This is a republication and update from an earlier post – I thought this had saved as a draft, however I didn’t realize I was updating something that had already posted, so I guess you get a double dose with an update..
I came to the realization that I’ve made a lot of beer, a lot of bitter beers too (intentionally or not), but never an IPA, so going into this summer weather I decided to make one that was more of the traditional style English IPA. They’re hoppy, but not the ‘Hop Bombs’ that we’ve become accustomed to drinking in the bars in the US.
In case you’ve ever wondered where the term IPA, India Pale Ale, is a British beer style – common Ales would not last very well at sea on the voyage from England to India, Hops are a known preservative, so the addition of extra hops aided in the preservation of the beer on it’s long trip.
Today, we just love our hops – while the fad of cramming as many hops into a beer as possible does seem to be fading a little bit in favor of other original ideas, IPAs are still one of the most popular beers on the market.
So, what did I make? Well, I went with a grain bill of 73% Pilsner, 18% Vienna, and 4.5% Each of Biscuit and Caramel 40 Malts – those two specialty malts should just increase the malt characteristic and color while keeping the overall grain bill a bit lighter. The cool part of this? All of the grains for this beer were sourced from a farm within a mile and a half from my house..
For hops I went with Citra, Mosaic, and Cascade – all hops with either juicy or piney profiles. To complement these hop additions, I opted to try Hornindal Kveik yeast. My one other attempt with Kveik was unsuccessful, likely because my fermentation area was just too cold for it at the time, this yeast needs somewhere warmer to work, and since we’re getting to the warmer time of the year, I figured it’s a great time to try it again.. While Kveik yeasts are typically done in about 3-5 days, I had every intention of going about 7 days, and in the end wound up hitting 14 as I did not have a free keg at the time I needed to package the beer. Given the type of yeast, this wasn’t a big deal. One thing that Kveik is known for aside from the high heat fermentation is the lack of off flavors that it can contribute.
While this hasn’t carbed yet to the point where it’ll have a nice head, I did decide that I needed to pour one off to try because I’m impatient.. This (as I’ve so aptly named it) “Regular Ass IPA” comes it with a relatively low IBU (in the 40-50) level for the style, and a lower level ABV at 4.86%. While it’s delicious as is, in another week or so, this will likely check the box of my favorite beer I’ve made to date.
My next IPA I’m going to try and shoot for a spruce characteristic, one of my favorite beers out there (unfortunately the brewery just closed about two months ago) was a Spruce IPA that tasted like you were drinking a Christmas Tree
With each batch things have gotten progressively better, but what I will note is that as when switched from a stove top to an electrically controlled independent system, everything got significantly better. Temperature control has been the key to fixing a lot of the issues that I had with the beers that I’ve made, and I’m very happy with the way that these have started to come out since making that change. For anyone wondering, I’m not using the top of the line system, I’m using the Brewers Edge Mash and Boil 2.0 system – Williams Brewing had a pretty great sale on it late last year.
Roving On 