Whats A Extract Iipa Suposed To Taste Like...?

[Oatlands Brewer]

Hey guys

I cracked the first fully carbonated longie of my IIPA last night....and its not really what i was expecting.

Its taken 4 weeks to get anywhere near carbed up, because of the cold weather, and this was the first one that was anywhere near it.

It held a nice thick head that laced the glass and bubbled all the way to the bottom of the glass....but anyway the carbs not the issue.

Man its a different brew....Its a 100+ ibu (Simcoe/Amarillo) jobby so i can understand the Passionfruit flavor and smell.

The thing thats thrown me, is not a front of tongue kind of sweetness but a heavy mouth feel with like a furry sweetness.....if that makes any sence at all :huh: .

This fades pretty quick then the hop hits :blink: and a nice warm alc burn (its about 8.7%).

but there is this lingering furryness that makes me wanna lick the insides of my cheeks.

Not sure if it just needs a bit (LOTS) of time in bottle

 

[Gout]

i think i know the "taste" you speak of. Mine was a high gravity beer also (because i forgot to top up my kettle and hence it was way over gravity)

What was your FG? mine sat a bit high and thats what i put the flavour down to.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Hi Gout

Yeah mine finished a bit high at 1018.

I had a thought that it mightve been poor attenuation, trouble is with the hopping it sorta clears out the mouth with the bitterness and isnt really cloying like i imagine under attenuation would be.

 

[Kieren]

Have you tried any commercial examples to know what your aiming for? There are plenty out there these days.

It will probably be like nothing you have brewed yet. What you feel on the inside of your mouth is the hop resins, they can stick to your teeth and mouth inside and give you that fuzzy feeling.

What was your FG? The better examples of this style finish quite low, you will get a lot of body just from the hop resins so you don't necassarily want a high FG. I just brewed one which finished at 1.000 but that is probably to low. If using a extract you may need to use more dextrose to get a lower FG. A higher FG will give an initial sweetness till the hop bitterness takes over.

Best drunk fairly young and fresh but it will age.

 

[Gout]

Oatlands, i cant give you an answer - hopefully some of the better brewers can.

However your version of events sound just like mine. It wasn't sweet but had a body like sweetness fury feeling then the hop bitterness cut through and finally the alc hit cleaned the mouth. It wasn't a "bad" beer but it was not what i wanted.

I did brew it again this time less drinking on brew day and it was a very nice beer, with a lower FG.
Note: mine was a AG beer i was brewing

Also (same beer) i found that i needed to warm up my bottles to ferment out the sugar/priming as the first few where sweet and flat - this was the peak of winter

 

[Dazza_devil]

I reckon another 4 weeks and it will be starting to round out. I've found my higher alcohol extract brews need a liitle longer but they all start to round nicely at 8 weeks or so.
I personally make sure I sample each brew at 1 weekly intervals to get a bit more of an idea with what's happening as it ages. You might find that as the malt sweetness rounds out, which is first to happen from my experience, then the bitterness will come through better. Where abouts on your palate are you experiencing your bitterness?

 

[Muggus]

What was your recipe Oatlands?

It is possible to make a decent IIPA with all extract, but compensate for the inevitable high FG and thick mouthfeel.
Sticking to base malts, and possibly a bit of sugar...just to dry it out...for fermentables is probably the best idea, and steeping specialty grains for colour and flavour, rather than extract is advisable, but i'm jumping to conclusions here.
It could be a number of things...

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Hi Muggus

Im not 100% sure, as my brewing spread sheet shit itself 2 weeks ago and i lost all my recipes
But from memory it was 1 can of coopers pale extract, 2 kg LDME,500g (i think)Wheat malt, 500g dex after 4 days fermentation and it was a 20 lt batch.

There was about half a kilo of spec grains too

As above it was hopped with simcoe and amarillo to about 110 ibu.

I did a smack pack up to a 2 lt starter and pitched it after 24 hrs and fermented at 17degC for 2 weeks then CC'd fr 10 days

 

[Screwtop]

Way too anxious, all beer needs time, big beers need more time.

Screwy

 

[jbowers]

Apparently Pliny is best the week after it is bottled....

 

[bum]

Pliny is not made from about 4kg of extract.

 

[jbowers]

I know, I was just being flippant at the generalisation that 'all beer needs time' and that big beers need more time.

 

[bum]

How long does Pliny sit in a tank before it is bottled?

 

[jbowers]

No idea. I'd hazard a guess at 4ish weeks, but you've been to Russian River, so you tell me!!

BTW, was pliny awesome?

 

[bum]

If you go up to some window in a tiny corner, stand on your toes and lean over someone else's beers and meal and head you can see a glimpse of the brewery. I don't know their process - it was more a food for thought kind of thing.

It is a genuinely amazing beer on tap. By comparison it is a disappointment in the bottle but still really great when fresh.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

I reckon another 4 weeks and it will be starting to round out. I've found my higher alcohol extract brews need a liitle longer but they all start to round nicely at 8 weeks or so.
I personally make sure I sample each brew at 1 weekly intervals to get a bit more of an idea with what's happening as it ages. You might find that as the malt sweetness rounds out, which is first to happen from my experience, then the bitterness will come through better. Where abouts on your palate are you experiencing your bitterness?

Hey Boagsy,

I hope your not frozen to the ground like we are down here....-8c this morning in the shed......

Im getting the bitterness on the back of the tougue.

 

[Dazza_devil]

Hey Boagsy,

I hope your not frozen to the ground like we are down here....-8c this morning in the shed......

Im getting the bitterness on the back of the tougue.

Not quite that cold here this mornin but I had to defrost all the ice off the car before I went chasing trout at 5:30am.

I've never brewed an IIPA but I've just done two fairly high gravity IPA's and they are giving me heaps of bitterness at the back of the tongue at the sides. I get that full mouthfeel sweetness from the AIPA which finished at around 1.020 so that's understandable I guess but I'm expecting this one to be nicely balanced when the malt rounds out within 3-4 months. The EIPA finished at 1.014 and it's 9 weeks in the bottle now, not at it's peak but the bitterness is nice and it's shaping up well. I experimented with different dextrose to malt ratios to see what results I got as far as dryness in the finish. EIPA was 3kg LDME to 1kg dextrose and not too dry for my tastes and the AIPA was 4kg LDME to 750g dextrose and early days. Although I used two different yeasts so it's not possible to accurately compare but I think that dextrose @ around 20% of the simple sugars is a good amount for my tastes. The WY1028 in the EIPA has produced what's looking a fantastic yeast profile for this style but the WY1272 in the AIPA has been a weird animal for me so I'm unsure if I would attempt using it in anything but an APA in the future.
Have you brewed any IPA's to compare with your IIPA? What yeast did you use in your IIPA?
I think carbonation levels can have a fair impact on apparent bitterness which may also be another factor to consider, also perceived bitterness can appear to increase as the malt rounds out from my experience. I've had 1g/litre dry-hopped APA's that have still got plently of hop aroma after 8 months in the bottle so I'm not in a hurry to drink these brews in fear of losing the hop aroma but this may depend on what hop is used for dry-hopping. So much to learn but you gotta love this brewing thing.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

I forgot it was opening day...how did you go.

that explains why there where so may boats around this morning...

I havent brewed any other IPA's to compare, but i will...i used 1728 scottish ale for this one

 

[sinkas]

Is their alot of hop debris and yesaty fluff in the bottles,
My IIPA dregs that have been botteld, always had a bit more of a fuzzy front of palate,
Getting a real drinkable IIPA is not easy, adn I dont think you can complain too much about a few difficult flavours on a extra brew, also would have been good to see it get to 1015 at that abv level

 

[Dazza_devil]

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