# SN Flipside Red IPA AG Recipe Challenge



## of mice and gods (8/11/13)

G'day all,

I thought I would start this to document a recipe evolution to recreate this SN Red IPA. I haven't thought very much about it yet because I've had a few beers, but I would like to chew some numbers on this to produce single batch (23L) brews.

The SN website reveals these tidbits -


Overview

*Alcohol Content * 6.2% by volume 
*Beginning gravity * 14.0° plato (1.057)
*Ending Gravity * 2.8° plato (1.011)
*Bitterness Units * 60 


Ingredients

*Yeast * Ale yeast 
*Bittering Hops * Magnum 
*Finishing Hops * Citra, Simcoe, Centennial 
*Malts * Two-row Pale, Wheat, Caramel, Chocolate 

Suggestions welcomed, criticisms weathered.

Al




..hey it was the only glass the bell boy could find for me


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## carniebrew (8/11/13)

Has this beer made it down under as yet? Looks and sounds brilliant...


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## BeerNess (8/11/13)

After talking to one of 6 Strings brewers at Bitter & Twisted about their dark red IPA, might be an idea to think about adding the chocolate malt in the sparge instead of for the whole mash to reduce the flavour and still gain colour. I've never tried this SN one but looks and sounds very similar to 6 Strings ....


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## indica86 (8/11/13)

Looks yummy


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## tazman1967 (8/11/13)

subscribed... will be very interesting


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## of mice and gods (9/11/13)

Cheers BeerNess, I'll have to hunt down some of this 6 strings to see if the taste is similar. Good tip about the chocolate, I want the colour without so much of the flavour.

These flipside's were great, if they make it here I recommend it highly.

Anyway, off to work.. more recipe thinking required.


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## BeerNess (9/11/13)

Cheers BeerNess, I'll have to hunt down some of this 6 strings to see if the taste is similar. Good tip about the chocolate, I want the colour without so much of the flavour.

These flipside's were great, if they make it here I recommend it highly.

Anyway, off to work.. more recipe thinking required.

They only Keg and growler fills over the bar in Erin and, so ask your local craft beer pub or visit Gosford :-D


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## of mice and gods (12/11/13)

So having a bit of a think on this recipe.. here are some preliminary ideas

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 20.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.350
Total Hops (g): 66.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.057 (°P): 14.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.60 %
Colour (SRM): 15.2 (EBC): 29.9
Bitterness (IBU): 60.5 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
4.600 kg Pale Malt (85.98%)
0.350 kg Caramalt (6.54%)
0.250 kg Wheat Malt (4.67%)
0.150 kg Chocolate (2.8%)

Hop Bill
----------------
6.0 g Magnum Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.3 g/L)
10.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.7% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Simcoe Pellet (12.2% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.7% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
10.0 g Simcoe Pellet (12.2% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)

Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes.


..with the choc malt I was thinking of just steeping it in some boiling water, straining and adding that to the boil for the colour. Brewmate reckons it'll only get to 1.014 but I know it'll get down a few more than that.

Thoughts? Criticism?


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## BeerNess (12/11/13)

Looks good, depending on the colour of the caramalt you might not get the right red colour but certainly sounds damned tasty! 

SN is pretty infamous for deceptively simple recipes brewed to absolute perfection so you're probably close to spot on. You could always email them with your recipe idea and see if you get any feedback...


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## NewtownClown (12/11/13)

If that beer lacks "roastiness", which in an IPA I suspect it would, cold steeping the chocolate malt separately overnight or grinding it very fine and adding it to the top of the mash just before sparging will produce the required colour without adding flavour or astringency


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## carniebrew (12/11/13)

Is the dropping of the ABV in the latest recipe (from 6.2% to 5.6%) deliberate? If so, you might want to back the IBU off a touch so it doesn't get too out of balance.

Or have you done that because you're expecting a lower FG than 1014? I recently made an IPA based on the "Hoppiness is an IPA" recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles, and it had a similar malt/hop bill to yours....my OG/FG was 1055/1015 (using BRY-97 yeast).


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## bum (12/11/13)

May be allowing for bottle conditioning.


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## NewtownClown (12/11/13)

carniebrew said:


> I recently made an IPA based on the "Hoppiness is an IPA" recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles, and it had a similar malt/hop bill to yours....my OG/FG was 1055/1015 (using BRY-97 yeast).


AG, Extract or Partial? All-grain can finish lower than extract...



carniebrew said:


> Is the dropping of the ABV in the latest recipe (from 6.2% to 5.6%) deliberate? If so, you might want to back the IBU off a touch so it doesn't get too out of balance.


I doubt a 0.030 variance in BU:GU would make much difference.


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## lukiferj (12/11/13)

I have brewed a few red IPAs lately. Last one is drinking deliciously with the following grain bill. Seems to give pretty good colour with no roast/dark flavours. Hopped very heavily the latest came in at 150 IBUs, no chill adjusted so YMMV.

Pale Ale Malt (91.58%)
Caraaroma (7.33%)
Carafa III malt (0.73%)
Black Malt (0.37%)


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## carniebrew (12/11/13)

lukiferj said:


> I have brewed a few red IPAs lately. Last one is drinking deliciously with the following grain bill. Seems to give pretty good colour with no roast/dark flavours. Hopped very heavily the latest came in at 150 IBUs, no chill adjusted so YMMV.
> 
> Pale Ale Malt (91.58%)
> Caraaroma (7.33%)
> ...


All just straight in the mash? No mucking around with cold steeping, adding at mash out, etc?


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## lukiferj (12/11/13)

Yep! Haven't messed around with cold steeping yet. Will up the carafa a touch for the next one but still keep it fairly low in the mix. Heavily hopped doesn't add anything except a beautiful colour.


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## GuyQLD (12/11/13)

With those numbers you're looking at 100g of a 10kg grain bill. That's about how much I use in 5kg for an Irish red. Add a shed load of hops and it'd be hard to pick any flavour at all from it. Nice colour though


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## lukiferj (12/11/13)

That's what I go for in a red ipa. Nice colour, over the top US hops.


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## of mice and gods (13/11/13)

Thanks for the good feed back guys.

To answer a quick couple of questions, I keg, this will be AG, batch sparge if required. I used brewmate to rough out the recipe but i haven't set it up properly. I get my expected OG pretty consistently and generally 3-5 below my expected FG, so that is taken into account to hopefully finish up at the 6.2(ish)%.

The beer I guess is most basically described as a more heavily hopped american amber ale. The hops aren't dominating like you might expect or even get in some of SN's other beers. I think it's well balanced between malty/hoppy. Smooth, some aromas of fruits. Serious IPA drinkers may question the validity of it's moniker but i think it's a good drop.

But the red needs to be there in colour terms..


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## of mice and gods (13/11/13)

Another killer question..

Assuming this is brewed with SN's house yeast. What do others think about commercially available yeast that is closest to that SN profile?


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## BeerNess (13/11/13)

Another killer question..

Assuming this is brewed with SN's house yeast. What do others think about commercially available yeast that is closest to that SN profile?

from listening to a Brewing Network Sunday Session from ages ago that interviewed Ken Grossman, I believe their house yeast is WLP001


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## Dan Pratt (13/11/13)

BeerNess said:


> After talking to one of 6 Strings brewers at Bitter & Twisted about their dark red IPA, might be an idea to think about adding the chocolate malt in the sparge instead of for the whole mash to reduce the flavour and still gain colour. I've never tried this SN one but looks and sounds very similar to 6 Strings ....


I understand that 6String do add the black malt to the sparge to create the colour without the roast flavour and its a great technique. However they are miles apart in comparison for a Red IPA when you consider the colours. The SN looks brown where as the 6S is definately a dark red.

Six String & the SN


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## carniebrew (13/11/13)

of mice and gods said:


> Another killer question..
> 
> Assuming this is brewed with SN's house yeast. What do others think about commercially available yeast that is closest to that SN profile?


Every recipe for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale style beers in "250 Classic Clones" suggests using WLP001, Wyeast 1056 or US05. No doubt the yeast is deliberately playing no part in the flavour profile of this red IPA.


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## of mice and gods (13/11/13)

Well I guess that's sorted, easy yeast decision at least.


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## of mice and gods (13/11/13)

Based on the feed back I was thinking of changing the caramalt to cara-red and cold steeping the chocolate over night.

Grain Bill
----------------
4.600 kg Pale Malt (85.98%)
0.350 kg Cara-Red (6.54%)
0.250 kg Wheat Malt (4.67%)

0.150 kg Chocolate (2.8%)(cold steeped over night, strained & added to boil)


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## droid (22/3/15)

are you still around? 

anyone developed something along these lines?

Share?


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## Topher (5/5/15)

Indeed, haven't had the SN..... but holy moly the Six String Dark red IPA is delicious.


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