Brewday: IPA Experiments

Moving on in my quest to brew a decent hoppy beer I geared up to brew some IPAs.

Similar to the SMaSH Beers, I developed a base recipe for the wort, then divided the boil to test out two different hop profiles. Something reasonably light, with restrained crystal malt, and about 6% ABV. One would be a single hop IPA using Centennial, in the spirit of Bell's Two Hearted Ale. The other would be a more complex session IPA, in the spirit of Bridgeport IPA. Bridgeport uses an interesting mix of American, British and German hops. Complexity seemed worth a try. One of the problems here is that they use five hops, only one of which I had. So I made some substitutions.

Speaking of substitutions. I had to throw my ideal malt bill out the window. It's winter here in the NW and I still have to brew outside. A sunny, crisp cold morning arrived and snow was forecast for the upcoming day I'd intended to brew on. Well, better make beer while the sun shines! Unfortunately I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted and the stores weren't open for a couple more hours, so I made a few substitutions.

Get It Right IPA - Ideal Grain Bill

• 11 lbs ESB Malt
• 2 lbs MFB Special Aromatic
• 8 oz CaraHell
• 4 oz Crystal 40

Get It Right IPA - Actual Grain Bill

• 12 lbs ESB Malt
• 1 lb Vienna Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 10
• 4 oz CaraWheat (55L)
  

Same deal as last time. Mashed in at 152, mashed out at 168. 6 gm gypsum, 3 gm CaCl2, 5 gm Epsom salts. Pulled 9 gallons, divided and topped up to two boils of 5 gallons to get 3.25 into the fermenters. 60 minute boils for an O.G. of 1.060. Repitched right onto the happy yeast from the pales. Kraeusen within 30 minutes!

Get It Right IPA - Centennial (Two Parted Ale)

• 1/4 oz Centennial (leaf) @ 11% AA @ 60 minutes
• 3/8 oz Centennial @ 45
• 3/8 oz Centennial @ 30
• 3/8 oz Centennial @ 15
• 3/8 oz Centennial @ 1
• 2/3 oz Centennial @ Dry Hop 5 days.
  

IBU: 57

Get It Right IPA - Four Hop (Sub-Humulone)

• 1/2 oz Apollo (leaf) @ 19% AA @ 60 min
• 1/4 oz Centennial @ 11% @ 15
• 1/4 oz Willamette @ 5.1 @ 15
• 1/4 oz Ger. Hallertau Hersbrueker @ 3.5% @ 15
• 3/8 oz Centennial @ 1
• 3/8 oz Willamette @ 1
• 3/8 oz Hersbrueker @ 1
• 2/3 oz Centennial @ Dryhop 5 days.

IBU: also about 57

These just went into the kegs yesterday, so I haven't really got an opinion on them yet. I'm hoping for good things, but always pessimistic about my IPAs.

One problem occurred while racking off the dry-hops. I'd wrapped cheesecloth around the tip of the autosiphon to filter out the loose hops. But as they clogged up around the cloth, the pressure difference caused the loose gasket of my aging autosiphon to draw air bubbles into the line. I'm going to be really upset if these beers are badly oxidized. :*(