Imperial IPA

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hdawson

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Hi guys and gals.
I have been planning on brewing an Imperial IPA again and wonder if anyone can give me any advise.
I have put it off in the past as it seems technically challenging.
So I plan to brew my usual favourites. Dawson IPA and porter and then two weeks later use a whole yeast cake to pitch into the imperial.
I am a BIAB guy with plenty of room in my mash tun/boiler so the grain bill qty is no issue.
Do I really require sugars(corn/ dextrose etc) to bring up the OG?
Would using a whole yeast cake be overpitching or should I use maybe 2X wyeast starter in 3 litres (med/low floccer like 1028 London) and add Lalvin EC1118 after racking into secondary after a slow ramp from 18 - 21 deg over two weeks
The recipe I have is Hop Hammer from Zainasheff and Palmer.
I plan to brew only 20L , keg to carbonate, then bottle and have a brew I can cellar for years and bring out on special occasions.
What do you think?
 
The recipe will be good for a imperial IPA. Don't worry about pitching the EC1118, the yeast cake will be more than enough. To be honest, grab a 2lts flask and when the beer is ready use about 300mls of the yeast, that will be enough.

Sugarz will dry out the beer and make the hops more pronounced, 5% will be enough.

Making the water sulphate forward is going to help the beer, 200ppm upwards using gypsum will be good.

If you are worried about attenuation, after 60hrs of ferment, ramp up 1c every 24hra till you get to 22c, it will keep the yeast active and won't affect the flavour profile.
 
I wouldn't cellar it for years. Haven't seen the recipe but an iipa is nothing to be scared of. It's just a strong ipa.i reckon it would be good from 2 weeks in the keg and maybe best after 2 months
 
Thanks for the advise.
Sugarz? I never use any sugar so can you elaborate?
That's is the pitching rate for my usual 5% ABV brews so I would have thought much more would be required.
Cheers
 
hdawson said:
I plan to brew only 20L , keg to carbonate, then bottle and have a brew I can cellar for years and bring out on special occasions.
What do you think?
Cellar for a few months max or maybe a year in a fridge. If you want a beer to cellar for years look at English old ale and Belgian abbey ale recipes. Those brews are generally malty, not hoppy, and for good reason. Malt flavours survive ageing well, hop aroma not so well, and bitterness tends to turn harsh. On the other hand I've seen threads where brewers said they popped a hop-driven ale after two years and loved.
 
I've done some experimentation with hopping very heavily for aging, and it can produce some interesting results. I've done it with browns and ambers. When I do it again I will stick to amber/red, as the aging of the roast qualities seems to me to overwhelm the aging profile of the hop flavours. I recently had a 2014 Hargreaves Hill Imperial Red that still had loads of hop presence, and IMHO could take another 2 or 3 years of aging before the hops equalise with the malt. I have nothing conclusive to say yet, as it's just been a few experiments, but I will continue to explore it. Beers heavily hopped for aging seem to turn into something like a hop wine, almost. Really quite interesting.

And I agree with Pratty1 about the EC1118 and the cake. In my experience EC1118 can definitely strip flavour in beer, and you won't need it for that gravity. He's right about the cake being enough.
 
Very interesting feedback guys.Thanks for that.
I agree that hop intensity seems to reduce quite quickly in the keg so adding an insane amount of hops will increase resins that would hard to predict in the finished product. On the other hand it seems like a great experiment.
Hey Chris-sorry I lost your feedback and can double-take yours as i also have a brother named Chris.
My IPA recipe uses 8Kg JW TAM, 0.5 Kg Crystal, 0.2 Kg Amber. 80g each of Columbus,Cascade and Centennial. Wyeast 1968.
Pretty basic really but always gets compliments.
 

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