One year is much too long to go without homebrewing. I was excited to get a gift certificate for Christmas this year from my father-in-law for Keystone Homebrew Supply. I had brewed several batches from extract syrup in the past, and had been hoping to make the jump to all-grain this time, but due to lack of prepping, I went with another extract batch. Keystone Homebrew has tons of kits that they put together themselves, and I've had good luck with them in the past, so I picked up one of their Yankee IPA kits. Its style is American IPA, and it is my first IPA homebrew!
Recipe
7 lb. Briess Golden Light Dried Malt Extract (DME)
3/4 lb. Briess Crystal Malt 20L
1/4 lb. Dingemanns Aromatic Malt
1.0 oz. Magnum Hops (Bittering)
0.5 oz. Amarillo Hops (Flavoring)
0.5 oz. Centennial Hops (Flavoring)
0.5 oz. Amarillo Hops (Finishing)
0.5 oz. Centennial Hops (Finishing)
1.0 oz. Columbus Hops (Finishing)
Steeped specialty malt in 1 gallon water between 150F and 160F for 30 minutes.
Added 5 gallons water, mixed in the DME.
60 Minute Boil. Pitched #1272 XL American Ale II Yeast.
Original Gravity: 1.064
Final Gravity: 1.005
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| Hops and Yeast are ready to go |
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| Steeping the Specialty Grains |
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| Added the bittering hops and starting to boil! |
I let the beer sit in the primary fermenter for 2 weeks. The IPA was then bottled, and let sit for 3 more weeks. Let's see how it turned out!
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| Yankee IPA |
Yankee IPA poured a light orange/amber color with 3 finger width white head (vigorous pour). Only slightly cloudy. Smells earthy. Not getting much else in the nose. Tastes of caramel, earth, subtle grapefruit and lemon, slight hop bitterness at the end. Carbonation is fairly high, and the body is medium.
Overall: It came out pretty good. It tastes great, and there are no off-flavors I can detect. It tastes more like a pale ale than an IPA. I was definitely hoping for more aroma, and more hop flavor and bitterness. For those of you homebrewers out there, how could I have achieved my goal?
Just my personal preference, but that recipe seems a tad underhopped for an IPA. I would have used at least 2.0 of Centennial for flavoring, then maybe some Mt. Hood to dry hop.
ReplyDeleteTotally depends on how IPAish you want to go. Looks good either way!
Thanks for reading Oliver!
DeleteYea, it definitely tasted good, just would of liked more hops! I'll take your advice next time I brew up this style!
I think your amount of hops look good. Maybe add a little more on the bittering addition or late for aroma.
ReplyDeleteI've never brewed extract but one thing I hear is that you may have to hop it up a little more if not doing a full volume boil because when you dilute to fermentation volume, you will lose some bitterness. I'm no expert, just what I heard. It may be bs.
Glad the brewday went well, though! Hope you get into a few more soon.
I had a comment from a Redditor that I needed more hops also, so that could be it.
DeleteFor this batch I did a full volume boil, specifically because I was worried about not getting everything out of the hops that I could. The next time I do an IPA, it will either be all-grain, or I will add a lot more hops!
Thanks for the suggestions!
At what time was your aroma addition? I feel certain times release more aroma than others.
ReplyDelete0.5 oz Amarillo with 5 minutes left in the boil. 0.5 oz Centennial with 2 minutes left to go in the boil. 1 oz of Columbus when I stop the boil. They were all pellets, FYI.
DeleteGotcha. That should work, but again I would go with larger quantities.
DeleteI never do flame out hops, just because I feel they are a waste with my system. I go from boil to chill so fast that I feel dry hopping is a better option for me. I add at 5-10 minutes for aroma, and about 20/20 minutes for flavoring, which is pretty standard. There are obviously some exceptions.
It probably would not hurt, for this recipe, to add the Amarillo and Centennial both at 5 mins left. Though, the recipe looks good to me and you said it taste good, besides lower bitterness and aroma levels than what you desired. So, I call that a win. Especially since you said it has been over a year!
Let me know when you start doing your all grain set-up. If you have any questions or anything, I will be around. It is exciting stuff.
Do you use an immersion or a counter flow chiller?
DeleteI was thinking of trying a brew in a bag for my first all-grain, instead of spending money on making a mash/lauter tun out of a cooler. I have read and seen videos of people having great success with it.
I am sure I will have questions about all-grain when the time comes!
I use a counter flow. It takes me no time to cool my beer but I want to get a pump so that I can chill in under 5 without gravity. I mean, gravity works but it is a pain sometimes. I am sure flame out additions work wonders with immersion chillers. The counter flow was one of the first things I bought.
DeleteI am considering doing small scale brew in a bag just to get some use out of my Mr Beer kit and run test batches so that I can brew more but have less beer... you know what I mean :p
Ditto with others on amount of hop additions, especially if it seems more like a hopped-up pale ale than IPA. It's an unfortunate added cost, but it's worth it if you're looking for something super hoppy.
ReplyDeleteI recently used five total ounces for an IPA recipe I made (both boil and dry hop). I went with Citra (2 oz) Simcoe (2 oz) and Warrior (1 oz). I think dry hopping with 1 oz Simcoe and ~.75 of Citra helped a lot.
But as long as the brew tastes good and you're happy with it, sounds good to me! Looks great, by the way.
Thanks for reading Bryan. It doesn't seem like a hopped up pale ale either, more like british style pale ale, with only mild hop character. I am still very happy with it, it is quite tasty, especially for an extract.
DeleteThanks for the advice!