120 minute IPA Clone

[lukiferj]

Legend!

 

[HBHB]

Will post all of the final figures over the coming days for anyone interested.

"Sessions" jut got a wee bit shorter with this beer.

Kegged off 2x Corny Kegs, from an expected finished volume of 47L Losses to the 3 x 340g of dry hops was pretty high, but all in all very happy with the result.

Have to say, this beer is worth every single minute of attention to detail and process control involved.

Ended up with a FG of 1.021. The beer has the sweetness of a very good desert wine, body about the same - velvety soft with the warmth of a fine cognac and the smack across the face of a substantial IIPA + then some. Incredible depth of complexity.

Would i brew it again? absolutely!


Next "mega" brew will be a Barley wine which i plan to push the boundaries with. All grain to break the 25% abv with Australian Grains and Australian and NZ hops.

Still working on the logistics for that one. 2 Mashes, an OG of 1.165 and a second mash & boil to make a feeder concentrate with. Lots of details to work out still. Then there's the yeast issues. well, a bloke has to have something special to do on his 1/2 a day off a week.

 

[Neanderthal]

AWESOME HBHB.

Thanks for sharing this Epic Brewing tale.

 

[HBHB]

Finally got this batch out of the keg and into bottles. Have split some up for long term ageing over the next 4 years to see how it develops. Also have a handful put aside for the Xmas Case Swap wherever that may be.

 

[Danwood]

A case swap to be involved in, to be sure !

 

[HBHB]

A case swap to be involved in, to be sure !

Just a few samplers mate. Swap beer will be something a little tamer.

 

[poggor]

can this just be toned down to make the 90minute ipa? Im not a MASSIVE fan of super hoppies but i have to say that the 90min IPA is an amazing beer.
Here is a review of it

http://www.drprattsmicrobrewery.com/?p=42

 

[HBHB]

Totally different beers mate.

Best bet would be to just google a clone recipe up for the 90 minute & yes, it is excellent.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

Finally got this batch out of the keg and into bottles. Have split some up for long term ageing over the next 4 years to see how it develops. Also have a handful put aside for the Xmas Case Swap wherever that may be.

Tiny bit off topic

I'm looking to improve my bottle filling technique - what equipment / what did you use to fill the bottles?

 

[HBHB]

Old school counter pressure bottle filler for PET and a stainless bottle filler gun for the glass bottles. None are perfect, but all will do the job.

 

[HBHB]

For anyone contemplating following in the footsteps of 120 minutes of insanity:

Ross was kind enough to offer to test the beer abv and despite our planning/replanning and sorting through every contingency, we came up short on Abv. Ended up with around 16%, not the planned 19% and calculated 19.09%. Still trying to work out where the calc's went wrong on that one. That aside, in the comparative taste test, we also came up a bit short on perceived bitterness and aromatics.

Lessons learned - While 120 hop additions are novel for the first 20 of them, it gets old - fast.

Use Iso hops on top of the standard T90 additions.

Losses to the first yeast drop was 6.7L of pure yeast cake, a further 2.35 L was dropped a few days later after I dropped the temp before dry hopping. I think the colder temp (5 Deg C) for the dry hopping reduced the vegetal grassy side notes significantly, but it also probably reduced the take-up rate a bit too. (not quite so cool next time)

Losses to the 3 lots of dry hops were staggering with about 7L being irretrievable.

Also, Given we pitched onto a higher than scheduled starting gravity on the all grain side, another starter would have been a good idea. 2 x 3.25L starters of WLP007 was probably a little light on. I'd probably take it up to 2 x 4L and take the slight overpitch. I'd also take the 2 x starters for the WLP009 up to 4L each as well.

Following a couple of weeks sitting in kegs at 2 Deg C, a taste test was done and while the flavour was a stand out and the aroma up there, it was about as clear as swamp water.

Decision was made to filter it using Polyclar VT (didn't have any of the new Polyclar Plus 730 at home) and an absolute 1 micron filter pushed gently through at 1-2 psi. Result: Magnificently crystal clear beer with a tremendously absent aroma and next to no flavour. Following 120 minutes of rocking in the corner, and uncontrollable chanting, I decided to dry hop for a 4th time. with 150g into the keg in a hop sock. It certainly brought it back up a bit. I've never seen such a travesty caused by filtering before. I'm assuming it would be to do with the high alcohol but fairly dense body. Beyond that, I've got no other explanation.

1 keg was left unfiltered and available on tap.

1 keg was broken down and CPBF into a few PET and a bunch of 330ml stubbies for aging and sharing.

Here endeth the the "120 minutes of insanity IIPA" chapter.

Must be time for a brew day.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

totally with you on the "filtering removes flavour" thing. It's a myth that it's a myth.

 

[vykuza]

Love your work HBHB!

Is it possible to squeeze those dry hops and get some beer back? Never heard of it being done, but 7L of beer with all that hard work is something you would want to retain.

 

[HBHB]

Nick, 2 of the additions were using large bags to retain them to a degree, the first lot were thrown in loose. I was able to sting up the bags and retrieve a couple of litres, but still lost the estimated 7L.