This is the discussion topic for the recipe:
Simon's IPA
Just a few notes on this recipe for anyone interested .... my pommy mate Simon turns 40 this year, and IPA is his favourite beer. So my plan is to brew a batch of IPA to help us celebrate the big day (21 July, so plenty of time for this to condition).
I tend to drink stouts and brown ales mainly, didn't know much about IPA so I've done a bit of homework to come up with what i think is a reasonable interpretation of the style - but there are many different IPAs out there, so who knows what the "right" one actually is. But i do know that I want an English style. I tend to dislike American hops (too aggressive for my sensitive taste buds) but I do enjoy english hops. I found some info on the internet about IPA and the basis for the recipe is:
1. FG should be lower than normal, the idea is that there is less carbohydrates in the beer for any microbes to munch on during the long sea journey from England to India. This is acheived by lower OG, and use of adjuncts.
1a. Many people think that IPAs were brewed stronger, so alcohol could kill off any bugs. But back in late 18th Century, normal beer was around 8%, so an IPA at 7% was weaker than normal (this is what I've gleaned from the net, which of course could be all BS - anyone care to offer a different opinion?). of course, its strong compared to most contemporary beer. I've used corn as an adjunct, because its been drilled into all AG brewers that sugar is a no-no. but sugar should work. I've used corn for 10% of grist. I've seen clone recipes for Worthington White Shield which use 10% white sugar.
2. I have a hunch that malt wasn't as pale back in the old days, so I've used some munich to add a bit more colour. But this is pure conjecture, and there is no particular target I'm looking for. Some recipes I've seen use crystal malt, which would also add colour, but I don't think cyrstal malt existed back in the early days of IPA so I've not used any.
3. Bitterness should be between 40 to 60 IBU, and 1/3 of the hops added in last 10 minutes. Generous dry hopping is also recommended (where I've got a 0 min addition, this should be dry hops added to primary).
4. Melbourne water is soft, so I added gypsum in quantities as arecommended by Tony Wheeler in his brilliant article on brewing salts.
5. I used WY1028 as this is reported to be the yeast that Worthington uses in White Shield.
I added dry hops to the primary after 7 days, at that time FG measured 1012 so I reckon fermenatation was pretty much done (from an OG of 1070 this is 82% attenuation - pretty much expected with a big whack of adjunct). I left hops in there for 7 days, then racked to a secondary fermenter, and cold coditioned for a week. I bottled last week, so this should be nicely conditioned by July.
The aroma given by the dry hopping is brilliant!! A quick taste while bottling revealed plenty of hops flavour, not sharp like american hops but much more pleasant. I hope that this doesn't fade over time.
I've already promised Fents that i'll take a few bottles around to Dave's store when its ready - let's give it a few months in the bottle first, a bit of warm weather over Jan and Feb should hopefully replicate conditions crossing the equator and give an authentic taste to this brew.
