Summer IPA Tasting

Now that I've got the first fall seasonal beer brewed, I suppose it is past time to post some tasting notes for the IPA I brewed a back at the start of summer.

Firefly IPA

Appearance - Slightly hazy, orange-yellow with a thick, foamy white head.

Aroma - Fresh grapefruit and ripe melon. 100% hops. The Amarillo, Cascade, Citra and Motueka hops really work well together. The Motueka hops bring some non-citrusy fruitiness that adds another dimension to the aroma.

Flavor - Firm bitterness that lingers just long enough. "Grapefruit juice" definitely comes to mind. Nice dry, clean finish. Just enough malt to prevent the hops to becoming overly harsh. There's a slight hint of sulfur in there too, which I imagine is derived from the hops - it is just barely noticeable and does not detract from the flavor.

Mouthfeel - high carbonation, dry and slightly prickly on the tongue - perfect for a hot day.

Overall - I am very, very pleased with this beer, especially given it was my first-ever IPA attempt. I drank this almost daily there for a while. For my tastes this IPA had an excellent balance between being nice and hoppy withouth being overly bitter. I suppose it would fall on the "lower" side of the IPA scale, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Summer IPA

Summer is officially here! And what better way to celebrate than to brew my first ever IPA...amazingly, as I looked back over my brew log I realized I've just never gotten around to brewing one. I had all these hops in my freezer and now seemed like the perfect time - especially since the relatively cool weather so far has kept my cellar in the low 60's, my preferred ambient temperature for fermenting ales.

Of course, I had to throw my own spin on this brew, using a British and German base malts and a British yeast strain. Although I want to showcase fruity/citrusy hops, I also thought a nice malt complexity would be good and I was thinking that the esters from the yeast will add to the overall fruitiness of the beer. Basically, I was trying to create layers of flavor, while still having a quaffable summer beer. I only added a touch of a light-colored crystal malt to keep the color pale and the overall sweetness low. I ended up mashing between 151-152°F. Hopefully my grist and mash schedule it doesn't produce something too "chewy" and/or muddled . My plan is to give it about ten days before I dry hop for another four (right in the primary fermenter), so that I can bottle it after two weeks. I'd like to be able to drink this beer while it the hops are fresh.

Firefly IPA
brewed on 6/20/13

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Estimated Color: 6.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 70.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.2%

Grist
6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter - 77.6 %
1 lbs Pilsner Malt - 11.9 %
8.0 oz Munich I - 6.0 %
4.0 oz Carahell - 3.0 %
2.0 oz Acidulated Malt - 1.5 % (for mash pH)

Hops
10 g Magnum [13.10 %] - 60.0 min
14 g Cascade [6.10 %] - 15.0 min
14 g Citra [12.30 %] - 15.0 min
14 g Amarillo [9.30 %] - 5.0 min
14 g Cascade [6.10 %] - 5.0 min
14 g Amarillo [9.30 %] - flameout
14 g Citra [12.30 %] - flameout
14 g Motueka [7.10 %] - flameout
28 g Amarillo [9.30 %] - dry hop (4 days)
14 g Motueka [7.10 %] - dry hop(4 days)

Yeast
Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 152°F, batch sparge

Little Rhody Red (hopburst version)

This beer is one of my favorites and one I proudly call my own creation. And it is the brew I will be tinkering with until it's perfect. This is my second recipe for this beer and while it is very good, I already have some changes in mind for next time. I brewed a slightly different recipe of this up not quite a year ago. At that time, it was the first beer that I designed to taste and not to any particular style. I wanted a hoppy, reddish-brown ale with a little bit of roastiness, a little bit of body, but not a lot of caramel-sweetness. And that's exactly what this is.

I also like this beer because I use some locally-grown Rhode Island hops from Ocean State Hops. They very generously sent me several ounces of free hops to try last year. I still had some whole leaf Cascade left so I decided to use them up for this recipe. I augmented their hops with some from the LHBS.

This time around I decided to try the hopburst method (adding most of the hops in the last 20 minutes) along with mash hopping with the whole leaf Cascade. I also decided to give Simcoe a try for the first time. The end result is a very nice beer, packed with a ton of grapefruity/citrusy flavor and aroma. It's too dark for an IPA (and not dark enough for a Black IPA/CDA) and probably too hoppy for an American Amber, though I am going to enter it into some comps as the latter. I think next time I will brew this without the Simcoe - it's good, but there's this ever so slight flavor in there that I think is the "cattiness" that is often used to describe Simcoe. I could do without that.

Little Rhody Red (hopburst)
Brewed on 11/20/10

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.50 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated Color: 12.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 55.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.4%

Grist
7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter - 87.39 %
6.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale - 4.74 %
4.0 oz Honey Malt - 3.12 %
4.0 oz Munich I - 3.12 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0L) - 1.62 %

Hops
1.55 oz Cascade [4.00 %] (mash, whole leaf)
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.30 %] (20 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo [8.70 %] (20 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo [8.70 %] (10 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (10 min)
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.30 %] (0 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo [8.70 %] (0 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo [8.70 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

Yeast
SafAle US-05

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 153F, Batch Sparge

Rye IPA (redux)

My brother, Jeff, and I hadn't brewed together in a while, so we decided it was about time. He did the first draft of the recipe and I tweaked it a bit by upping the rye and crystal malts and suggesting some hop schedule changes. He came back with more ideas about the hops and we had a true collaborative brew on our hands. Nothing else to report really from a brewing perspective. We hit all our numbers and everything went really smoothly. We finished the day with a great dinner and excellent beers at the Armsby Abbey (where I had my first Flanders Red - a Vichtenaar Flemish Ale - absolutely wonderful).

Tasting notes: This turned out to be a pretty nice beer - clear, nice color, full, creamy head, good hop aroma. The rye was really noticeable though. So much so that my brother didn't like it at all and I ended up with all the beer (well, not all, since we gave some to our other brother too). I feel badly now about suggesting we up the rye from his original recipe. I like this beer, but I would definitely cut down the rye next time. It's distinctive and I can see where if someones doesn't like that flavor, they're not going to like this beer. On the flip side, you'll love this beer if you like rye.
62 Minute RyePA

Recipe Specifications
Partial mash, partial boil
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.5 gal
Color: 7.6 SRM
IBUs: 55.0
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.016

Grist
2.5 lbs Pale Malt - 31.25 %
1 lbs Rye Malt - 12.50 %
8.0 oz Crystal Malt (~60L) - 6.25 %
4 lbs Extra Light DME - 50.00 %

Hops
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (15 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (15 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (5 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (5 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (1 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

Yeast
California Ale (#WLP001)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 154F, Partial Mash, Batch Sparge