Meek Celebration 2015: Imperial IPA with Amarillo, Comet and Hallertau Blanc

Well, it's that time of year again! Oh wait, no it isn't, it's over. Ok, so I didn't get this out in time to post before Christmas, but that doesn't mean I can't keep updating... albeit, slowly.

In November of 2014, I decided to brew a beer to give away to fellow homebrewers/craft beer drinkers as a Christmas gift. Ok, I planned on keeping some for myself, too, but only a few bottles! My whole family was spending Christmas in PEI that year as well, and I wanted to brew something specifically to celebrate that gathering (which hadn't happened in years and probably won't happen again). Of course the beer would center around hops; Red IPAs are one of my favorite styles to brew and drink, so I came up with a recipe for a really hoppy one, with Amarillo, Azacca, and Simcoe. I was really happy with how the beer came out (it was one of my favorites of mine of the year), so I pledged to brew a different "Meek Celebration" beer every year for Christmas.

Last year's beer, a Red IPA

When November rolled around again in 2015, I started planning a recipe. I wanted to focus on a hoppy style again (I'm sure most of these beers will be hoppy, but don't be surprised to see a dark, Belgian-style in the future); I've had not-the-best luck with DIPAs that I've brewed recently, so I decided to take another crack at the style. I love a good DIPA, but I've gotten really picky with them lately. I no longer enjoy the darker, maltier ones that are simply high in alcohol but don't have near as much hop aroma and flavour as I want. Give me a really hoppy Session IPA or APA any day - I love to enjoy hops without feeling drunk after one beer! So, my goal was a DIPA that was light in color, had a dry finish but still a creamy body, and a big hop aroma, with plenty of citrusy, fruity hop character to go with it. Minimal to no sweet caramel character, here.

I've brewed DIPAs before, of course, and have been happy with several grists that I've gone with. This time, though, I wanted to try something a little different. I had remembered reading a post from Derek of Bear-Flavored (and now, Kent Falls Brewing) when he was playing around with perfecting hoppy beers; the recipe was for a DIPA, and I liked how the grist looked: majority of 2-row, with ~7% each of Wheat malt and Carapils, some Flaked Oats, and about 5% table sugar to help dry the beer out. I've done similar ones in the past, but not exactly like this. So, I shamefully lifted it! Just kidding, there really is no copying in brewing. Well, mostly not.

Choosing a hop schedule was a little more difficult, as usual. Not because I can't think of hops I'd like to use... because there's too MANY hops that I would like to brew with! And I still have quite an inventory from 2014 on hand (and have picked up some 2015 varieties as well... gulp), so plenty to work with. As I mentioned, I wanted a beer with a big fruity, tropical profile; but I also wanted some dank, resinous character in there, too. I eventually decided on:

• Amarillo - a no-brainer; it's been around for awhile now, and it consistently delivers. Such a fantastic hop that gives plenty of tropical fruit character to any beer I've used it in, it's still one of my favorites.
• Comet - a hop that's been around for quite some time, I've actually brewed with it before. I split a pound on a whim with a friend, and sat on it. Then when I read a bit more about it, and saw it described as "intensely dank" and with an "intense wild American grapefruit" character (according to Bear-Flavored's Hop Guide); sounded great to me!
• Hallertau Blanc - I've brewed with this hop, a fairly new tropical variety from Germany, once before in my first 100% Brett IPA, and I really liked it. It's not just fruity... it kind of has a lightly floral characteristic to it that works really well. I was looking to brew with it again, and thought it would great in a DIPA.

I went with a pretty-typical hopping schedule for me: 10 min, hop steep, chiller-on, and a big dry-hop, with the overall emphasis just slightly on the Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc. By the time the wort was poured into the Better Bottle, it was smelling pretty fantastic.

Normally for a beer of this style, I'd ferment with US-05. However, I've done a few beers with Wyeast 1318 London Ale III recently, and every time I make a starter I overbuild by 80-100 billion cells. I've really been enjoying the beers I've brewed with this yeast strain lately, and I've never done a DIPA with London Ale III, so I decided to give it a try, here. I build up what I had to ~260 billion cells, pitched at 64 F, aerated well with pure O2, and let 'er rip (temperature control is rarely needed this time of year in my house; if anything, when temps get REALLY cold, I have to make sure to keep the beer warm enough so the yeast don't poop out on me).

After 10 days or so in primary, I threw the dry hops into the BB for 7 days, and then bottled the beer. Of course I'd normally keg a beer like this, but since I'm basically giving more than half the batch away, for ASAP consumption, it's easier just to bottle it now. The only problem here is I wasn't thinking when I calculated how much priming sugar to add - I calculated for 2.5 vol CO2 for 5 gallons, but with all the hop sludge in this beer, I really only ended up with slightly over 4 gallons of beer. This would unfortunately give a carb level of ~2.9 vol. Oops.

I tried sampling the beer after it had been bottled for 5-6 days, and it was already carbonated more than I'd like for a DIPA. I was able to move all the bottles into my cellar, which is a perfect 48-50 F during the winter. Carbonation did increase after a little while, but luckily it's not TOO bad; high, yes, but it's not a Hefeweizen or anything. The other aspects of the beer, I was quite happy with. The aroma is huge, lots of mango and orange, some pine and dank in there, too. The flavour is a bit more restrained, but still a very enjoyable hop presence similar to the aroma; some bready malt character is there to help balance a little, but as I hoped for, no lingering sweetness. A touch of a carbonic bite in the finish (possibly due to the higher carbonation?). The bitterness is about perfect for a DIPA... for me. I'm not big on huge bitterness anymore, and ~60 IBUs works well in a hoppy beer.

Overall, this beer is extremely smooth. Smoother and easier-drinking that most DIPAs I've brewed, so I'm going to attribute that success to the London Ale III, and the changes in water chemistry to bring my mash pH down to 5.4. I've been doing this more and more with my hoppy beers lately, and most of the time it's worked out great (I'm sure the wheat malt and flaked oats helped as well). Aside from being smoother, the hop profiles seem to be... juicier. I'd love to do a Brulosophy-inspired experiment with the same hoppy beer fermented with London Ale III vs. US-05, and another with water chemistry changes vs. none at all. I'll put that on the list, see if it actually happens!

As much as I enjoy this beer, I think I have to tip the Celebration award to last year's Red IPA. I will say that after a month, this current beer is holding its own really well for a hoppy brew. I don't know why I still have a few bottles left; guess I didn't go out of my way to give as many away! Sharing? Bah, humbug! ;)

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.073, FG ~1.010, IBU ~62, SRM 4.5, ABV ~7.7%

Grains:
4.85 kg (75%) Canadian 2-row
475 g (7.3%) Wheat malt
475 g (7.3%) CaraPils
240 g (3.7%) Flaked Oats
100 g (1.5%) Acid malt
335 g (5.2%) Table sugar

Hops:
Hop extract - 5 mL @ 60 min (equivalent to 28 g of a 10% AA hop variety)
Amarillo - 28 g (7.4% AA) @ 10 min
Hallertau Blanc - 28 g (8.4% AA) @ 10 min

Amarillo - 56 g @ 0 min (with a 20 min hop steep)
Comet - 28 g @ 0 min (with a 20 min hop steep)

Comet - 28 g @ 0 min (when chilling started)
Hallertau Blanc - 56 g @ 0 min (when chilling started)

Amarillo - 39 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)
Comet - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Hallertau Blanc - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~260 billion cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 10 g Gypsum and 10 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on November 15th, 2015, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp was reading all over the place at first, ranging from 150-158 F. Finally settled at 151 F; still holding at this temp at end of rest. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.5 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~3.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.

- Pre-boil gravity at 1.052 (target 1.054). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG low at 1.070 (after sugar calculation). Chilled to 62 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 64 F.

- Fermentation took off quickly, going strong by the next morning. After a couple of days it started to slow, so I added the sugar in two separate additions over 12 hours, after boiling and cooling in some water.

- 4/12/15 - FG ~1.010. Threw dry hops in fermentor. Bottled 5 days later, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2 for 5 gallons, but wasn't thinking about loss to trub and hop matter, so only got ~4 gallons. Results in a too-high carbonation of ~2.9 vol.

Please excuse the crappiness of this photo

Appearance: Pours with a medium-large, off-white head that sticks around for quite some time before fading to 1/2-finger (probably at least partially due to the high carbonation). Body is quite hazy, with a light-golden colour. Slightly effervescent.

Aroma: Really big citrus and grapefruit bomb, and a tiny bit dank. All hops.

Taste: Plenty of grapefruit, lots of citrus and tropical fruit upfront, with a bit of dank following behind, as in the aroma. Supporting malt character is minimal, but keeps it in check. Finishes with a moderate bitterness, plenty dry.

Mouthfeel: Moderate-high carbonation, medium-light bodied. Slightly oily mouthfeel, I assume from the combination of the London Ale III and all the hop oils.

Overall: I quite like it. Too heavy on the carbonation, my fault for not thinking ahead. While it isn't as good as last year's Christmas beer, this is definitely the best DIPA I've brewed in a while.

Brewing a White IPA (with Amarillo and El Dorado)

I've brewed a lot of hoppy beers; specifically, a lot of different types of IPAs. From your standard American IPA, to English and Imperial, and then onto a lot of the newer sub-styles like Brown, Red, Session, and of course the increasingly-popular 100% Brett IPA. I've also tried to experiment a little, such as with a Belgian Session IPA, a Belgian Red IPA, and a Session Red IPA. With IPAs, you're not limited by much!

However, despite being brewed by more commercial breweries these days, there's one IPA sub-style that I personally haven't brewed before: White IPA. Sharing the characteristics of a Belgian Witbier (light, spicy and fruity - from Witbier yeast and/or additions of orange peel and coriander) and an American IPA (lots of hop aromas and flavors, and a high bitterness in the finish), it's one of those styles that can come across as really tasty, or a bit of a mess. For me, timing was the main incentive here; I brewed a Witbier in early June and figured: why not save some slurry and knock off a White IPA while I'm at it? Witbiers are great for summer-drinking, and White IPAs aren't any different... when they're brewed well, of course.

I've had some White IPAs that I thought were really tasty, where they managed to include the spiciness of the coriander and yeast characteristics, and plenty of citrusy, fruity hop flavors... and have them work well together. Others have been fair to poor, where the beer came across as simply a Witbier, or just a lighter-colored IPA. And some are just plain-old mislabelled, where the bottle/menu basically indicates that the beer is an American IPA that has wheat in the grist.

For my recipe, I took the grist for the Witbier I brewed beforehand (I haven't posted on that beer yet, mainly because I split the batch and pitched Brett Amalgamation from Yeast Bay, along with the Witbier yeast, in half of the wort, which I'll be hopefully bottling soon) and scaled it up to a higher OG (1.061). It's nothing unusual for a Witbier grist: 50% Pilsner and 40% Flaked Wheat make up the majority, with some Flaked Oats and a bit of Acid malt (to lower mash pH) topping it off. I aimed for a mash of 153 F, hoping to get a medium-bodied mouthfeel. Yes, you want the beer to be refreshing, but a too-thin White IPA can really distract from any other positives, in my experience.

When selecting the hops, I immediately decided to limit myself to two varieties. I was already leaning strongly towards using some newer varieties that I had only begun to experiment with, and I was worried that if I threw in too many types, I'd be increasing the chance that they would ultimately clash with the Witbier yeast. Belgian yeasts generally are so expressive, with plenty of phenols, esters, etc. that it puts their beers at a higher likelihood of not melding well with certain hops/hop combos. I had some El Dorado left over from a previous one-hop Session IPA I had brewed; I really liked the idea of using that one, because I get a lot of orange-candy from that hop that I thought would work well in a White IPA. For the second variety, I ALMOST went with Azacca; I've really liked this hop in the few beers I've used it in. At the last minute, however, I changed over to Amarillo. Not really sure why; I think I started worrying that the Azacca would overpower the El Dorado... and who doesn't love Amarillo, really? It's so versatile, and works with so many other varieties. So, I ultimately decided on a flavor addition of Amarillo at 10 minutes, a steep/hop stand of Amarillo and El Dorado, and a fairly-hefty dry-hop addition of El Dorado alone, to try to bring out the orange character. I didn't hop this as strongly as I typically would an IPA - while the beer is meant to be hoppy, you don't want the hops overpowering the Witbier characteristics. It's important to find a balance, and with this being my first attempt, I wanted to err on the side of caution (hopefully).

For the other additions, I used some freshly-ground coriander seed (14 g) at flameout. The later in the boil you add spices, of course, the more of the aroma characteristics you'll keep in the beer. Now, with a 10-minute steep, that's probably equivalent to actually adding the coriander back at the 5-10 minute mark, which some may consider a bit too early. In hindsight, perhaps I would have been better off adding it sometime during the steep, but I wasn't too worried. I didn't end up adding any citrus peel at flameout, for two reasons: 1) I forgot to buy fruit, and I didn't have any of the dried orange peel on hand, and 2) I figured with the hops being added, there'd be sufficient fruitiness in the beer, anyway. Especially considering how orangey El Dorado is (really, you've got to try it).

When I was deciding on the yeast strain for my Witbier, I decided to try one that was new to me: Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier. I've used the Forbidden Fruit strain before, and enjoyed it, but I was curious to go with something different, see if there was a big difference. Belgian Witbier is described as being heavier on spicy phenolics as opposed to fruity esters. Now, knowing this, I'm not really sure why I ultimately chose this strain, because I prefer a more-fruity Witbier, as opposed to spicy... or at least, one that is balanced. Anyway, I ordered it on a whim, so there you go.

This beer was already brewed and fermenting when I had finally kegged and started drinking my Witbier. I was worried; the Witbier was not great at all. I had missed my OG by several points, and the FG came in higher as well, so the Witbier was only at 3.5% ABV. But of course that wasn't really the problem... there was something... "off" about it. I can't quite put my finger on it; it didn't taste infected, it just had this weird flavor to it. One fellow beer geek referred to it as "Asian noodles". I dunno about that, but he may be closer in describing it than anyone else! Hopefully the Brett half of that beer turns out better.

With the White IPA, at least the brew day seemed to go well. I did a better job of hitting my OG (right on target), and there weren't any problems that I could see. The hops smelled great out of the bag, even though they're definitely a bit past their prime, age-wise. Fermentation temps got a bit higher over the next couple of days than I would have liked, but never seemed to go above 72 F. I DID have a very active fermentation, however - the airlock blew off about 24-30 hours after pitching, and I wasn't able to put it back in until a day or so later. Dry hops were added a week and a half after brew day, and the beer was kegged 5 days after that.

The beer was ready by early July, which was perfect timing for summer drinking. Luckily, it turned out much better than the Witbier had; I never would have guessed that both beers had the same grist and yeast strain. As a White IPA, it hits most of the major points I would want to see for the style: lots of fruitiness from the hops, some spicy phenols from the yeast (but luckily, not too many at all), and the coriander comes through just enough to let you know it's there. The one area where it falls short is the bitterness; for this type of beer, it should definitely be higher. I'd say it's at medium, when it should be high, if you're following the BJCP guidelines. That's really due to an error on my part; I had changed from Azacca to Amarillo at the last minute, and forgot that the AA% for my Amarillo hops was much lower than the Azacca. Instead of the IBUs coming in at around 50 as planned, it's probably closer to 35-40. Style comparison aside, I'm not really upset that the bitterness came in a bit low.

So, yeah. Came out pretty well, especially for a first attempt. The hops really worked well in this beer, especially the El Dorado dry hop. I didn't find I was missing the lack of a orange peel addition at all; the beer is plenty "orange-y" thanks to the El Dorado. It's also held up really nicely; we're into September now, and the keg is about empty, but there's still lots of juicy hop character in the beer. Amarillo and El Dorado aren't the easiest varieties to find, but if you can, I encourage you to give this one a try!

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 68% efficiency) OG 1.061, FG ~1.015, IBU ~37, SRM 4, ABV ~6%

Grains:
3.1 kg (49.4%) Pilsner
2.5 kg (39.8%) Flaked Wheat
350 g (5.6%) Flaked Oats
200 g (3.2%) Acid malt
125 g (2%) Rice hulls

Hops:
Hop extract - 2.5 mL @ 60 min (or 14 g of a 10% AA hop variety)

Amarillo - 28 g (7.8% AA) @ 10 min

Amarillo - 28 g @ 0 min (with a 10 min hop steep)
El Dorado - 28 g @ 0 min (with a 10 min hop steep)

El Dorado - 84 g dry-hop for 5-7 days (in primary)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min, 14 g Coriander seed (freshly ground) at 0 min

Yeast: Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier (slurry)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 2 g Gypsum and 6 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on June 16th, 2015, by myself. 50-minute mash with 16 L of strike water, mashed in slightly above target at 154 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.25 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~4 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~7.25 gallons.

- SG a bit high at 1.048 (target 1.046). 90-minute boil. Final volume high at ~5.75 gallons; OG on target at 1.061. Chilled to low-60s F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 64 F.

- Fast and very active fermentation by the next morning. By that evening, the airlock had blown off, so I replaced with sanitized foil for 24 hours or so, before I was able to replace the airlock. After a couple more days, activity had slowed down to a trickle. Max temp of 72 F reached.

- 25/6/15 - FG 1.015. Dry hops added to primary.

- 1/7/15 - Racked to CO2-purged keg, set in keezer to cool overnight, started carbing the next day.

Appearance: Pours with a white, thick head; very nice retention, eventually fades to 1/2-finger and stays there. Body is a pale golden color, with the expected cloudiness.

Aroma: Quite fruity; it's hard to tell how much is from the hops, and how much from the yeast. I suspect it's a combination of the two. Some background spiciness as well, but the esters/hops win out. I get a bit of coriander in there, but not a lot.

Taste: Nice wheat-based malt backbone, followed by plenty of fruitiness. Definitely a good amount of hop flavor in there, probably more so than fruity esters from the yeast strain. Some spicy phenolics (clove, mainly) come through afterwards. Medium-low bitterness in the finish, should be higher.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. Very creamy.

Overall: I enjoy this beer; I like the Witbier characteristics, and I really like how El Dorado and Amarillo work together. I think it could use a bit more Witbier bump (read: slightly more phenolics and coriander), but otherwise it's about what I was aiming for. More bitterness would up it a notch, however.

Brewing a 100%-Brett IPA (with Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc)

Despite my severe lack of posting lately, I was actually brewing quite a bit before summer began. Starting with my recently-posted Alpine Nelson clone, I brewed six times in six weeks. This may not seem like quite a feat for some of you out there (you know who you are), but for me to pull this off with the everyday-busyness of work, family, etc., I was impressed! I had planned this a few months ago, but wasn't too hopeful that I could make it work, let alone keep to my schedule, but somehow, I did. The choice to brew so much wasn't due to any particular reason, other than that I don't usually brew during July and August, other than once or twice - I'm often away when not working, and with much-warmer temperatures (and my fermentation chamber now acting as a keezer), it's more practical to brew during the rest of the year.

So, it was time to build up some inventory while I had the chance. As always, I had lots of ideas of beers to brew, but there was one "style" in particular that I had been wanting to tackle for awhile, but hadn't: Brett IPA. Not officially a style, per se, this type of beer is exactly what you would expect, an American IPA that is fermented completely with the "wild" yeast, Brettanomyces. Brett continues to increase in popularity in the brewing world, both in commercial breweries and among home brewers. I've had a few commercial versions of Brett IPA over the past year or two, but I've been doing more reading than drinking on the subject, when it comes right down to it. There's an entire chapter of Mike Tonsmeire's American Sour Beer dedicated to 100% Brett fermentations; the whole book is a great read, but this chapter in particular is very informative.

Something interesting about 100% Brett fermentations - despite what you'd first think, there's less funky character in a beer fermented completely with Brett, compared to when it's used alongside Saccharomyces strains. Because the Brett has access to all of the simple sugars available (no competition with other yeast strains), it doesn't ferment as many of the long-chain carbohydrates. Combine that with a large, healthy pitch of Brett, and there you have it: less of the esters and phenols you expect from a Brett beer.

On the bright side, the beer should be ready to package after several weeks, as opposed to the usual period of months that you see when Brett is used with other yeast. And when it comes specifically to IPAs and other hoppy beers, Brett is a good candidate for a 100%-fermentation, thanks to its well-known oxygen-scavenging abilities - technically, the hop character of the beer should last longer, since oxidation is minimized. And Brett IPAs can be damn tasty - the well-brewed ones have a wonderful blend of tropical fruit (especially pineapple), citrus, and barnyard funk. And while it's repeated quite often lately, I still feel the urge to make clear that Brett beers generally are NOT sour... Lactobacillus and Pediococcus (both bacteria) are responsible for souring in most beers.

So, recently I had to make an online order for some homebrew equipment, and when browsing through their inventory to see if I could get my order high enough for free shipping, I noticed that there were some new yeast strains available, including several Brett strains from The Yeast Bay. The one that interested me the most was their Amalgamation, a "Brett Super Blend" featuring no less than SIX different strains of Brettanomyces, which combine to create a "dry beer with a bright and complex fruit-forward flavor and aroma, accompanied by some funk on the palate". It sounded perfect to me for a Brett IPA, so I quickly ordered a vial.



When it arrived in the mail, it was time to begin making a starter to build up the cell count. As stated on their website, Yeast Bay's Brett vials contain only about 2 billion cells each; recommendations for how many cells to use in a 100%-Brett beer vary from normal ale pitching rates, to hybrid rates, to lager rates. I weighed the opinions and decided to go with ale pitching rates, which for a 1.057 beer is about 200 billion cells; so, I obviously had my work cut out for me! I also decided to overbuild and double the count to 400 billion cells, so that I could save some clean slurry for future batches.

Luckily for me, I recently obtained a stir plate... finally. No, I don't know why it took me so long; I'm usually pretty strict when it comes to yeast health, wort aeration, sanitation, etc. but for some reason all of my yeast starters over the past several years consisted of intermittent shaking. But this was a great time to finally step things up. According to Tonsmeire, a Brett starter should begin with a low volume of wort, so I pitched the vial into 500 mL and let it go on the stir plate for a week. This is a lot longer than your typical 1-2 days for Saccharomyces starters, and I'm not 100% sure that it's necessary, but Tonsmeire mentions that maximum cell density should be reached "in about a week", so I deferred to him. After the first week, I added another 2.25 L of wort, waited another week, then chilled and decanted.

With a healthy number of cells built up, it was now time to hammer out a simple recipe. A friend had recently brewed the recipe for Tonsmeire's 100% Brett Trois IPA, and I liked the simplicity of the grain bill for that beer, so I followed it almost exactly. It consists of a majority of 2-row, along with a healthy amount of Wheat malt (~20%); lots of IPA recipes contain a bit of Wheat malt in the grist, but this is higher than normal. The reasoning makes sense: unlike Saccharomyces, most (all?) Brettanomyces strains do not produce glycerol, a compound which increases the body and mouthfeel of a beer. Therefore, the idea is that adding Wheat malt, flaked wheat, and/or flaked oats to the grist will help boost the mouthfeel so that the resulting beer doesn't come across as too thin or watery. In this recipe, a bit of Carapils for more mouthfeel, and some Acid malt to lower mash pH round off the grist. I aimed for an OG of 1.057 - definitely not very high for an IPA, but with the possible high attenuation of Brettanomyces, I wanted to make sure the ABV didn't come out TOO high. The grains were mashed at 153 F; with the likely absence of glycerol, this higher-than-normal mash temp for an IPA (for me, anyway) was another attempt to help boost the body of the beer.

When it came to the hopping, I had - as usual - plenty of options to work with. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, with 2-3 varieties, tops. Looking at my inventory, I realized I still had some Amarillo to use up from an older harvest; luckily, I had used it fairly recently and knew that it was still smelling and tasting great. So, I decided to bitter the beer with a little hop extract at the beginning of the boil, and then throw in 2.5 oz of Amarillo for a hop steep at flameout, and another 2.5 oz after turning on the chiller. For the dry-hop, I was originally going to use Equinox (I've only used Equinox once, in a one-hop Session IPA, and I loved it), but at the last minute I changed to Hallertau Blanc. I bought a pound of this variety on a whim a couple of months ago; described as having aromas of passionfruit, grapefruit, pineapple, and lemongrass, it's a new German variety that shows they're starting to experiment with hop varieties that mimic the extremely fruity American varieties that are so popular today. Sounded like it would work great in a Brett IPA - and with Amarillo - so I threw in 4 oz for the dry-hop addition.

I brewed the beer in mid-May; everything went fine on brew day, and I aerated the wort with 75 seconds of pure O2. I was aware that higher oxygenation could also limit Brett character in a beer, but I was looking for a fast turnaround to preserve the hop flavor, so I was willing to take that risk. The wort was fermented in the low 70s F. As you would expect, warmer temps will result in more of the classic Brett characteristics you expect to see, but then you also run the risk of the beer having more off-flavors. I erred on the side of caution, pitching the yeast in the mid-60s and letting the temp rise to 70-72 F.

Fermentation was fast and healthy; I took a couple of gravity readings a few days apart after 2 weeks, and it seemed to have stabilized at 1.014. This was higher than expected based on the 85%+ attenuation for the Amalgamation that is stated on the Yeast Bay website; however, it appeared to be in the normal range when I compared to other homebrewed and commercially brewed Brett IPAs, so I was happy with that number. I then added the dry-hops into primary, and bottled the beer 5 days later. This is normally a beer I would keg, but I was curious as to how the aromas and flavors would change over a few months (assuming the Brett character would increase as the hops faded), and bottling was the best option for me, what with limited keezer space and all. A note about bottling 100% Brett beers: basically, use the same sugar calculations that you would for non-Brett beers, and just keep in mind that it may take a little longer than normal for full carbonation to be reached. Yes, I was slightly concerned about bottle bombs in a Brett beer with a final gravity of only 1.014, but I aimed for 2.2 vol CO2, and have been drinking it for 6 weeks now, and all seems good.

Speaking of drinking... this beer came out almost exactly as I was hoping it would, which is rare. As mentioned, I've never brewed with Hallertau Blanc before, and maybe I got lucky pairing it with Amarillo, but the fruitiness to this beer - especially in the first few weeks - was fantastic. Very tropical, backed up by a mild funk/barnyard that has been slowly becoming more prominent, as expected, as the beer ages. I find the beer very hoppy, while some people who have tried it don't find it very hoppy at all; they still enjoy it, but they've said that it's the funk that comes through most. And at least one beer friend thought that the beer could use a little more bitterness, but personally I'm happy with it right where it is. More detail in the tasting notes below, but I would easily brew this beer again, and I'm looking forward to trying the same recipe with different hop varieties in the not-too-distant future.

Not much more to say here; I fully recommend this Brett blend if you can get your hands on it, and it seems that Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc are a fantastic combination! Watch for future posts featuring this blend in the near future; I plan to do some experimenting with both 100%-Brett beers, and combinations.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.057, FG ~1.010, IBU ~45, SRM 4.1, ABV ~6.5%

Grains:
3.7 kg (71.2%) Canadian 2-row
1.1 kg (21.2%) Wheat malt
200 g (3.8%) Cara-Pils
200 g (3.8%) Acid malt

Hops:
Hop extract - 5 mL @ 60 min (or 28 g of a 10% AA hop variety)

Amarillo - 70 g (7.8% AA) @ 0 min (with a 20 min hop steep)
Amarillo - 70 g @ 0 min (when start chilling)

Hallertau Blanc - 112 g dry-hop for 5-7 days (in primary)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: Yeast Bay Brett Amalgamation (500 mL starter, then 2.25 L starter, decanted)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 3 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on May 19th, 2015, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water, mashed in at 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~3.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.

- SG 1.049. 60-minute boil. Final volume on target of 5.5 gallons; OG a bit high at 1.058. Chilled to low-60s F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched half of yeast starter (~200 billion cells) at 66 F.

- Fermentation going strong by about 24 hours after pitching, kept up for several days before starting to slow. Temperature never got above 70 F.

- 2/6/15 - Added dry hops into primary.

- 9/6/15 - FG of 1.014. Bottled with table sugar to 2.2 vol CO2.

Appearance: Pours with a stark-white, medium-sized head that shows pretty good retention; fades eventually to 1/2-finger. Body is a light-golden color (lighter than the picture appears), with a permanent haziness.

Aroma: Huge wallop on the nose, lots of pineapple, tropical fruit, citrus, with a fair amount of barnyard funk. It all pairs together really well, IMO.

Taste: Again, huge; this is not a mild beer, but it works! As in the aroma, plenty of tropical flavors and funk, with a medium-light bitterness in the finish.

Mouthfeel: No worries about the likely lack of glycerol... this is a medium-bodied beer, quite creamy, with moderate carbonation. Smooth.

Overall: I really love this beer; it's almost exactly what I was hoping it would be when I put the recipe together. I'll likely brew it again with different hops, but I wouldn't be surprised if I come back to this exact recipe at some point again.

Brewing a Red IPA, à la Sierra Nevada Celebration

DISCLAIMER: This is not a clone recipe of, or an attempt at cloning, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

Not that I have anything against Celebration... on the contrary, I've always really enjoyed it. Hard to believe that a beer like this - they call it an American-style IPA, but look at it... it's a Red IPA, or hoppy American Amber, right? - has been around for over 30 years. There would have been a lot of years at the beginning there where you'd be hard-pressed to find another beer like this from anyone. For the two of you reading this post who haven't tried this beer, it's a seasonal release that comes out in the late fall, in time for Christmas. No, it's not spiced or mulled or anything like that, so I guess you can't call it a "Christmas beer", but what does that really even mean? It's just a tasty amber-colored, hoppy beer that is brewed with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.

All this being said, I decided this year to brew a "Christmas beer"; not a beer that is dark, strong, and heavily spiced, but simply a beer that I could give away for the holidays. I considered a lot of styles, most of them hoppy (of course), and, inspired by the type of beer Sierra Nevada Celebration is, I decided to go with a hoppy Amber Ale, aka West Coast Amber, aka India Red Ale, aka - and according to the new BJCP guidelines, the "definitive name" - Red IPA.

But I wanted this beer to be more than Celebration... that is, I wanted it to be hoppier. Every year there are some people who inevitably complain that Celebration isn't as hoppy as it was last year. I have no idea if this is true; I suspect that it's more likely that people have changed. I know for a fact that beers I found hoppy a few years ago would no longer taste as hoppy to me now; when you've had some great hoppy beers, you can get spoiled quickly (otherwise known as the lupulin threshold shift). Now that I HAVE had a lot of hoppy beers, I can confirm that Celebration isn't a supremely-hoppy beer... it's got a great malt character, and the hops ARE there, but I want more in my Red IPAs. I want beers along the lines of the last couple of hoppy Ambers I've brewed, namely the Modern Times Blazing World clone and Maine Beer Co. Zoe clone.

So that's exactly what I aimed for with this beer. I enjoyed the Blazing World clone so much that I went with the exact same malt bill; it makes a deep-red colored beer, with a really great malty sweetness that works fantastically at supporting a very hoppy beer. Lots of Maris Otter, almost 15% Munich malt, and then a little bit of Roasted Barley and Carafa II... in my opinion, it all works perfectly for this style of beer.

I had a LOT of ideas about which hops to use in this beer. I've brewed a lot of hoppy beers in 2014, and I still had quite a few varieties from the 2013 harvest. Three varieties, max, were what I wanted to use in this beer. But... which ones? After a lot of thought, I decided that I absolutely wanted to use Amarillo and Simcoe, mainly because I'm a big fan of Alpine Duet, an IPA that uses equal amounts of both; I've tried to clone that beer twice (here and here), and these hops really do work well together. But I had never used them together in an Amber, so I thought this was a great chance to try them in a darker beer.

Picking out the third hop was harder. I wanted to go with something great, one of the popular, new/newish varieties that I've brewed with, and therefore had a bit of experience with. I strongly considered both Nelson and Mosaic, but as much as I loved both, I had used them in the Blazing World clone. Galaxy crossed my mind as well, but in the end I settled on Azacca. I loved what it brought to my Oxbow Grizacca clone, and after the debacle with that beer (a leak of some sort drained most of the keg in the keezer, shortly after I had started drinking it), I wanted to try it again, and soon. The aromas of ripe stone fruit, the touch of pine... I figured it would work really well with Amarillo and Simcoe.

So, the hopping schedule below is what I came up with. I didn't base it on anything other than feel; if I had written the recipe down, and then erased my memory and wrote it again an hour later, the proportions would probably be different. An addition of Amarillo at 15 minutes, then heavy flameout additions (one for a hop steep, the other after turning on the wort chiller), and one dry-hop addition in primary... it all came to roughly 45% Amarillo, and 27.5% each Simcoe and Azacca. I really liked how the hopping in this recipe looked; it somehow worked in a way on paper that just HAD to translate to the final product. Or, so I hoped. Fermented with US-05, typical for my hoppy beers, the goal was a really hoppy (emphasis on tropical fruit and pine) ale, balanced with the malty sweetness of an Amber ale, finishing on the dry/bitter side.

I would normally keg a beer like this, but since my plans were to give the majority of the batch away, it just made sense to bottle it and distribute it ASAP, so that everyone would be able to drink the beer as fresh as possible. I timed the brew day to be in mid-November; that would give it a couple of weeks in primary, followed by the dry-hop (also in primary), and then a good two week period to carbonate, more than enough if the bottles were kept at room temperature.

And in a complete twist in my blogging routine, I'm posting the tasting notes at the same time as the recipe. I don't think I've ever managed to do that for a beer that I brewed recently! I'm quite behind in my posts lately, and I really wanted to have this one out before Christmas... looks like I'm just making it. BARELY. I can say that the beer came out really great, just what I was aiming for in terms of hop presence (huge), flavors/aromas (tropical, piney, citrusy), and malt presence (balanced almost perfectly). If I could change anything, I'd back off on the bitterness, but only slightly. Maybe knock it down to 60-65 IBUs? I've had several friends check-in to this beer on Untappd - Meek Celebration (2014) - and they've all loved it, for the most part.

If you're looking for a new hoppy Amber, Red IPA, whatever, to brew, I suggest you give this recipe a try... if you can get your hands on the hops, of course. Here's hoping everyone has a great Christmas, filled with good cheer, friends and family, and - of course - fantastic beer!

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 72% efficiency) OG 1.068, FG ~1.012, IBU ~75, SRM 14, ABV ~7.2%

Grains:
5.2 kg (83.3%) Maris Otter
930 g (14.9%) Munich malt
70 g (1.1%) Roasted Barley
45 g (0.7%) Carafa II

Hops:
Hop extract - 5 mL @ 60 min (or 28 g of 10% AA hop variety)

Amarillo - 40 g (8.1% AA) @ 15 min

Amarillo - 20 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)
Azacca - 40 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)
Simcoe - 20 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)

Amarillo - 20 g @ 0 min (when wort temp below 180 F)
Simcoe - 40 g @ 0 min (when wort temp below 180 F)

Amarillo - 54 g dry-hop for 5-7 days
Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 5-7 days
Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 5-7 days

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: US-05 Safale, 1 package, rehydrated

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered

- Brewed on November 18th, 2014, by myself. 50-minute mash with 16 L of strike water, mashed in at target of 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.75 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~3 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.

- SG a high at 1.057 (target 1.055). 60-minute boil. First flameout hops had a 15-minute steep before turning on the chiller, then added the second flameout hops. Final volume a little over 5.5 gallons; OG on target at 1.068. Chilled to 65 F, then poured/filtered into Better Bottle. Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched rehydrated yeast.

- Good fermentation activity over the next four days, started slowing down quickly after that. Temp got as high as 70 F.

- 28/11/14 - FG a bit high at 1.016. Added dry-hops directly into primary.

- 3/12/14 - Bottled with 104 g table sugar, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2. 

Appearance: Pours with a moderate-sized, slightly off-white head that is thick and pretty creamy, with really good retention... fades to 1/2-finger or so. Body is a deep, dark ruby-red color, with excellent clarity.

Aroma: Absolutely huge hop aroma. Lots of tropical fruit, citrus, pine... there's a lot going on. The malty sweetness is there behind the hops, and it provides a nice backing to the aroma. No alcohol, no flaws that I can detect.

Flavor: Some of that bready, maltiness that is a little sweet, but the hops win out again. Great, sticky tropical and citrusy flavors in here. The beer is nicely balanced, with the finish leaning towards the dry side. Moderate-high bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, medium (almost medium-high) carbonation.

Overall: I really like this beer; it's up there with the Blazing World clone for my favorite hoppy Ambers that I've brewed. I'd dial back the IBUs a little, but otherwise I'd keep the recipe as-is.

Tasting : Hop Swamp (American IPA)

I feel it's important to take two different approaches in brewing...

1) Spend some time re-brewing batches that you really loved, so that you can enjoy them again, but more importantly, gain practice at nailing down a few styles with limited (if any) batch variability;

2) Experiment.

Obviously, "experiment" can refer to any number of ingredients, techniques, etc. in brewing. It all applies; it doesn't matter if you're brand-spanking new to the hobby, or if you've been doing it for 20 years, or if you're Shaun Hill. Experimenting will make you a better brewer. And isn't becoming a better brewer ultimately what this hobby is all about (to those of us who aren't just doing it for cheaper beer, that is)?

Well, in early October I experimented with an American IPA that I referred to as a "Kitchen Sink" IPA... that is, I added four hop varieties (Amarillo, Belma, Centennial and Falconer's Flight) that were from the 2012 hop harvest. To be honest, it was just as much about trying to use up older hops as it was about experimenting with this hop mixture, but I was truly curious as to just how hoppy a beer brewed with 2012 hops would be. Keeping in mind they were stored properly (vacuum-sealed, in the freezer), and weren't visibly too old (brownish-yellow color, for example), the hops even smelled pretty good... but you could tell they weren't as potent as fresh hops.

All that being said, the beer came out about what I expected... tasty, and hoppy, but nowhere near as hoppy as it SHOULD be with such a large amount of hops. Obviously other factors can come into play, but I feel that hop age was the deciding element, here. The beer smelled terrific after I removed the dry-hops, and tasted pretty darned good once it was carbed... but it fell off quickly (much faster than other hoppy beers have since I started kegging). Now, it's in the "good but not great" category of IPAs.

So, unfortunately I can't really say yay or nay for this beer's recipe; I don't think it's a safe representation of how these hops work together. Let this little experiment be a lesson, kids: use your hops while they're fresh. Try your best not to over-order.

But, really, who are we kidding?

Appearance: Pours with a moderate-sized, off-white head, creamy, good retention. Body is a light orange color, and very hazy.

Aroma: Kind of a muddled hop aroma (citrus, orangey) with a supporting malty sweet backbone. I would prefer to have the hops more upfront. No real flaws, just a bit...

Taste: Ditto with the flavor. It’s not a bad IPA at all, I just feel that the hops aren’t potent enough, especially considering how many were added in this beer. A combination of citrusy and sweet, it’s a little TOO balanced. Medium bitterness in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, with moderate carbonation.

Overall: A very decent IPA, but not a great one. I suspect the hop age is the most contributing factor to this.

Brewing a "Kitchen Sink" American IPA

It's inevitable when it comes to homebrewers who love hoppy beers - you will almost always have more hops than you need. I know, at first glance the idea seems completely crazy. But when you start buying one pound at a time of all these new, hot varieties (e.g. Azacca, Galaxy, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, Falconer's Flight, Belma), while at the same time buying up those tried-and-true varieties that you always want to have on hand (Columbus, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, etc.)... well, they accumulate quickly.

And now the 2014 harvest is coming out! Trust me, you start to panic a bit, worrying you're going to miss out on Citra, or Mosaic, or whatever. You love these hops, and while you may not have a beer planned in the near future that involves them... what if you DO, eventually? And a lot of those varieties sell-out quickly, and then what are you going to do? Go a whole year without brewing with Nelson Sauvin? Uh-uh, I don't think so.

So, what happens? You start buying less food to store in your freezer, because space is being taken up by hops. However, while proper packaging and storage of hops can definitely extend how long they're good for, aroma and flavor components (not to mention bittering potential) are going to eventually fade over time. I brew a lot of hoppy beers (12 out of this year's first 16 batches had a good amount of hops, the majority of them significantly so), but I can't quite keep up with what's in my freezer. So, I decided to brew a new IPA, trying to make use of leftovers from - I'm ashamed to say - the 2012 harvest.

Before people start firebombing this blog, let me rush to say that these hops have indeed been vacuum-sealed and stored in my freezer, and I've made sure that all of them still look good and smell good. In fact, they smell pretty damned good; I'd never brew with spoiled hops just for the sake of using them up! Right now, brewing a beer like this came at a good time; I actually didn't have a long list of other beers to brew, at least not with yeast I have on hand (I have a couple of Belgian yeasts on special order, but they won't be here for awhile yet), so why not experiment a little?

I guess I should start with the grist. Nothing off the wall, here, I just put something together that would suit - hopefully - what I was looking for... a beer with a complementing malt character, but not a lot of specialty malts, letting the hops stay upfront. Mostly 2-row, some Maris Otter to give a bit more character, some Carapils and Caramunich II, and a portion of Acid malt. Mash at around 150 F to keep the fermentable sugars fairly high. Easy.

Now, the good stuff. Looking through my inventory, I had several varieties of hops from the 2012 harvest (meaning I bought most of them in early 2013, probably). I didn't want to just throw in everything that I had; more hops does not necessarily mean a better beer, and more hop VARIETIES doesn't mean better, either. I've had hops clash in homebrews before, and I've had commercial IPAs that have had so many hop varieties in it that the whole beer came out as a mess. Of course, there are many commercial IPAs available with plenty of different types of hops used in the brew, and they come out great. I guess the important thing is to experiment and try to learn from your mistakes.

So, I settled on four different hop varieties, all used at different parts of the brew for the most part. Just enough Centennial in a first wort hop (FWH) addition to give about 25 IBUs. A large amount of Centennial at 5 minutes and at flameout, for a hop stand; then, some Amarillo after the chiller was turned on and the wort temp dipped below 180 F. Two dry hop additions: one with just Belma, then Belma and Falconer's Flight for the keg-hop. All of this comes to the equivalent of just over a pound of hops for a 5.5-6 gallon batch (I scaled down to 4.5 gallons)... that's quite a lot.

The beer will be fermented with the mostly-neutral US-05, hopefully getting down to the low teens for a final gravity, keeping the beer quite dry. As mentioned, the beer will be kegged; extra-important here, I feel, because in my experience hoppy beers drop off much quicker when bottled. In a beer where the hops are older, I figure this will happen even faster than usual.

All of this is not something I'd jump to recommend. A tasty, hoppy IPA shouldn't really need over a pound of hops for a standard homebrew batch, at least not if the hops are fresh. The APA I brewed with only 4 oz of Simcoe hops (the Russian River Row 2, Hill 56 clone) came out very delicious and very hoppy; a lot of that was probably due to the freshness of the Simcoe. I'm brewing this beer mostly to use up these hops, and as a little experiment to the combination of these varieties. Hopefully the high amounts will help bring out some of their character, but it's possible that even with proper storage that this isn't going to happen. But I currently have a fairly good supply of beer on hand, so I don't mind using a brew day to test this out. These hops are only going to get staler, after all.

Recipe Targets: (4.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.064, FG ~1.012, IBU ~50, SRM 6.5, ABV ~6.9%

Grains:
3.3 kg (68.3%) Canadian 2-row
1.1 kg (22.8%) Maris Otter
200 g (4.1%) Carapils
150 g (3.1%) Caramunich II 45 L
80 g (1.7%) Acid malt

Hops:
Centennial - 14 g (8% AA) FWH
Centennial - 60 g @ 5 min

Centennial - 99 g @ 0 min (with a 10 minute hop steep)

Amarillo - 70 g @ 0 min (when wort temp below 180 F)

Belma - 56 g dry-hop for 4 days (in primary)

Belma - 50 g dry-hop for 5 days (keg-hop)
Falconer's Flight - 35 g dry-hop for 5 days (keg-hop)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: US-05 Safale, 1 package, rehydrated

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 2 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on October 8th, 2014, by myself. 50-minute mash with 14 L of strike water, mashed in at target of 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.5 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~2.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- SG a bit low at 1.049 (target 1.051). 60-minute boil. Flameout hops had a 10-minute steep before turning on the chiller; second dry hops added shortly after when wort temp dropped below 180 F. Final volume ~4.5 gallons; OG low at 1.061. Chilled to 65 F, then poured/filtered into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast.

- Good fermentation activity over the next few days; beer temp got a bit warm, up to 72-74 F. Started slowing after 3-4 days, krausen dropping.

 - 18/10/14 - First dry-hop addition, into primary directly. FG a bit high, 1.015.

- 22/10/14 - Racked into CO2-purged keg (the "dry-hop keg"), added second dry-hops directly into the keg.

- 26/10/14 - Transferred beer to the serving keg after cold-crashing for a day, set in keezer and began carbing.

- 25/11/14 - Yep, hop freshness matters a lot. It came out pretty good, but far from great.