American IPA: Citra, Simcoe & Equinox

[RZH]

Afternoon all, ready for an essay?

It's been ages since I've posted anything on here but thought I'd share my most recent brew as I'm particularly pleased with it.

I've been trying to nail my IPA grain bill for ages and I think I may have finally got somewhere. I'm not a fan of big sweet crystal-heavy IPAs but I also don't like overly light IPAs that end up tasting like hop water. Trying to find a balance!

I'm also trying to move away from overly bitter beers. As much as I love them, they're hard work to drink. Really into this new wave of beers with reduced bitterness and massive hopping rates late on for big big flavour.

Redesigned my mash tun and now I'm regularly hitting over 80% mash efficiency. Also, water chemistry and a fermentation have made the absolute world of difference to the quality of my beer - if you've thought about this but are a bit hesitant, don't be, get stuck in!

So, the recipe...

Boil Size: 29.82 l
Post Boil Volume: 25.72 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l
Bottling Volume: 18.11 l
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 11.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 82.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 92.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Water Treatment
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.40 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 0.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
4.00 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
2.90 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 0.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
2.70 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 4 -

Grain
5.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 5 89.3 %
0.40 kg Munich Malt (25.0 EBC) Grain 6 7.1 %
0.20 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (5.0 EBC) Grain 7 3.6 %

Hoppage
5.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 8 7.6 IBUs
5.00 g Equinox (HBC 366) [14.60 %] - First Wort Hop 9 8.1 IBUs
5.00 g Simcoe [13.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 10 7.3 IBUs
0.25 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 11 -
10.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 12 5.0 IBUs
10.00 g Equinox (HBC 366) [14.60 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 13 5.3 IBUs
10.00 g Simcoe [13.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 14 4.8 IBUs
15.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 15 4.1 IBUs
15.00 g Equinox (HBC 366) [14.60 %] - Boil 5.0 m Hop 16 4.4 IBUs
15.00 g Simcoe [13.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 17 4.0 IBUs
20.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 Hop 18 10.6 IBUs
20.00 g Equinox (HBC 366) [14.60 %] - Steep/Whir Hop 19 11.3 IBUs
20.00 g Simcoe [13.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 Hop 20 10.2 IBUs
50.00 g Citra [13.70 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 22 0.0 IBUs
50.00 g Equinox (HBC 366) [14.60 %] - Dry Hop 5. Hop 23 0.0 IBUs
50.00 g Simcoe [13.20 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 24 0.0 IBUs

Yeast
2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 21 -

Aiming for a conservative 75% efficiency giving me a 6.5% beer.

Hit 81% giving me an O.G. of 1.067. BeerSMith estimated 82 IBUS but it's nothing like this. Not sure on the IBU contributions from steeped hops.

Fermented low and slow at 17°C, the US-05 absolutely tore through it and it finished at 1.012 giving me a final ABV of 7.2%. Dry hopped for a week and cold-crashed it for 2 days.

Kegged it in my new corny keg and it it with 15 PSI for a week. Kegged 17 litres and bottled 3 litres to see the difference. Never bottling hoppy beers again. It's so much fresher and juicier and better in every way from the keg - a different beer.

 

[IainM]

That sounds lovely. What does the equinox being to the table? Ive never tried it.

 

[RZH]

A lovely flavour, big tropical fruit. I had it in a single hopped beer from a local brewery the other week and it was great. Gonna try a SMaSH with it I reckon

 

[Dads_Ale]

Sounds good.
I like using the Cara malts (carared, Cara amber and Cara aroma) in my IPAs. Gives a lovely golden colour.
Also now tend to shove all the hops in at the end (from 30 - 15 mins or later). This tends to reduce the bitterness.

 

[RZH]

Yeah just bought some CaraGold to try, never used it before.

 

[machin05]

Looks like my kind of beer! Have you ever considered playing around with your dry hopping schedule. I really like what Cloudwater did with their latest DIPAs

20% towards the end of fermentation
40% 3 days into conditioning
40% 3 days before cold crashing

 

[RZH]

That's on my to do list, made an IPA with the Vermont Ale yeast which smelled absolutely fantastic. Tinkered with the dry hopping on that, think I dumped them all in just near the end of fermentation. However I made it way too bitter which ruined the whole thing.