Australian IPA

[tlarnold47]

I have been thinking along the lines of an oz IPA ish also and currently have my own rough interpretation on the go. Loosely based on an extra strong coopers pale/sparkling ale with added late new oz hops. Ive been calling it an Oz Extra Pale Ale so far as there isnt really a style for this beer yet. It goes something like this:
76% jw pale ale malt
17% jw wheat malt
1% dark crystal
6% sugar
23ibus of POR @ 60 min
Recultured coopers yeast at 17degrees.
8 ibus each of Galaxy and Ella frech pressed for 5 min and added post ferment after crash chilling which I work out to about 3 min boil.

So far samples taste great.

I think coopers or some other sort of bready/doughy/bananary/peary yeast is essential. Most American ipas are a us05 type or derivative of and most English ones are a clean english ale yeast neither really have a super wide range of yeast character if you want to nail their particular style.

 

[tlarnold47]

OG 1.066
FG ? Hopefully around 1.011-13

 

[MCHammo]

Historically, before refrigeration, before the American Fosters brothers, before all the marketing hype, most aussie ales were fairly dark. Therefore I would lean towards a brown ale that contains wheat (perhaps crystal wheat and/or midnight/chocolate/etc wheat, too). Mild to no late hop aroma/flavour, allowing the malt to shine - like an English IPA but bolder by comparison (like the Aussie cricket team compared to the English team - Ashes IPA, anyone?)

Aussie India Brown Ale?

 

[kevo]

I have been thinking along the lines of an oz IPA ish also and currently have my own rough interpretation on the go. Loosely based on an extra strong coopers pale/sparkling ale with added late new oz hops. Ive been calling it an Oz Extra Pale Ale so far as there isnt really a style for this beer yet. It goes something like this:
76% jw pale ale malt
17% jw wheat malt
1% dark crystal
6% sugar
23ibus of POR @ 60 min
Recultured coopers yeast at 17degrees.
8 ibus each of Galaxy and Ella frech pressed for 5 min and added post ferment after crash chilling which I work out to about 3 min boil.

So far samples taste great.

I think coopers or some other sort of bready/doughy/bananary/peary yeast is essential. Most American ipas are a us05 type or derivative of and most English ones are a clean english ale yeast neither really have a super wide range of yeast character if you want to nail their particular style.

I have considered Stone & Wood Pacific Ale like Coopers PA with Passionfruit...would this make a larger beer with similar character?

 

[tlarnold47]

Possibly, this is mid ferment so I'm not even sure how it'll finish yet but at this stage has more banana/pear yeast character than the stone and wood. If you ran the yeast cooler it could be something like you're eluding to I reckon.

 

[BingBangBrewhouse]

Well I wouldn't call it a style, but it's a fun idea. When your home brewing I reckon do whatever you wantand call it whatever you want. If you were to enter into a competition though you would probably go to the American side. Anyway off that style guidelines stuff. I've recently experimented with coopers yeast. I made a basic 4% PA with cascade as my aroma and flavour. Dry hopped. I found that as the hops started backing off the yeast esters come through and the got a bit muddled. That was fermented at 20C - 22C :| though.

 

[bradsbrew]

Have the grain cracked for this trial double batch.
Convict IPA
Australian IPA

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 45.0
Total Grain (kg): 11.750
Total Hops (g): 155.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.064 (°P): 15.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.016 (°P): 4.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.29 %
Colour (SRM): 13.5 (EBC): 26.5
Bitterness (IBU): 40.2 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 80
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
9.000 kg Galaxy Malt (76.6%)
1.000 kg Wheat Malt (8.51%)
0.750 kg Flaked Oats (6.38%)
0.500 kg Carared (4.26%)
0.500 kg Chocolate, Pale (4.26%)

Hop Bill
----------------
15.0 g Pride of Ringwood Leaf (8.1% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes (Boil) (0.3 g/L)
45.0 g Victoria Secret Leaf (17.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
20.0 g Pride of Ringwood Leaf (8.1% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
25.0 g Victoria Secret Leaf (17.2% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
20.0 g Pride of Ringwood Leaf (8.1% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (0.4 g/L)
30.0 g Victoria Secret Leaf (17.2% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (0.7 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Multi step Infusion starting at 55°C for 10 ramped to 64°C for 60 then ramp to 78, stir then rest for 10. Double batch sparge.
Fermented at 19°C with WLP013 - London Ale ( yeast cake)


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I am giving this a go.

Mashing low to try and get a drier finish. Added the choc because i think i should be there , as with the oats.

 

[indica86]

Vic Secret is lovely. Currently drinking a mostly single hooped Vic Secret pale...

 

[Yob]

Mostly?

 

[brewtas]

Much better than the ones that are partially single hopped.

 

[timmi9191]

Preferably mostly partially single hopped...

Reminds of a conversation with SWMBO- I'm a little bit pregnant...

 

[stakka82]

Vic secret is quite nice... have a pale on tap that's fully single hopped with it at the moment. It's not what I expected, a bit of the fruit that you'd find in an american hop but quite subtle, a bit in common with something english like EKG too. A nice change of pace from in-your-face C hops.

I bought a four pack of aussie single hop 'IPAs' (4.8%...?) by bridge rd the other day. Had the Vic secret and the Summer last night. Both were very nice, if really just heavily hopped pale ales. The Vic secret was quite resiny, and the Summer had a really smooth bitterness and was very well balanced. Recommended.

 

[Bridges]

Vic Secret is lovely. Currently drinking a mostly single hooped Vic Secret pale...

Mostly?

hooped?

 

[Bridges]

I had the same bridge rd pack a while ago and thought the summer was the clear winner. None of them were bad though and a great pack and marketing exercise. I had 4 of these with a thai feed tonight.

Way too sweet for an IPA and 5.5% I recall a debate about weather Vale IPA fit the guidelines on here a while ago. These definitely don't. Less bitter than a stone and wood pacific ale. Not a bad beer, just a pale ale not an IPA at all.
The four bridge rd were closer to an IPA than this.


edit. re read and realized the beers with dinner had kicked in!

 

[indica86]

Mostly?

Yes, Magnum for the bittering @ 60. Apparently I'd had a few last night too.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

Something like a ramped up version of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale/Bridge Road Pale Ale would be a good candidate for an OzIPA in my mind. Aroma hops - Galaxy or Summer, bittering hops - Magnum or Horizon, clean base malt, wheat malt, munich malt, soft mouth feel, quenching dry finish, high drinkability, 6% ABV. Yeast wise something fairly neutral, WLP 001 or something similar.

The Bridge Road Galaxy IPA is what comes to mind when I think of Aussie IPA's.

 

[daveHQ]

My favourite was Ella

 

[Florian]

Just make a 1.065 60IBU version of Coopers PA.

With cluster.

I think this was valuable input, actually.

Shame Bobby got banned after his first post.

 

[manticle]

Shame bobby shared an ip address with a bloke who shared an ip address with a bloke who was already banned for being a disruptive prick from day dot.
Banned for being already banned as well as multiple accounts, not for that post.

 

[manticle]

Not very trustworthy the old bobby.
Got nicked didn't he Peter?

 

[Florian]

Pretty obvious who it was without even looking at name or post count.

Oh well, at least Peter was trustworthy I guess, didn't even get one single post in.

Wouldn't have minded to give Bobby a fair go at least, but that's not for me to decide of course.

Sorry for taking this interesting thread off topic.


On topic, and not sure if it has been said already, but are we defining an existing style or are we trying to create one? If creating one, then I don't really see the point.
If something evolves naturally then great, perfect it, make it known/common, and then write the guidelines around that existing style. Seems like we are trying to put the cart before the horse so to speak.
Surely the americans would have evolved from their APA, and then, when trying to define it into a style, realised the connection to an IPA and subsequently called it AIPA, rather than venturing out on a mission to create a new type of IPA?

 

[manticle]

Individual gets banned, not the account. Several have been given a go over the years and guess what? Nine times out of ten, true colours shine.

The one out of ten that is the exception might slip under the radar.

Bobby already had a red hot go, just with a different name.

Definitely time to get back on topic. Anyone wants to make a case for any of the three usernames, by all means PM me and we can chat.

 

[Bridges]

I know a brewer can call a beer what ever they want but this is apparently an Australian IPA. In my experience a damn nice beer too.

 

[Bridges]

Sorry bigger than expected pic!

 

[kevo]

Could you tell us what was in the picture perhaps?

Agree with florian - cart is currently before the horse. But! Keep brewing what you consider an AusIPA - discuss them here, share with mates and maybe down the track a 'style' will present itself.

 

[Not For Horses]

Some interesting points raised in this and I've been thinking about this a bit lately.
Just speaking from personal taste and brewing preference here which is kinda what we're going for right?
I find the IPAs that I make and the commercial beers that I enjoy to be a bit different to US and UK variants.
They are also very different to Aus Pale ales which generally tend to use sugar and early POR hops.
I'm not a big fan of the pine/resin flavours so I avoid those hops. I do like the citrusy/fruity aroma and flavour of some US IPAs though.
I find that US IPA tends to be much more bitter as a general rule so in this regard I prefer UK IPA.
On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of UK hops in such a large dose as an IPA requires. Too much floral-earth so late is not my bag.
I prefer the maltiness of UK IPA over US.
I personally use less early hops cause I like the big flavour without the extra bitterness.
I also tend to go for lower alcohol versions too. I like to be able to have a few and still drive home.
I've been buying hops in bulk from HPA in Hobart so I've been using all Tassie hops for most of my brews lately regardless of style.
One thing I find different is the fruitiness of a lot of our hop varieties. We have a lot of hops that I find to have soft fruit characters that are not so prevalent in international varieties. Some still have a floral character but more of a fruit blossom rather than wild flower.
I also add wheat to my pale ales cause we grow a lot of it here and I like what it brings to the table.

So I guess an AusIPA for me would be:
A fairly well balanced beer with the emphasis towards hop flavour and aroma.
A lower alcohol version than AIPA with a generally lower perceived bitterness due to the reduced usage of early hops.
Generally fruity hop flavour and aroma but some floral or citrus tones acceptable. Pine/resin flavour and aroma should be avoided.
Good malt backbone with a low to medium wheat/grainy flavour. Biscuit or caramel character optional.
Esters can be low to medium but should not dominate.

OG 1.050-1.065 IBU 40-60 ABV 5-7

Thoughts?

 

[Bridges]

Could you tell us what was in the picture perhaps?

Yeah sorry I was talking about my previous post the Hawthorn Aus IPA.

 

[Barry]

Just a side point. According to an interview with Dr Tim Cooper (in Radio Brew News 23/03/2012) sugar is no longer used in their beers except a very small amount in their stout and vintage ale for adjustment/profile. So it would probably be better (IMHO) to mash at a lower temp for Australian pale ales and Aussie IPA's. Then again sugar has been/is used in many/most main stream Australian beers. Some American craft brewers also add sugar to lighten the body of their AIPA's given the recipes that I have seen.

 

[stakka82]

Agree bridges, that is a good beer and their pale is a nice drop too.

 

[technobabble66]

Apologies if this has been stated & it's a bit OT, but:
Given the type of weather all of us cop in this great brown land at this time of year, shouldn't one of the primary Aussie styles of beer be a saison?
Maybe instead of rehashing a slight variant of an American or English IPA (& I do luv ipa's) we could be looking at a style that suits our specific conditions in summer.
Saisons are very poorly represented in oz in commercial beers, yet it's the only thing you would've been able to brew in Melbourne in the last 4 weeks if you don't have a ferm fridge.
Doesn't an Aussie Saison make sense, or am I taking crazy pills??

On the topic of IPA, whatever Feral do with Hop Hog, that's what I'd focus on. I know it's modeled on an AIPA, but there's no point coming up with an Aussie style, then still preferring to drink something else - it's gotta be a beer we'd all love. Many people seem to be enamored with HH (or were).
So I'd vote for that style: good strong hops flavour & aroma - not just fruit salad though, a bit more depth (eg: galaxy & POR late) -plus a decent malt backbone, and keep the bitterness to a *moderate* level - I hate how many AIPAs have ridiculous bittering that's out of balance.
As a cultural reference, it should probably include some NZ hops also ;-)

My 2c