ipa

boring old ipa...
I drink a ton of this stuff yet seem to find it somewhat boring to brew. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe the simple grain bill or the complications that come with blending a myriad of hop choices into a focused conglomerate. Either way, I don't think I have ever brewed an IPA that has been kick ass enough for me to stop experimenting.


This one is inspired by Lagunitas: it's big, hoppy, and dextrinous as hell. Twice this week, I have been drinking Lagunitas beers and trying to guess the FG's only to look them up and be shocked at how high they are. To me, all their beers taste like they finish at 1.015 yet are most often in the 1.017 - 1.025! range. This definitely goes against the Vinnie logic of always finishing around 1.012, yet seems to strike a different type of balance in my opinion.



I'm hoping this beer finishes out around 1.018; preferably with most of that non fermentable sugar coming from the high mash temperature. 80 ish IBU's is where I usually put my bitterness for IPA's of this gravity but I bumped it up to 96 to account for all that extra body.
Oh, and the Lyle's Syrup? I put it in most of my English beers so why not an American IPA. It lends easily ferment able sugar along with a toffee like flavor to the finished product.

anyways

LAGUNITAS INSPIRED IPA

7.5 Gallon Pre boil
6.5 Gallon Post boil
90% Efficiency
96 IBU
1.066 OG

76% 2 row
9.4% domestic munich
9.4% domestic C-10/C-20 even mix
4.8% Lyles golden syrup

157 degree mash for 90 minutes

60 minute boil

Magnum@14.4% 28.5 grams @ 60 minutes
Amarillo @8.6% 28.5 grams @ 10 minutes
Columbus@14.6% 28.5 grams @ 10 minutes
Simcoe @ 12.2% 28.5 grams @ 10 minutes
Amarillo @8.6% 28.5 grams @ 0 minutes
Simcoe @ 12.2% 28.5 grams @ 0 minutes




US - o5 yeast

pitched @ 65 and let rise slowly to 68



This is a sweet find that I got for free from my work. An electric stand alone burner that I can use indoors or outside with an extension chord.

Dictator Of Hops For Life

Bitch's ain't shit!
This beer is gross. Big for Bridgeport but the hop variety's they chose are gross. oniony and pungent, yuck! It's rare for a sixer to stick around for a few days at my house yet this one did.
That said the retarded image and name have also stuck around for a while at my house ( sneaking up on your lady telling her your the "hop czaaaaaar" never gets old)







anyways, I brewed a big bad ass ipa myself named "Dictator of hops for life"
It's basically a blind pig clone. I've brewed this one before and it's the type of IPA I like, aggressive high cohumulone bitterness, and big centenialish aroma and flavor hops. The only major process change is the warm steeping at the end of the boil. I basically add my flame out hops and then cover the boil kettle for about ten minutes before starting the chiller. Ideally this mimics commercial breweries "whirlpool" and will extract more flavor from the late hops whithout letting too much DMS form. It should be interesting to see how much this will increase the late hop character of the beer as well as how much added bitterness i get from the hops sitting in the kettle an extra 10 minutes.

anyways the recipe is

HOPS DICTATOR FOR LIFE

1.068 OG
6.5 ABV
6 SRM
86% eEff
7 Gallons

90% 2 row
3.5% wheat malt
3.5% C- 40
3.5% Carapils

42g Chinook (13.0%) - 60.0 min
15g Cascade (5.8%) - 30.0 min
28g Cascade (5.8%) - 15.0 min
15g Amarillo (8.5%) - 2.0 min
15g Simcoe (13.0%) - 2.0 min
8g Amarillo (8.5%) - dryhop
8gSimcoe (13.0%) - dryhop
15g Cascade (5.5%) - dryhop
28gCentennial (10.0%) - dryhop

us-05

pitched and fermented at 67 degrees