This might be my least creative recipe name ever, but it sure is appropriate! Thanks to my HOPBOX, I had a whole mess of hops from the 2021 harvest. I wanted to craft a recipe that would highlight more “traditional” IPA flavors of citrus and pine, while also exploring some new-to-me varieties.

After sorting through my hop selection, I selected Bravo as the main bittering hop, with heavy doses of Cashmere, Wai-iti, and Waimea in the whirlpool and dry hop. Each of those brought complementary notes of lemon, citrus, and pine, without major components of tropical fruits. When opening up the hops, I noted that Waimea had an incredible fruit aroma (and was my favorite), with Wai-iti being a close second. The Cashmere had a slightly dank aroma that verged on vegetal, so I wasn’t initially sure how I would like it in the brew. I built a moderately complex grist, in part to use up some malts and in part to give a robust malt backbone to the beer. Finally, I chose BRY-97 as the yeast. I haven’t brewed with it a ton (my early experiments found it to be veeery slooow to take off), but have heard enough great things that I wanted to give it a try.

2021 IPA

• 10 lb. 6 oz. California Select 2-row malt (Great Western)
• 2 lb. Maris Otter malt (Crisp)
• 0.75 lb. Chateau Munich Light malt
• 0.5 lb. Caramel 40° malt (Briess)
• 0.25 lb. biscuit malt (BlackSwaen)
• 1 oz. Bravo hop pellets (14.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
• 1 oz. Cashmere hop pellets (7.0% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
• 1 oz. Wai-iti hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
• 1 oz. Waimea hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
• 2 pkg. American West Coast Ale yeast (Lallemand BRY-97)
• oz. Cashmere hop pellets (7.0% alpha), 3 day dry hop in fermenter
• 1 oz. Wai-iti hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 3 day dry hop in fermenter
• 1 oz. Waimea hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 3 day dry hop in fermenter

Target Parameters

• 1.062 o.g., 1.013 f.g., 6.5% abv, 63 IBU, 8 SRM
• Full volume mash at 152° for 60 minutes, with 10 minute mash-out at 168°
• Claremont tap water, adjusted with lactic acid to knock out carbonate in strike water. Adjusted further in kettle to reach target water profile of 61 ppm Ca, 16 ppm Mg, 91 ppm Na, 170 ppm SO4, 85 ppm Cl, 15 ppm HCO3; RA=-41 ppm.

Procedure

• The night before brewing, I collected 7.5 gallons of tap water and treated it with 0.5 Campden tablet and 5.75 mL of 88% lactic acid, to knock out the carbonates. I let it sit overnight, before brewing the next morning.
• I heated the water to 159°, and mashed in to hit a target temperature of 152°. I added 2.1 mL of 88% lactic acid, to adjust pH.
• After recirculating at 152° for 60 minutes, I raised the temperature to 168° and held it there for 10 minutes before removing the grain basket.
• In total, I collected 6.3 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.054, for 66% mash efficiency.
• I brought the runnings to a boil, boiling for 30 minutes before adding the hops, to bring up the gravity a bit. As the boil started, I added 4 g of gypsum of 3 g of epsom salt to the boil, to hit the target water profile.
• After the initial 30 minute boil, I added hops and finings per the recipe, reaching a 90 minute total boil.
• Once I had finished the boil, I added the whirlpool hops and whirlpooled for 15 minutes before chilling down to 70° and transferring to the fermenter.
• I pitched the yeast, and fermented at 66°.
• I brewed the beer on 6 November 2021, and hit a starting gravity of 1.063.
• On 14 November 2021, I added the dry hops to the fermenter in a bag, and let it sit at ambient temperature (~64°) for three days.
• I kegged the beer on 17 November 2021. Within about a month, the beer had dropped completely clear.

Tasting

• Appearance
  • This is a deep gold and very clear beer, with a persistent ivory head–gorgeous!
• Aroma
  • Citrus peel and orange; not much in the way of detectable malt character, and the yeast character is very clean.
• Flavor
  • The hops are at the forefront, with orange and citrus zest, followed by light pine. The malt character is smooth, but not over the top. I feel like a little bit of the hop character was lost between when I smelled the hops directly and now. Although I think it partly could be oxidation, I also suspect I should have either dry hopped more freely or else dry hopped in the keg, to get more exposure time. I bagged the hops for dry hopping, and don’t think they got as much contact as they should have.
• Mouthfeel
  • Moderate body, with an off-dry finish and moderate carbonation level.
• Would I Brew This Again?
  • Yes! I think I will modify my dry-hopping for next time, and dry hop a little longer or else leave the hops in the keg, or increase the amount of Waimea and Wai-iti.
• Overall
  • 8/10