How to make a NEIPA

[Martybhoy]

I'm planning to brew my first NEIPA shortly, but I can't find solid, consistent advice on line.

I know oxidisation is a problem, but can anyone tell me any other dos and don'ts? What yeasts are best, hops, specialty grains?

If anyone has a good recipe that'd be much appreciated.

 

[stigman]

Malted oats in the grist no hops till sub 80 degrees loads of Citra mosaic and galaxy. Then LOADS more hops with a two stage dry hop. And if your into water treatment go heavy with calcium chloride rather than gypsum

 

[Leon103]

Pretty much what was written there. Hop rate of 20g per litre or more will be really juicy.

No hops until whirlpool and do it below 80c. 1st dry hop is no more than 10% of total hops and do it 2 days into fermentation.

Yeasts - Vermont is really good, you could try the new imperial yeasts or London fog

 

[IainM]

Not much to add, except that this recipe is a good starting point: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/363082/avg-perfect-northeast-ipa-neipa-

 

[LeeH]

Sounds an expensive brew!

 

[Cwrw666]

Looks like at least £20+ of hops there. Pricey brew...

 

[IainM]

Yup, it was the most expensive brew I've done to date, but totally worth it.

 

[LeeH]

Post up the specifics then!

 

[IainM]

Post up the specifics then!

NEIPA, 20L

60 minute mash at 65C
4.5kg pale
600g wheat
600g oats
180g caravienna

60 minute boil
20g citra (13.1%) pellet 10 mins
20g amarillo (8.9%) pellet 10 mins
20g simcoe (12%) pellet 10 mins
10g nelson sauvin (11.9%) pellet 10 mins
0.5 protofloc 10 mins
16g galaxy (13.1%) whirlpool
24g mosaic (11.5%) whirlpool
26g citra (13.1%) whirlpool
26g amarillo (8.9%) whirlpool
16g centennial (9.6%) whirlpool
16g simcoe (12%) whirlpool
16g nelson sauvin (11.9%) whirlpool
17g galaxy (13.1%) 7 day dry hop
23g mosaic (11.5%) 7 day dry hop
27g citra (13.1%) 7 day dry hop
27g amarillo (8.9%) 7 day dry hop
17g centennial (9.6%) 7 day dry hop
17g simcoe (12%) 7 day dry hop
17g nelson sauvin (11.9%) 7 day dry hop
17g galaxy (13.1%) 3 day dry hop
23g mosaic (11.5%) 3 day dry hop
27g citra (13.1%) 3 day dry hop
27g amarillo (8.9%) 3 day dry hop
17g centennial (9.6%) 3 day dry hop
17g simcoe (12%) 3 day dry hop
17g nelson sauvin (11.9%) 3 day dry hop
Imperial Juice yeast

Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2
148.1 7.8 73.4 149.9 79.8

 

[divrack]

Honestly I wouldn't even bother unless you can do closed transfers to purged kegs.
If not then my advice is to add no wheat and very not too much flaked anything, a little flaked barley or oats seems ok. 10 percent or so.
The consensus on cacl gypsum ratios isn't all that clear. Some go one way some another. 1-1 is quite common. It's important to not go too high on calcium or it can get chalky so some brewers such as cloud water use other chemicals to up the cloride and sulphate. I'd keep it below 150ppm calcium whatever you do.
I add all my dry hops during active ferment. Some at day 2 some at day 4. I don't like keg hops. This is up to you, but whatever you do need to keep out oxygen.
If you are using buckets do not cold crash and don't add hops after fermentation is over, or add some sugar to scavenge oxygen, but even then I wouldn't advise it.
The truth is that its a pretty arbitrary style beyond having low bitterness and super high hop. A lot of the current guidelines weren't used by the main originators of the style, but seem to be becoming a thing now through repetition.
Treehouse and hill farmstead apparently don't use flaked anything for example.
I know I've said it twice already, but the crucial thing really is oxygenation.
I'd even go so far as to say bottle before it's dropped quite clear if you have to bottle and are using buckets as those youngs buckets suck, literally and figuratively.
Did I mention oxygen? Keep out all oxygen...
Yeast suggestions as above. If you like tropical juicy examples Conan or juice give nice peachy tropical juice flavour whereas London iii and London fog highlight the smooth whiteness and pick out seperate citrus and tropical hop flavour better.
Hazy daze is a brilliant yeast too, super defined hop flavours and a big haze.
I would also say that any combo of American c hops is good with something more topical such as eukanot being fantastic or galaxy if you know a guy. Apparently biotrasformation of geraniol is a big factor so you might want to pick a hop with a lot of that, but really anything you'd expect will make a good beer.
I don't think raw wheat is necessary personally and I would only use it if you can be sure to keep O2 out completely unless you want purple beer. The water chemistry is also not set in stone but should be quite hard, however you will almost certainly want to acidify the mash as you shouldn't really use any caramel malt at all. Going for the 5.4 target pH wise.
I quite like using a lot of golden promise, a touch of honey malt or melanoidin and some flaked something, but really I think you should take the advice of wit levels of flaked wheat with a pinch of salt. You can still get a great hazy soft beer without any flakes as I discovered recently in one of my best attempts.

What else? Oh yes, keep out all oxygen.

 

[LeeH]

Crikey, that’s a lot of hoppage!

 

[KiaOraBrew]

Bottling isn't really an option I've found. It clears and loses a lot of flavour within a month or two. Small batches maybe but the hop cost vs output isn't worth it. If you can keg it its much better.

 

[Martybhoy]

Thanks for the replies. I have 2 x 5ltr mini kegs, so I would use those for most of the brew.

Are hops added to the fermenter in hop bags? I normally add them loose then lose them during crash cooling. With these levels of hops and the advice to not crash cool, adding them in bags seems the only way to keep hop debris out of the transfer to keg.

I can purge the kegs but have no means of transferring under pressure. Could I fill the purged kegs direct from the FV using gravity and a bottling stick (it reaches the bottom of the small kegs)?

 

[KiaOraBrew]

Most brews I've seen just add pellets loose and leave the sludge at bottom of the FV at the end of transferring.

 

[strange-steve]

Listen to @stigman, he knows his way around this style. He posted a recipe here for one of his which I tasted and it was superb, just look at it...

 

[KiaOraBrew]

Is there a way to tighten up the bubbles in the head to be more of a tighter foam? Does that make sense? Does that come down to Oats and carbonation entirely?