#12 American IPA (that turned into a Belgian IPA)

After brewing lots of beers that have tended towards the maltier and less hoppy end of the beer style continuum, I thought a big aromatic, resinous American IPA would be a great beer to brew in order to change things up in my recent brewing trend.

One of my favorite American IPAs and a favorite beer in general has been Bell's Two Hearted Ale. I brewed my first clone of this beer a year and a half ago, and I've wanted to take another shot at it for a while now. I altered my original clone recipe that I had found online in favor of more toasted malts like Vienna and Victory to provide that "warm" malt flavor found in Two Hearted, and I went from six ounces of hops to a total of ten ounces of Centennial hops. The hop additions could definitely be overkill, but then again, with American IPAs, there's no such thing as "too hoppy". I chose to hop this beer in a method somewhat similar to the "hop bursting" technique, with a large number of IBUs coming from late hop additions in the boil and a few coming from early additions and first wort hopping.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale (clone #2)

Batch Volume (Gal): 6.00

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 6.33

Total Grain (Lbs): 14.25

OG: 1.069   (aimed for 1.064)   Anticipated FG: ~1.012 - 1.010   

Anticipated ABV: ~7.5% - 7.8% (should be ~7%)

IBUs: 60.9 (should be 62 IBUs)

SRM: 6.7

Brewhouse Efficiency: 78%

Boil Duration: 65 min

Grain                                               (Lbs/oz.)   (%)

British 2-row Pale Malt (Pearl)         11            77.2

Vienna Malt                                      2.25         15.8

Victory Malt                                      8 oz.         3.5

Crystal 20                                          8 oz.         3.5

Hops            (AA%)   (IBU)   (Oz.)     (Boil[min])

Centennial     10         15.8      0.5    First Wort Hop

Centennial     10          8.5     0.25             60

Centennial     10          8.7      0.5              30

Centennial     10          6.8     0.75             15

Centennial     10          6.8        1                10

Centennial     10          5.7        1                 5

Centennial     10          8.5      1.5                2

Centennial     10           0        2.5               0

Centennial     10           0          2           Dry Hop

Yeast

1200 mL starter of Safale-05 was infected with lactobacillus. Yeast cake from Biere de Table secondary pitched in its place.

Water

3/4 tsp Calcium Sulfate (in mash) (mash pH ~5.4)

1/4 tsp Calcium Chloride (65 min)

1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (10 min)

1 Whirfloc tablet (10 min)

The 8 oz. of hops used in the boil (left) and the 2 oz. of dry hops (right)

I mashed in at 1.5 qts/lb for 60 minutes. The mash hovered around 151-150 F. I added CaSO4 every few minutes in an attempt to lower the pH of the mash. Not sure how accurate the pH test strips I bought from Northern Brewer are, but it appears that due to my water's chemistry, relatively pale beers hit the higher end of the optimal mash pH range (~5.4 - 5.5). The 3/4 tsp of CaSO4 appeared to lower the pH a small amount and allow the enzymes to provide proper conversion. The sulfates should also help to make the hop flavor and hop bitterness crisp and bright. 

A pint of Scottish 60 Schilling Ale

I finally had a water test done that will give me the ppm levels of bicarbonate, magnesium, calcium, sulfate, chloride, and sodium. Unfortunately I didn't get the results back in time for this particular brew. The information should help me hit the correct mash temperature based on the chemistry of my water, the beer I'm brewing, and allow for additional salt additions in order to produce a water profile that will suit the style of beer.

I tried to mashout at 170 F but only reached about 160 F for a few minutes. Adding near boiling water had little effect on the large mash, so the mash failed to reach 170 F. Reaching 160 F should have at least made any enzymes that would have otherwise dried out the beer less effective, maintaining the body sugars produced by the 151-150 mash temperature.

The wort looked similar to the way it did with the last brew; it was much clearer without the use of 5.2 pH stabilizer. There was much less protein in this brew relative to the Biere de Garde, but there was still the visible coagulation of protein during the boil.

First wort hop addition while collecting the wort

Since this IPA would be dosed with so many large hop additions, I chose to brew using whole flower hops rather than pellets. Pellets would create a huge slurry of hop particles that would have been difficult to strain from the wort post-boil, so going with whole flower hops allowed me to separate the hops from the wort using the "bazooka" screen in the boil kettle. It was great seeing so much hop flowers going into the boil and anticipating the incredible amount of flavor and aroma the Centennial hops will impart in this beer.

Hops during the boil

The brewday was going just about perfect, so of course there had to be at least one aspect of the day that had to go completely wrong. As I was aerating the beer with the aquarium air pump for 30 minutes (I chose not to use pure oxygen since I have not yet been able to see how it influenced the flavor of the Biere de Garde) I poured off the spent wort from the yeast starter I brewed for the Safale-05 ale yeast. As I poured I thought "wow, someone left their spent yogurt container out" only to realize that sour, tart yogurt-like aroma was coming from my yeast starter. Upon tasting it, I realized it tasted like yogurt; extremely tart and sour. I was crushed to have brewed a beer with so many ounces of expensive hops, only to have my yeast ruined by a lactobacillus infection. 

Luckily the two previous brews had plenty of yeast at the bottom of both carboys to repitch into the IPA wort. I chose to rack the Biere de Table into an empty keg and repitched the 3725 Biere de Garde yeast slurry into the IPA. Hopefully the flavors in the Belgian yeast will play against the aromatic, citrusy Centennial hops well. I love Belgian IPAs, so this may turn out to be a great beer and a fortunate mishap.

A bomber of the Belgian Dubbel