FUNKY CHICKEN BREWING

OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BREW

[funkychickenbrewing]

BACK IT’S THE MUTHAHOPPIN BREW GODS

Um, yes, that is a reference to the worst– and that’s saying a lot– Limp Bizkit song.  Did you expect anything less?

After not posting (but still brewing) for way too long, here comes another double dose of hop insanity!  Over a year after our last quintuple IPA marathon, after countless solo experiments, Chad and I have reunited to irresponsibly use hops!  We’ve got two sides of the same lupulin drenched coin– a monster West Coast Double IPA and a new school juice machine NEIPA.  This time we’ve got several secret weapons:  years of disolved oxygen reduction experiments (thanks carboy caps and CO2 tank!) and the most deadly weapon:  CRYO HOPS!  PHENOMENAL LUPULIN POWER! Itty bitty pellet space.

First up comes Destroyer of the Universe:  Born of a fever dream of Chad’s (as in he really had a dream that the best IPA brewed ever used honey) and my excessive love of Amon Amarth and Double (Triple?) IPA.  Citra and Centennial hops were selected to compliment the Orange Blossom Honey.  We used a 225 ppm SO4/ 75 ppm Cl ratio, plus some old school resinous hops to make this monster give some dank double kick bass and death growls to it’s melodic tremolo picking of citrus and floral.

Grain Bill:  .5#honey malt, 14# Rahr 2-row, 3# Rahr Pale Ale Malt

1oz Centennial, .5 oz Nugget First Wort boil 90 min

Extra second runnings added after 30 min of boiling down the wort

1 oz Chinook boil 15 min

1 oz Simoce boil 10 min

1.5# Orange Blossom Honey flameout

1 oz Centennial, .1 oz Citra, .5 Nugget Flame Out

1 oz Chinook, 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, 1 oz Cryo Citra whirlpool

2 packets of US-05

1oz Citra, 1 oz Centennial Dry Hop day 4

2 oz Simcoe Cryo dry hop 4 days before bottling.

Our as yet untitled but soon to be cleverly named NEIPA went the opposite direction.  150 ppm Cl/ 75 ppm SO4 ratio, no Irish Moss, and super juicy hops will make this a hit with all the #HazeBros.  A little Nugget and Simcoe should add that little hoppy edge that reminds you that you’re still drinking an IPA and not 8% orange juice.  I don’t know if it was the 30 minute boil, the wheat, or the lack of irish moss, but this looked like straight hop haze going into the fermenter.

Grain Bill:  .25# honey malt, 1.5 White Wheat, 10.75 Rahr 2-Row, 3# Rahr Pale Ale Malt

.5 oz Nugget First Wort boil 30 min

.5 oz Simcoe, .5 oz Nugget boil 15 min

1 oz Mosaic Cryo, 1 oz Citra Cryo, 2 oz Galaxy, .5 oz Simcoe Whirlpool

2 smack packs Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

1oz Mosaic Cryo, 1 oz Citra Dry hop day 3

1 oz Mosaic Cryo, 1oz Citra cryo  Dry hop 4 days before bottling.

During the Brew Day we sampled some tasty brews from Bearded Iris, Creature Comforts, Blackberry Farms, Monday Night Brewing, Green Bench, and Evil Twin.  It was a surprisingly non-disaster brew day, the only hiccup we encountered was that I left my scale for measuring the mineral additions back in Georgia.  We were unsuccessful in finding a scale that measured fractions of a gram until we decided to hit up the local head shop.  Success!

[funkychickenbrewing]

CRUSHER DESTROYER DOUBLE IPA

As I detailed in an earlier post, I thought that Mastodon’s Remission album would be best represented by a whisky (Called Ol’e Nessie, of course).  Well, I was wrong.  *Cue the Music*

My never ending hop experiments continue with this Mother Puncher of an IPA.  The idea behind this one was to make an incredibly dank, incredibly juicy IPA, inspired by my local favorites Transmigration of Souls and A Night on Ponce.  I experimented with using the Bru’n Water Pale Ale Profile with my Sulfate levels all the way up to 300ppm.

Recipe:  Batch size:  4 gal

Grains:  Golden Naked Oats, White Wheat, Golden Promise, Corn Sugar.

1oz CTZ boil 60 min

1oz Centennial boil 15 min

1oz Centennial, 1 oz Galaxy at flameout

1oz Galaxy, 1oz Mosaic whirlpool

1469 West Yorkshire Ale Yeast

Dry Hop:  2oz Galaxy, 2oz Mosaic, 1oz CTZ.

As I posted earlier, there were a lot of hops in this Behemoth.  And it was all worth it, for the insane dank, tropical aroma that leaves you Trampled Under Hoof.  The flavor is strong citrus and passionfruit with a raw hoppy bite from the CTZ.  The high sulfate levels give it an incredibly dry finish that forces you to take another sip... or gulp.  Highly crushable, and at 8%abv, apt to destroy you.

This batch didn’t even last us two weeks, and held its own against many commercial beers (especially in the aroma department).  I don’t think I’ll take the sulfate as high next time, maybe just 150ppm.  And as much as I love 1469, I think 1318 is my new favorite British strain.  Well, until I see the results of my 007 Christmas experiment.

[funkychickenbrewing]

BILBO BAGGINS PILSNER

Here’s another brew from over the summer.  Molly had just begun her pilsner obsession, and her current favorite beer was Creature Comforts Bibo Pilsner.  At the time, I couldn’t find it in the local stores so I decided to brew something similar– a bohemian pseudo -pilsner with a cheeky addition of southern hemisphere hops.  Since I’m really lazy with puns, and have no idea what Bibo means, I named this beer after the greatest little hobbit of them all.

Recipe:

4oz Carapils, 4oz Melanoidin, 7lb Avangard Pilsner

1oz Saaz First Wort boil 120 min

1oz Saaz boil 20 min

1oz Saaz boil 10 min

1oz Wakatu, 1oz Summer flame out.

Nottingham Ale Yeast

I did several traditional and several non-traditional things for this recipe.  My water profile was very soft, with only a small addition of CaCl and some lactic acid to hit the proper mash pH.  I had read that Pilsner Urquell does a 120 minute boil and first wort hops, so that’s what I did.  Thankfully, Fermcap-S works great on preventing boil-overs of my maxed-out kettle.  The Wakatu and Summer hops, despite being of noble heritage, add a fruity twist to this low-abv pilsner.  Since I can’t lager, I used Nottingham and my Cool Brewing fermentation cooler kept the temp at 60.

The brewday was going very smoothly, and during the mash I ran out to the store to get some paper towels for clean-up.  In the five minutes I was gone, our dog Jules jumped up on the counter and ate my packet of Nottingham that was inside a ziplock bag and pushed to the back of the counter.  (Don’t worry, the hops were safely in the fridge).  So I had to drive all the way out to the not-so-local homebrew supply to pick up another packet, thus making my mash like two-and-a-half hours long.  Jules has been since demoted from his job as assistant brewer.

The finished product came out with a beautiful, crystal clear golden color, thanks to to long boil and water chemistry.  The marriage of traditional and non-traditonal hops kept it spicy with a hint of citrus.  It was the perfect summer beer, light and refreshing, and obviously did not last long.  For future versions, I might up the carapils, but keep the rest of the grain bill the same.  I would add more Saaz first wort hops, and swap out the summer for another addition of Saaz.  Of course, after I brewed this, Bibo became readily available, so I may do a German pils next time.

[funkychickenbrewing]

11 oz of hops in a 4 gallon batch, 5 of them dry hops. Holy trub loss, batman!

[funkychickenbrewing]

EARTH ROCKER DOUBLE IPA

I will admit I have been super lazy about updating this blog -- mostly because I’ve been taking absolutely terrible pictures of any brew related activities, and also because I’ve been insanely busy at work.  After our crazy 5-Way IPA day experiments I decided that I would take what I learned and brew yet another IPA.  (Note, I brewed this way back over the summer).

My conclusions from 5WIPAD:  

Schoolhouse rock was right: Three is a magic number.  Limiting the hops to three varieties allowed for more focused flavor that really made the hops pop instead of taste generic.

English ale yeasts are the best:  Many of my favorite IPAs are made with English Ale yeasts (Tropicalia, Jai Alai, any Stone beer).  Both times we’ve used 1469 in an IPA have resulted in amazing flavors, and 1335 really rounded out the East Coast DIPA.  I hate brewing with the Fuller’s strain, as it tends to be finicky with bottle conditioning.

The Recipe (3.5 gallon batch):

8lb Golden Promise, 1lb White Wheat, 6oz C15, 12oz Dextrose

1oz Apollo boil 90 min

.5oz Amarillo, .5oz El Dorado boil 15 min

1.5oz Amarillo, 1.5oz El Dorado, 1oz Simcoe whirlpool 90 min

Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

1oz Amarilo, 1 oz El Dorado, 2oz Simcoe dry hop 7 days.

The brewday was fairly uneventful except when it came time to chill the wort.  I searched all over the apartment for the faucet adapter to my wort chiller.  Unsuccessful, I decided on the ice bath method and reaped the benefits of a super-long hop stand.  I got the wort down to 80 and put the carboy in my Cool Brewing fermentation bag to finish chilling it down.  Of course, as soon as I did that Molly got home and pointed out that the adapter was in the drainboard the whole time.  Oh well.

The Verdict:

Who cares about the brewday, lets talk finished product!  I never really got a good picture of this beer, since I drank it mostly at night and the one time I tried to take a picture during the day the Georgia heat made the glass sweat an absurd amount.  It’s actually a good bit lighter than the picture shows, but that’s what I get for having crappy lighting and no exposure control. 

The first week of drinking this it was incredibly juicy, with bright citrus and melon flavors, and the only indication this was an IPA was a slight grapefruit bitterness.  By the second week the flavors melded and balanced so that a bit of the Simcoe pine crept forward in both flavor and aroma.  I don’t think this beer lasted longer than three weeks, but it was delicious and nuanced the entire way through.  Every sip seemed to reveal a new character. 

I really liked Wyeast 1318; I thought it was fruity and had that soft mouthfeel for which it was famous.  This beer wasn’t really any more hazy than any unflitered IPA like Two Hearted, and I really liked how it formed a compact sediment in the bottles.

Going forward, my hop experiments will follow what I think is a good formula:  British malts, flaked wheat, low crystal grainbill; English Ale Yeast; show up at the LHBS and pick out whichever hops catch my eye, and then name the beer after whatever song/album I’m listening to at the time.  I spend way too much time obsessing over recipes and its a lot more fun to just wing it like this.  Of course, I get all scientific with my water chemistry and make sure I calculate everything with beersmith and Bru’n Water.

[funkychickenbrewing]

THE MUSCLES FROM BRUSSELS TRIPEL IPA

The last of our 5 Way IPA Day brew session, this monster 9%abv IPA is a mix of a Belgian Tripel and Double IPA, a la Houblon Chouffe.  It has an intense citrus/herbal aroma, with a prominent banana note from the Chimay yeast.  Each sip reveals a new flavor:  fruit, spice, herb, pine, sweet grain.  The beer feels full bodied, but finishes dry and resinous.

We drank this one the slowest;, in the beginning the hops were more forward, by the end the it was more Tripel than IPA (which is fine by me).  Sadly, with the last Tripel IPA gone, our hop experiment has ended.  I will eventually analyze all of our experiments, but in the meantime, I’m brewing another DIPA!  I need my hops!

[funkychickenbrewing]

FANGORN FOREST BROWN IPA

The wild card of our 5-Way IPA Day brewing marathon, this is technically our third time brewing this idea.  When Brandon heard we turned his beloved Fangorn Forest Brown Ale into an IPA, his only comments were “that figures.”  Although the lines between Brown IPA and American Brown are kind of blurry, I think this should just be classified as “Really Good.”

The aroma is citrus and pine, while the taste is semi-sweet, a mix of resiny hops and chocolatey malt.  Every sip reveals a nuance– bread, biscuit, coffee, earth, cedar, ending in a piney and resinous finish that is sticky and almost like sap.  The body is dry and crisp like an IPA, with the full malt flavor of a much heavier ale.  I think this is our most successful version of the Forest Ale, probably because there were no weird spices that didn’t age at the same rate as the beer.  When this was young, the hops and chocolate really popped out (in a good way), but aged gracefully becoming the sappy, complex masterpiece that Molly drank the last of.  Guess we’ll have to make a version 4.0!

[funkychickenbrewing]

WEST COAST AND EAST COAST DIPA

Ah yes, the classic West Coast/ East Coast rivalry.  Part of our 5-Way IPA day experiment consisted of brewing two different Double IPAs, with near identical grainbills, near identical calculated IBUs (around 205), and the same varieties of hops-- the only difference being some slight tweaks towards West Coast and East Cast/New England techniques.

First off, the California Love West Coast DIPA.  Holy grab your hops when you see Tupac, Batman, because this is dank.  Super piney and resiny with hints of tropical fruit, this is one lean mean palate wrecker.  Despite the sweaty glass (thanks, Georgia heat) this is a very clear beer.  It is dry and crisp, almost like a Pilsner, completely hiding its 8%abv.  I won’t deny it, this is a bitter hop monster.

Malt:  Golden Promise, C-40, dextrose

Hops:  CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo

Yeast:  US-05

Next up, we’ve got the Hypnotize East Coast DIPA.  The aroma is over-ripe fruit, the flavor is juicy tropical fruits and hints of pine, followed by a soft but herbal bitterness.  Just like the West Coast, this hides it’s 8% abv very well.  This beer will leave you saying I like it when you call me big hoppa.

Malt:  Golden Promise, White Wheat, Munich 10L

Hops, CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra

Yeast:  Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

Okay, now that I got my Biggie and 2pac jokes out of the way, on to the science!  What I find interesting is the difference water chemistry made on these beers.   The higher sulfate to chloride ratio of the West Coast makes it much more dry and bitter than the East Coast, even though the East Coast has 5 more calculated IBUs.  Also the West Coast is almost crystal clear, while the East Coast has permanent haze, probably due to wheat malt or the supposed effect of ludicrously hopping English Ale yeasts (debatable).

Conclusions:  I like how much a high sulfate water profile enhances bitterness and dryness.  Going forward, I feel like I would require less bittering hops to still get the effect that I want.  On the other hand, the lower sulfate/higher chloride enhances the juiciness, which would be great in a low abv beer, or a super juicy DIPA.  I also really like Wyeast’s British Ale II, much more than the Fuller’s strain, which has a habit of waking back up in the bottle and overcarbing.  After this experiment in styles, I think I would prefer using the west coast profile for IPAs and East Coast for DIPAs.  Of course, this just makes me want to brew 5 more IPAs.

[funkychickenbrewing]

DON’T PANIC SESSION IPA

The Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster may be the best drink in the existence, but you should never drink more than two.  If you’re in the mood for something more sessionable and refreshing, this IPA comes in at an easy 42, erm, I mean, 4.2%abv.  

Galaxy, Citra, and Amarillo hops provide a super juicy citrus flavor and tropical aroma.  Hoppy but never bitter, this is like drinking a glass of juice.  The West Yorkshire yeast is the real unsung hero here, providing enough balance and body to avoid the watery fate that befalls most “session” beers.  This is a pretty great start to our 5-Way IPA tasting.

Malts:  Golden Promise, C-60, Aromatic, Cara-Pils

Hops:  Galaxy, Citra, Amarillo

Yeast:  1469 West Yorkshire

[funkychickenbrewing]

Whose brilliant idea was it for us to bottle five batches of IPA and one mead? Oh well, now we have over 200 bottles of tasty homebrew!

[funkychickenbrewing]

While waiting impatiently to bottle our five IPAs (and dreading the two-hundred-fifty bottles it will take) Molly and I decided to satisfy our hop-hankering with some West Coast hop-assaults from Stone. The super fresh Enjoy By is, as advertised, devastatingly dank. As in, I could smell it from across the room. For some odd reason, Delicious IPA is absurdly expensive in Knoxville, but regular price here in Georgia. So naturally I’ll have to add this almost candy-like beer to my regular rotation. I’ll be interested in seeing how our West Coast DIPA compared to these masters of the style.

[funkychickenbrewing]

Butterfly in the sky...

Childhood memories are a magical thing.  These are the things that made you who you are today, perhaps mostly hidden behind the veil of time, looked back on with rose tinted lenses, and otherwise distorted both by your own brain and cliched metaphors. Most of my most intriguing childhood memories are weird TV shows that I watched and existed only as hazy, half-formed memories only to be suddenly thrown into focus years later.  I remember watching Sesame Street and being terrified of the strange gold man and the moving trashcan, only to fall in love with those darn droids years later.  I had nightmares of strange disembodied bird people, only to have that nightmare fuel presented in glorious HD on my Labyrinth Bluray.  Most everything I vaguely remember can be found on youtube today.  Except for the most crucial thing.

I recollect watching Reading Rainbow and for some odd reason a couple disembodied heads sang a song “I Ain’t Got No Body” with great lines like “And down there I ain’t got no underwear!”  Well, after days of googling and ignoring all David Lee Roth results, I found that it came from “The Lady With the Ship on Her Head” season 8 episode 3 of Reading Rainbow.  A copy of which does not exist anywhere on the internet.  Apparently years ago, every episode was on Youtube, but now, the proverbial cupboard is bare.  Yeah, season 1 is on Amazon Prime, but that’s it.  As I have become accustomed to instant gratification from the internet, this is probably the worst thing that has happened to me in the past three years.  Maybe the past thirty years.  All that exists of this magical moment is a single torrent of every Reading Rainbow in glorious potato quality.  

I guess in about 30 minutes I’ll see if that was worthwhile.  If this doesn’t work out, help me, Geordi La Forge, er, LeVar Burton, you’re my only hope.

[funkychickenbrewing]

5-WAY IPA DAY – PART DEUX

In my last post, I outlined our brewday and the recipes, but didn’t really go to far in depth. Well, today I’ll give you all the “deets” (that’s what the kids call details these days).

The trick to our brewday was differentiating our IPAs despite sharing many common ingredients. We utilized water chemistry adjustments, yeast selection, and obviously different combinations of the ingredients to do so.

The West Coast DIPA had the highest sulphate to chloride ratio (4:1) in order to accentuate the hops and dryness. Upon smelling the hops, we reworked the recipe to make it heavier on the CTZ with Simcoe and Amarillo playing a supporting role. US-05 and a good dose of dextrose kept the malt at bay, resulting in a beer similar to the hop monsters of Russian River and Stone.

The East Coast DIPA had a more balanced sulphate to chloride ratio of 2:1. The hops leaned more in favor of the Simcoe/Amarillo combo, with a sneaky ounce of Citra cutting through the supporting CTZ. We utilized a “no boil” hop schedule, wherein the hops were either added to the first wort or after flame out. The British Ale yeast adds a bit more character than our typical Chico strain, which will hopefully result in a “juicy” DIPA.

The Belgian IPA had a SO4:Cl ratio of 1:1, and used a simple grain bill plus Chimay yeast to resemble a hopped up tripel. The hops tend toward the spicy and herbal side of the scale, with an ounce of CTZ dry hopped with every candi syrup addition to get an interesting interaction between the hops and the yeast.

The Session IPA shared the initial mash with the Belgian, with the same 1:1 mineral ratio. For the third runnings, we added more aromatic, dextrine, caramel, and Golden Promise malt to keep the malt backbone from becoming too thin. Tropical fruit was the flavor profile here, with Amarillo, Citra, and Galaxy packing a late addition wallop. The real key to this beer was the West Yorkshire yeast, which makes for fantastic bitters amd thus adds balance and flavor to this low abv IPA.

The Brown IPA was basically us retooling our Fangorn Forest brown ale into a pine dominated brown IPA. We tipped the mineral balance on favor of chloride, to preserve the malty brown backbone. Chinook, Simcoe, and Northern Brewer late additions add lots of flavor and aroma but relatively little bitterness. US-05 keeps the yeast esters at bay and should give decent attenuation despite the high mash temp.

[funkychickenbrewing]

5 WAY IPA DAY

After analyzing all of our previous IPAs, Chad and I decided that the only thing to do was to brew a bunch more.  Armed with a 55lb sack of Golden Promise and a bunch of bulk hops, we cleverly utilized all the ingredients to design 5 very different styles of IPA.

Hypnotize East-Coast Style Double IPA -- inspired by Heady Topper

Grain Bill:  11# Golden Promise, 2# White Wheat, 1# Munich 10L, .33 dextrose

First Wort:  3oz CTZ

0min:          1oz each of Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, CTZ

Whirlpool:   2oz each Simcoe, Amarillo

Yeast:  Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

Dry Hop:  2oz Amarillo, 2 oz Simcoe, 2oz CTZ

California Love West-Coast Style DIPA -- inspired by Pliny the Elder

Grain Bill:  13# Golden Promise, .33# C-60, .75# Dextrose

First Wort:  1oz each CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo

30 min:      .5oz Simcoe

15 min:      1oz Amarillo

10min:       1oz Simcoe

5min:         1oz Amarillo

0min:         1oz Simcoe

Whirlpool:  2oz CTZ, 1oz Amarillo, 1oz Simcoe

Yeast:  US-05

Dry Hop:  3oz CTZ, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Amarillo

Partigyle Belgian Tripel IPA and Session IPA

Grain bill:  19# Golden Promise, .5# Aromatic, .5# Carapils

3rd runnings capped with 1# Golden Promise, .5# each Aromatic, Carapils, and Caramel 60.  3/4 of the first and second runnings went to the Belgian, and the Session got the remainder plus the 3rd runnings.

Muscles from Brussels Tripel IPA -- inspired by Houblon Chouffe

60min:   1oz CTZ

15min:   1oz Saaz

0min:     1oz each of Saaz, Amarillo, CTZ

Yeast:  WLP 500 Trappist Ale

Day 3 of Fermentation:  1# Simplicity Syrup and 1oz CTZ

Day 4 of Fermentation:  1# Simplicity Syrup and 1oz CTZ

Dry Hop:  1oz each Amarillo, CTZ

Hitchhiker’s Guide Session IPA -- inspired by Tropicalia/ All Day IPA

First Wort:  .5oz Simcoe

0min:    2oz Citra, 2oz Amarillo, 1oz Galaxy

Yeast:  Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire

Dry Hop:  2oz Amarillo, 2oz Galaxy

Fangorn Forest Brown IPA -- inspired by our own Fangorn Forest Ale.

Grain Bill:  11# Golden Promise, 1#Brown, .66# Caramel 60L, .25# Pale Chocolate

15min:  1oz Simcoe

7min:    1oz Simcoe

0min:    2oz Northern Brewer, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Chinook

Yeast:  US-05

Dry Hop:  2oz Simcoe, 2oz Northern Brewer, 1oz Chinook

Spread out over two days, the brew session went surprisingly smoothly, most likely due to young Owen’s supervision.  In approximately three weeks we’ll have the much dreaded bottling session.  Then, after the terror of that ordeal has faded in our memories, we’ll get a 55# sack of Pilsner malt and make all kinds of crazy Belgian and German beer.

[funkychickenbrewing]

BIG THINGS BREWING.... After months of planning and waiting, it's almost time for 5-Way IPA day(s). 62 lbs of grain and 3.75 lbs of hops will become an East Coast/Vermont style DIPA, a West Coast DIPA, a Belgian IPA, a session IPA, and a brown IPA! Stay tuned!

[funkychickenbrewing]

RECIPE ANALYSIS

You may have noticed that we here at Funky Chicken Brewing love playing around with hops.  I feel that if we brewed every day for a year we still wouldn’t be close to using all the hop combinations and various hopping techniques. Since I can’t brew every possible idea I have, I sat down and analyzed our past IPA/ DIPA recipes, breaking down the hop varieties used, total hops, and when they were added.  Note:  Flavor hops indicate they were added anywhere from 20-5 minutes left in the boil.

Blink 182 DIPA

182 IBU

10oz Total Hops

5 Hops:  Cascade, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus, Nugget

First Wort  2.5oz  Cascade, Simcoe, Centennial

Bittering    2.5oz  Nugget, Columbus

Flavor        2.5oz  Centennial, Columbus, Cascade

Dry Hop     2.5oz  Nugget, Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Columbus

At the time, we thought it was the best DIPA we’d done.  Looking back, I’d take the first wort hops and put them as a hopstand instead, and take the Nugget out of the dry hop and put it in the bittering charge.

Hop Hysteria

240 IBU

16 oz Total Hops

6 Hops:  Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Nugget, Simcoe, Cascade

First Wort  5oz  Chinook, Centennial, Columbus, Nugget, Simcoe

Bittering    1oz  Nugget

Flavor        3oz  Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe

Whirlpool   2oz  Columbus, Cascade

Dry Hop     5oz  Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Nugget, Simcoe

We pretty much doubled our blink 182 recipe to create this hop monster.  This one was super hoppy and delicious, but more muddled than its predecessor probably due to too many varieties and not the best schedule.  I would take the Chinook, Centennial, and Simcoe out of the first wort and into the whirlpool.  We also dry hopped in a hop bag which floated and didn’t allow for as intense an aroma as it could have been.  

Blitzkreig Hop IPA

186 IBU

12 oz Total Hops

5 Hops:  Magnum, Simcoe, Galaxy, Amarillo, Chinook

Bittering       3oz    Magnum

Flavor        2.5oz    Simcoe, Galaxy, Chinook

Whirlpool      4oz    Amarillo, Chinook, Simcoe, Galaxy

Dry Hop     2.5oz    Amarillo, Simcoe, Galaxy, Chinook

This was lower abv than the others (6.5%) and we used West Yorkshire 1469 instead of US-05.  We did away with first wort hops and made one of the best IPAs to date.  

Devil Went Down to Georgia DIPA

179 IBU

15 oz Total Hops

8 Hops:  CTZ, Nugget, Chinook, Amarillo, Citra, Hull Melon, Mosaic,      Simcoe

First Wort     1oz    CTZ

Bittering       2oz    Nugget

Flavor           3oz   Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Hull Melon, Mosaic, Citra

Whirlpool      6oz   Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Hull Melon, Mosaic, Citra

Dry Hop        3oz   Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo, Hull Melon, Mosaic, Citra

Very strong flavor and smooth bitterness, though could have used more focus.  In our excitement to brew again, we bought all the hops.  I would have dropped the Hull Melon and let it shine in its own beer, and dropped either Mosaic or Citra to let the other stand out more, but kept the total hops at 15oz.

This is Just a Test DIPA

69 IBU

10.5 Total Hops

3 Hops:  CTZ, Centennial, Mosaic

First Wort     1.5oz  CTZ, Centennial

Whirlpool        6oz   CTZ, Centennial, Mosaic

Dry Hop          3oz   CTZ, Centennial, Mosaic

Note:  I scaled this recipe up from 3.5 gallons to our usual 5.5 gallons for better comparison.    This had the best aroma (thanks to a two stage whirlpool) and smooth bitterness.  Perhaps doubling the first wort addition, doubling the dry hop, and adding an ounce of Mosaic at 20 minutes would take this from the best IPA I’ve brewed to the best DIPA.

Conclusion:  Less is more, at least when it comes to hop varieties.  I think 4 varieties plus maybe another for bittering is the key to well rounded yet focused flavor.  I also think at least a 100 IBU (calculated) bittering charge seems to work best.  Our early experiments with first wort hops in the name of flavor and aroma were a little excessive and misguided; I would rather put them at the end of the boil.  However, I do like adding the bittering hops as first wort to minimize boil over and keep it smooth.  As far as hop amounts, I think that 16oz (or more!) in a DIPA is a good number, as long as we use them right.  3oz to bitter, 5-6 oz dry hop (no bag), and the rest as whirlpool additions.  I might still add a 20-15 minute addition because I like the punch of flavor it brings.  Using this knowledge, I’ve written about 50 recipes on beersmith, in the hopes of one day utilizing my conclusions. 

[funkychickenbrewing]

THIS IS JUST A TEST IPA

The first brew in my Georgia brew-in-a-bag system was an IPA/DIPA to work the kinks out of the new equipment, and I must say it was quite a success.

My new LHBS had a Ward Labs test of our water supply, and I think this was my most successful water treatment to date.

Recipe:  3.5 gal total

2oz Carapils

6oz Caramel 60L

8lb Golden Promise

Mash at 153

6oz corn sugar boiled 15min

.5oz each Centennial and Columbus first wort hops boil 90min

.5oz Columbus and 1oz Mosaic whirlpool 30 min (flame out)

1oz Centennial, 1oz Mosaic, .5oz Columbus whirlpool 20 min (180F)

1oz Mosaic, .5oz each Centennial and Columbus dry hop 10 days

This had a total of 7oz of hops, and they all went in before or after the boil.  (If scaled up to our usual 5.5 gallon recipe, that’s almost 11oz of hops total).

The aroma was intense:  fruity, grapefruit, resinous.  Using only 3 hop varieties made it fairly focused, and allowed the Mosaic to shine.  The flavor matched the aroma, with some pleasant grain and malt notes peeking though.  Despite the dry hops and hop sludge in the boil kettle, this had surprising clarity, something I attribute to my water chemistry and irish moss.  Most impressive was the incredibly dry finish, with a resinous and pleasant bitterness coating the palate.  At 7.7%abv, this was a dangerously easy drinking IPA.  I don’t think the hops are as in your face to warrant this as a DIPA, but it is incredibly smooth, flavorful, and well balanced as an IPA.

I also have to credit my Cool Brewing fermentation chamber as one of the key ingredients on making this beer finish so fresh and so clean clean.

For future IPA/DIPAs, I would add a few additions in the 20-0 minute mark to bring out more flavor, and in the case of a DIPA I would add some other kind of juicy hop.  The greatest success of this experiment is the malt bill (love golden promise) and thanks to Bru’n Water my water chemistry was spot-on.