I “needed” to brew another IPA, and was in the mood for something a bit lower in alcohol. The November 2014 issue of Brew Your Own magazine had a clone recipe for Suicide Squeeze IPA, from Fort George Brewery. It was a nice session-ish beer (4.7% abv), and the recipe called for stuff I had pretty much entirely on hand. With just a few minor modifications, my recipe was all set! The name for my personal take on this (Ophidia) refers to a scientific name for snakes, because the original Fort George product had a snake on the label for the can.

Ophidia IPA

• 8 lbs. 3 oz. 2-row malt (California Select, Great Western Malting Co.)
• 1 lb. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
• 0.5 lb. caramel 40° malt (Briess)
• 0.5 lb. flaked oats
• 0.25 lb. Carafoam malt (Weyermann)
• 0.45 oz. Warrior hop pellets (15% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 1 oz. Citra hop pellets (14.1% alpha), 5 minute boil
• 1 oz. Mosaic hop pellets (11.3% alpha), 5 minute boil
• 2 oz. Mosaic hop pellets (11.3% alpha), 5 minute steep
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
• 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
• 2 oz. Mosaic hop pellets (11.3% alpha), dry hop in keg
• 1 oz. Citra hop pellets (14.1% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

• 156° mash, 45 minutes
• 1.053 o.g., 1.019 f.g., 4.4% abv, 52 IBU, 6 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter

Procedure

• 24 hours in advance of brewing, I made a 1.5L starter. This is the second use for the culture–I set aside 0.55L for later use.
• My water was 5.25 gallons of Claremont water mixed with 3 gallons of RO water and 5 g of gypsum. For the strike/first round of sparge water, I used 1.5 gallons of RO and 3.25 gallons of Claremont water, with the gypsum added directly into the mash tun. For the rest of the sparge water, I used 1.5 gallons of RO with 2 gallons of Claremont tap water.
• I mashed in with 4.75 gallons of water 167°, to hit a mash temperature of 153°. This was a bit below my target, but I figure I’ll roll with it. I did only a 45 minute mash, before vorlaufing and collecting the first runnings.
• I sparged with 3.5 gallons of water at 185°, to hit a mash temperature of 168° for the mash-out.
• I collected 6.75 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.044, for 77% efficiency.
• I started the boil, and added the various ingredients per the schedule. After a 60 minute boil, I chilled the wort to 68° and pitched the yeast.
• Starting gravity was 1.055, slightly above my target but not by too much.
• I brewed this beer on February 6, 2017, and fermented at 66° for the first four days. Then, I removed it from the fermentation chamber (to make room for another beer), and fermented it at ambient room temperature with a heating pad beneath the carboy, to maintain ~68° in the fermenter.