Amarillo IPA

After abut five months of no home brew I was really eager to brew up a nice hoppy IPA. I decided to go with all Amarillo hops again. I should really branch out and try some different hops in my IPA but the wife and I both love the grapefruit blast from Amarillo hops, so delicious.

Bright cooper color with a touch of haze from the dry hopping. Fluffy white head that settles into a thin film, slight lacing on the side. Aroma is a big blast of juicy grapefruity citrus goodness. In the mouth, more grapefruit, a little resin, and something a bit sweet, kinda like sweet tea. Finish is a little chalky, dry. Carbonation is spot on. Bitterness is a bit bracing but not overpowering. I've brewed a similar extract recipe twice in the past and I can see myself repeating this recipe at least once a year.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.065

Actual OG: 1.063

Expected FG: 1.012

Actual FG: 1.009

IBU: 77

Boil: 90 minutes

Pre-boil Volume: 7.0 gallons

Final Volume: 5.5 gallons

Apparent Attenuation: 86.7%

ABV: 7.33%

Grains:

13 lbs. Two-row Pale (Briess)

8 oz. Carapils (Briess)

8 oz. Caramel 20 (Briess)

Hops:

1.5 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 75 min.

1.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 20 min.

1.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 10 min.

1.5 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ Flame Out
3.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) Dry Hop

Yeast:

2 Packets Safale US-05

Water:

Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

60 min @ 152° (19.5 qt. @ 167°)

Sparge

20 min @ 165° (15.5 qt. @ 190°)

Notes:

Brewed on 9/10/10 by myself.

9/10/10am – mash was a little hotter than I wanted, around 154-155˚ should be ok.

9/10/5pm – pitched yeast at around 72˚ a little warm, put the better bottle in the old kettle and filled with cold water.

9/11 – everything seems to be going well. I'm using frozen bottles of water to keep the fermentation temps down around 70.

9/17/1pm – added dry hops, already smells hoptastic.

9/30/2010 – Bottling Day. 4.6 gal + 74˚ + 1.9 volumes = 2.6 ounces of table sugar. Ended up with 19 x 22 oz. + 6 x 12 oz. + 2 x 500 ml = 4.09 gallons. A little less than I was expecting, good thing I aimed low on the carbonation.

The Grapefruit Express

For my third batch of home brew I decided it was past time for a hoppy brew. After looking at several different recipes I settled on an Amarillo IPA recipe that I found on the home brew forum at BeerAdvocate.com courtesy of Homebrew42. It is a single hop recipe that uses Amarillo hops for all the flavor and aroma additions. Amarillo is known for its distinct grapefruit aroma, hence the name. I added a pound of sugar to help lower the final gravity, my first two brews both ended a little higher than I wanted.

Pours a hazy dark golden color, almost copper with a fluffy white cap that leave plenty of lacing on the side of the glass. Aroma starts with a load of grapefruit with little else, maybe a little grassy. Just a hint of bready malt as it warms.

Flavor follows the aroma, a little sweetness up front followed by a big grapefruit blast from the hops. Solid bitterness with a grassy/chalky finish. Carbonation is just crisp enough to help wash away all the delicious hop resin.

Overall this is easily my best brew to date and it didn't take me very long to drink it all. As a result I've already brewed another batch, with a slightly different timing on the hop additions, but no major changes, to replace this one.

Recipe & Notes

Original Gravity: 1.075
Final Gravity: 1.017
IBU: 80-85
Boil: 75 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 4.5 gallons
Final Volume: about 5.5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation : 76%
Estimated ABV: 7.7%

Extract:
Muttons Extra Light DME 6.0 lbs.
Corn Sugar 1.0 lbs.

Steeping Grains:
Crystal 20˚ 8 oz.
CaraPils 8 oz.

Hops:
Nugget 13.7%, 75 min. 1.0 oz.
Amarillo 8.6%, 20 min. 1.0 oz.
Amarillo 8.6%, 10 min. 1.0 oz.
Amarillo 8.6%, Dry Hop 2.0 oz.

Yeast:
Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast 2 packets

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Notes:
Brewed on 03/26/2009 by myself.

Steep grains for 30 min. at 150˚ in one gallon of water. While the grains are steeping heat 3.5 gallons of water up to about 170˚ in the boil kettle. When the steep is finished take the bag out and dunk it around in the boil water for about 5 minutes.

Add the steep water and 3 pounds of extract, turn heat up. Boil for 75 minutes, adding the hops (all pellets) at the intervals listed above. At 5 min. add the rest of the extract, the sugar, and the chiller to sanitize it.

Chill wort to about 70˚, transfer to carboy, pitch both packets of yeast.

03/26/12:45 pm – pitched yeast at 72˚

03/27/11:45am – Fermentation has already started, about 2-3 inches of kraeusen. Ferm temp = 67˚

03/28/around 8:00 – Kraeusen blew out the top of the fermenter had to clean it up and put a new piece of foil on top. Still smells delicious.

4/16/10:20am – Added the 2oz of dry hops and moved carboy to the beer cave for cool conditioning.

4/23 – Bottled 24 12-oz and 12 22-oz bottles for a total of 4.31 gallons (552 oz.) used 2.5 oz. Of priming (corn) sugar at around 65˚, which should get me about 2 volumes of CO2. FG measured at 1.017.

Racer 5 IPA

In an earlier post I mentioned that there are a gaggle of new beers available in Kansas, today I'm going to review one of those great new beers. Racer 5 IPA is a award winning west coast IPA brewed by the Bear Republic brewery located in Healdsburg California in Sonoma County, right in the heart of wine country.

Pours a deep golden straw color with a touch of copper in it and frothy, off-white foam. The Columbus and Cascade hops make themselves known right away with a blast of tangerine and mangoes followed by some pine and floral aromas. Later I pick out some caramel sweetness from the malts.

The first taste presents a more bitter fruit profile, more to the grapefruit side of the citrus spectrum with a touch of orange. The malt lays down a subdued biscuity backbone with just a touch of caramel, the hops are the main focus of this beer.

The bottle conditioning gives it a nice smooth body. Finish is appropriately bitter with a touch of a spicy burn from the 7% alcohol. Overall, a really well done, hops heavy IPA that is sure to satisfy your hop yearnings. I wouldn't recommend it for the hop novices out there, but I'll be drinking more than a few this fall.

Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale, 2008

Sorry about the long hiatus. I just moved into a new house and I've been a little busy with all that, plus a mild bout of laziness. I'm back now and I should have several new posts coming soon, there are lots of new beers available in Kansas now. Today we'll take a look at a seasonal favorite of mine, Sierra Nevada's Anniversary Ale.

Anniversary Ale is a IPA ale that Sierra Nevada releases every fall to celebrate another successful year. This beer is a lot more balanced than you might expect from a west coast IPA, it's basically a beefed up version of their regular pale ale.

It pours with a big foamy head and a brilliant copper hue. The nose is a mix of malt and hop aromas. The pine and citrus from the Cascade hops fight with the toast and caramel of the malts.

Taste is more of the same delicious balance, toasty malts balanced by the pine and citrus of the hop oils. Mouth feel is crisp with plenty of carbonation and a chalky, dry finish. Bitterness is there but not as overbearing as many IPAs can be.

Overall a really easy drinking IPA that doesn't blow you away with the hops. Instead, it impresses you with the overall balance, and flavor. If you don't normally drink IPAs you might consider giving this well crafted brew a try.

Goose Island India Pale Ale

Today I found myself in the mood for a hoppy beer, so I thought I would give the Goose Island IPA a try. Goose Island is a brewery based in Chicago and thanks to a distribution agreement with Anheuser-Busch you can find their beers everywhere.

Their IPA is a little on the mild side with 5.9% ABV and a decent 58 IBUs. Not quite as strong as the Odell or Titan. On the plus side Goose Island lists the bottled on date on the back label of their beers, which is always nice. Today's selection is a little on the old side with a bottled on date of January 17.

The ale pours out a rich golden straw color with a thick off-white head. The aroma is nice mix of pine and citric hops with a touch of malty sweetness, not as pungent as I'd like it to be.

The flavor is also a little on the subdued side. The first flavor I notice is a sweet bready maltiness that is quickly followed by the hops, mostly pine and floral. Good balance, but I'd like to taste more hops.

Mouth feel is medium bodied and smooth with a crisp dry finish and some moderate bitterness. Overall a good, but not great, IPA. I'll probably choose another brand if given the choice.

Titan IPA

I found myself in the mood for some hops today, so I headed down to the Cork & Barrel Downtown to see if they had any fresh IPAs. I settled on Titan IPA from the good folks at Great Divide that was bottled in mid January. After my recent experience with a bottle of old beer I've been paying more attention to bottle dating and beer freshness.

Weighing in at 6.8% and 65 IBUs, the Titan pours out a hazy orange tinged copper with a big chunky white head that leaves plenty of lacing on the sides of the glass. This ale appears to be bottle conditioned so look out for some junk in the bottom of the bottle (you can see some floaties in the pictures).

The hop aromas hit right away with a burst of pine resin and grapefruit. There is also some caramel mixed in there as well. The flavor follows the same blueprint, the hops lay down a pine and grapefruit blanket of bitterness but there's just enough caramel malt sweetness in there to keep things balanced and tasty. The mouth feel on this one is just about perfect for an IPA, smooth and full with a long dry finish and lingering grapefruit bitterness.

Overall this is another really good IPA from Colorado with plenty of tasty American hops and just the right amount of malt balance. Compared to the Odell IPA I would probably choose Odell, but just barely, they are both really good and worth your time and money.

Odell IPA

I've been in the mood for hops this week so today we'll take a look at one of the best IPAs available in the area, Odell Brewing Company's IPA. This 60 IBU, 7% ABV ale won gold at this years Great American Beer Fest, which is no small feat considering that the IPA category had 120 entries.

This bright copper colored beer with the fluffy off-white head has a great hop bouquet. Oranges, flowers and pine needles all battle to be the dominate hop aroma but there is also a mango-like sweetness in there that is very inviting.

In the mouth the citric and tropical fruit flavors fade to the background and the flavor becomes more herbal and piny. There is plenty of hops bitterness and a perfect biscuit-like malt backbone to keep it all balanced. Long dry finish and an almost perfect medium bodied mouth feel. Really solid IPA and one of my favorites, unfortunately hoppy beers of this quality seem to keep going up in price so if you see it for less than $10 a six-pack it's probably a good deal.

I should also apologize for not having posted in a while, I was out of town for Easter and haven't been able to get any good light for pictures until yesterday. I should have a couple more posts coming this weekend. I have a dunkelweizen waiting in the fridge and I might be headed down to Free State tonight to check out the projection screen they have set up for Jayhawk games. So check in later for those posts.