7.11.2011

The EssenceX2 - Double IPA

This weekend I needed to rack my SMASH beer to secondary for dry hopping so I decided that I'd brew a bigger beer to rack on top of the yeast cake.   The SMASH beer is going to be a 3.6% sessionable Pale Ale.  It should have a nice big mouthfeel due to my higher then normal mash temp (158 - 160?).  I thought that would help give such a simple beer a little bit of body.

For this next beer, a Double IPA, I poured that chilled wort directly on top of the yeast cake, trub and all, to make a bigger version of my IPA - The Essence.  I intended it to be about double the size of my original version but, like when I made my first Russian Imperial Stout, my efficiency went way down to 65%.  Apparently it ain't that easy making big beers because you're using the same amount of water on twice the amount of grains.   My recommendation and what I should've done is add a couple extra pounds of base malt to compensate for your lowered efficiency.   My efficiency seems to go down below 70% on anything above 1.065.   You could double sparge and then do a long boil...or....you could just buy a couple more pounds of grain.  Here's how Don Osborn makes Big Beers on a batch sparge set up.

I did a couple of things different in this beer.  I mashed pretty dang high...158 degrees.  I did this because I'm adding a bunch of honey which tends to dry a beer out and I wanted it to have a medium mouthfeel.  Hopefully it doesn't turn out like syrup as some DIPA's tend to.   I also added some earthy Fuggle hops towards the end of the boil to hopefully balance out the abundance of citrus hops in this recipe!    I also FWH'd the shit out of it which tends to help the hop aroma last longer then dry hopping.  I also whirlpool hopped it at 170 degrees while I was chilling it.   Keep in mind that this is a 6 gallon batch...which I did intentionally since I'm primarily using leaf hops that will soak up a bunch of the beer. 

Here is the recipe.  I think it's gonna be mighty tasty!


The EssenceX2 - DIPA

malt & fermentables

%
LB
OZ
Malt or Fermentable
ppg
°L
72%
13
0
American Two-row Pale
37
1
11%
2
0
Vienna Malt
36
3
8%
1
8
Honey
35
1
3%
0
8
Flaked Oats
33
2
3%
0
8
American Crystal 40L
34
40
3%
0
8
Cara-Pils/Dextrine
33
2

18
0



Batch size: 6.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.074 / 18.0° Plato
Final Gravity
1.013 / 4.25° Plato
Color
6° SRM / 11° EBC
(Yellow to Gold)
Mash Efficiency
65%

hops

use
time
oz
variety
form
aa
first wort
60+ mins
0.5
Amarillo
leaf
7.0
first wort
60+ mins
1.0
Citra
leaf
11.0
first wort
60+ mins
1.0
Simcoe
leaf
13.0
boil
20 mins
0.5
Amarillo
leaf
7.0
boil
20 mins
0.5
Simcoe
leaf
13.0
boil
10 mins
1.0
Fuggles
leaf
4.5
boil
5 mins
0.5
Amarillo
leaf
7.0
boil
5 mins
0.5
Simcoe
leaf
13.0
post-boil
5 mins
0.5
Amarillo
leaf
7.0
post-boil
5 mins
0.5
Simcoe
leaf
13.0
Bitterness
81.6 IBU 
dry-hop
10 day
2 oz
Amarillo


dry-hop
10 day
1.5 oz
Simcoe


dry-hop
10 day
1
Galaxy


dry-hop
10 day
2 oz
Columbus


yeast

American Ale
medium flocculation and 75% attenuation
Alcohol
8% ABV

***tasting notes: 10.3.11
Rating:  A (I really wish you all chould try this and please brew it and let me know what you think!)
Appearance: Orange with a little bit of haze either chill haze or haze from the abundance of hops that went into this beer.  Nice head that starts of at two fingers and stays around for a while. Great sticky lacing! - B+
Aroma: Citrus, Tropical fruits, mixed in with honey and caramel.  Really fantastic aroma on this beer! A+
Flavor: Flavor profile changes from the aroma.  Starts off with a burst of Pine and citrus, the middle hits you with some honey and malt, and then the end finishes off with earthyness and piney hops.  Bitternees is present but not super aggressive, and the alcohol warms you a bit as you wait for your next sip.  Very well balanced flavor profile. - A
Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel is medium and carbonation is medium.  I've always felt my beers that I've used honey in always end up too dry, and this one ended up being perfect.   Not thick and syrupy, not too sweet, just right in the middle where I wanted it! - A
Overall:  This is a hop bomb but with slightly restrained bitterness (by restrained, I mean, under 100 IBUS's.  With all of the hops that I put into this, the Fuggles actually lay a nice organic, earthy background at the end of the sip.  It actually really complements all of the fruity, citrus, piney hops that went into this brew.   Probably the most well balance DIPA, or IPA I've ever brewed! - A

6 comments:

  1. Really like reading your posts. Some of the work you describe I am not familiar with (such as how to best reuse a yeast cake), but little by little I think I am learning something. Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Ethan,
    Glad you like my blog. Hopefully it helps. I'll try and add links to the technical stuff, because typically other people have already explained it in more depth then I could attempt doing.

    How to best re-use yeast isn't exactly what I did here. I should have decanted the yeast and trub from the carboy and washed the yeast to get rid of the trub. What I did was brew up a small beer which was low in alcohol. On my next brew day on Saturday (which was two weeks after brewing my small beer) I simply racked my small beer to another carboy leaving all of the yeast, trub, and all of that behind. Then when I finished boiling and cooling my Double IPA I poured that wort directly on top of and into that carboy with all of the yeast and trub in it. It's like making a really large yeast starter. It's a thrifty way to reuse yeast (save money) especially when making a BIG beer like a Barley Wine, Double IPA, or Russian Imperial Stout to ensure you have enough yeast. Otherwise you'd have to make a huge starter or buying 4+ smack packs. Here's a good write up on re-using and washing yeast. Sanitation is the most important part of washing yeast...obviously.
    http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/07/25/yeast-washing-reusing-your-yeast/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Noted. Thanks for that info. I do appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Dank, glad to see you back in action. This beer looks lip smackin too, Im lovin the hop schedule, the fuggles are a bit different, looking forward to hearing about the finished product.

    BB

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah I know about the Fuggles. When my hbc did our single hop experiment we did a little mixing and matching(blending) with citrus hops and fuggles earthiness. I liked it. Back in action and it feels good! You still fighting fires?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fires are pretty chill this year in BC, but spent June working on the blazes in Alberta and might be headed to Ontario soon. Im really looking forward to the Fall though, got plans to start a homebrew club/guild in Victoria, got so many plans for beers to brew and I may have a line on a brewery job at last, but we will see... Keep on brewing buddy,
    BB

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...