Beer Tasting: Jarrylo Session IPA

I brewed this one waaay back, and haven’t gotten around to posting my tasting (completed in early March). Here it is!

  • The Basics
    • Original gravity = 1.047; final gravity = 1.017; abv = 3.9%; estimated IBU = 53.
  • Appearance
    • Very fine and persistent off-white heady with a creamy character; the beer itself is a medium copper color with a mild haze.
  • Aroma
    • The aroma is hop-centered but fairly mild, with notes of tropical fruit, pear, and perhaps a hint of pepper.
  • Flavor
    • The flavor is quite clean, with a subdued and smooth hop bitterness. The bitterness is way lower than I was expecting though, and probably pushes this more into pale ale than IPA territory. The hops themselves come across as citrusy and slightly floral. There is a very slight maltiness at the back end of this one.
  • Mouthfeel
    • The body is fairly thin, unfortunately, and the beer comes across as a bit watery. The finish is relatively dry.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • I was, unfortunately, rather disappointed with how this beer turned out. Even though it is intended as a session IPA, the bitterness and body miss the mark. I think the hops I used just aren’t suited for the style, and the initial wort was thinner than desirable too. Jarrylo seems like a nice hops variety, but probably better suited for less “hefty” styles, such as a blonde ale or even a pale ale. In fact, I’ve taken to thinking of this beer as a pale ale rather than an IPA, and that helps a bit with my perception of it.
  • Overall rating
    • 4/10

Jarrylo Session IPA Kegged

Tonight (10 January 2016) I kegged my Jarrylo Session IPA, which has been fermenting for 11 days. The yeast had dropped very clear, and the beer had a malty flavor (all that Munich!) with a rather subdued bitterness. I’d probably place it in the pale ale rather than than IPA category. Nonetheless, it’s shaping up nicely!

Final gravity is 1.017, down from 1.047, for 3.9% abv. I added the dry hops (weighted down with two stainless steel washers–I note that three would probably be advisable, as the bag didn’t really sink as much as I’d hoped!). I’ll be force carbonating, and hopefully can let it go at least a week before tapping.

Jarrylo Session IPA

For my last brew of 2015, I’m making a session IPA that is a modest departure from my previous session IPA. This is primarily to adjust for and use up ingredients on-hand, but also in order to try out a new yeast strain with some promise for session beers (“Conan”). I used WLP002 (English ale) for my last session IPAs, and liked it, but thought that the potentially low attenuation of Conan also has promise for a session IPA. We’ll see how it works!

The other twist on this brew is that I’m using Jarrylo hops, a relatively new variety. They’re not particularly intended for IPAs, but an IPA seems like a good way to showcase hop character, particularly in the late additions and dry-hop. Because Jarrylo is described as having notes of banana, pear, and spice, I figured some more citrusy/fruity varieties would meld well for the bittering and flavor hops additions. So, Citra and Mosaic are also in the mix. When smelling the Jarrylo hops pellets, I get a fair bit of pepper and maybe some fruitiness behind that. Perhaps it’s a mistake to dry hop with this one for an IPA, but that’s what homebrewing is all about!

Jarrylo Session IPA

  • 5.25 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
  • 3.75 lbs. Borlander Munich Malt (Briess)
  • 0.5 lbs. caramel Munich 60L (Briess)
  • 1 oz. Citra hops pellets (13.2% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Mosaic hops pellets (12.8% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Jarrylo hops pellets (14.2% alpha), 2 minute boil
  • 2 oz. Jarrylo hops pellets (14.2% alpha), 2 week dry hop
  • 1 pkg. Vermont Ale (“Conan”) yeast, The Yeast Bay (prepared in 1L starter)
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss (10 minute boil)
Procedure
  • I mashed in with 3.75 gallons of water at 169.8°, to hit a mash temperature of 156°. The mash was down to 153.5° after 25 minutes and 150° after 45 minutes. After 50 minutes, I added 1.1 gallons of water at 190°, to raise the mash temperature to 156°. I elected to use a shortened mash procedure in order to add a tiny extra bit of body to the final beer (per the session beer workshop I went to at AHC). So, only 60 minutes passed between when I mashed in and when I collected the first runnings.
  • I vorlaufed and collected the first runnings, and added 3.75 gallons of water at 179°, which raised the mash bed to 166°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
  • I collected a total of 6.9 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.037. This equates to an extract efficiency of ~75%.
  • I started the boil, and added the hops per the schedule above.
  • After 60 minutes of boiling, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort to 70°. Then, I pitched the yeast and set the beer to fermenting, at 68°. I brewed this batch on 30 December 2015. Starting gravity was 1.047.
  • Note on the yeast starter: Because I am liking the Conan strain, I overbuilt my starter. I made 1.6 L of a 1.040 gravity, and set aside 0.6 L for my next batch (~100 billion cells, approximately).