hazy. Pretty bitter. Incredibly fruity and aromatic. Can't wait to try it carbonated in a few weeks.
Tapped the keg around 7/28. Had a bit of an accident (left the tap open while connecting) and spilled a pint or two on the floor. Wonderful smell of tropical fruit and hops.
And it tasted great too. Mouthfeel was exactly what I hoped for. Very soft and silky. More bitter than most commercial NEIPA's I've tried, but that wasn't a bad thing here. The strong tropical fruit aromas dissipated in a week or two, but the beer remained delicious. Poured with a wonderful head of foam. Color was perfect, and showed no signs of oxidation.
One of the best, if not the best beer I've made.
Had C try it side by side with a couple of commercial NEIPA's, and was very happy to find that she was not only unable to identify the homebrew among them, but also preferred it over the others.
Success.
Next time I brew this, I might try to dial back the bittering hops a tad. And maybe push down the ABV a bit.