Cascade IPA

I've got a lot of posts to catch up on. Here we go...

I had to make my first batch of all-grain my favorite variety, an IPA! One of the best IPA's around is Bell's Two Hearted Ale. So, I went looking for a Two Hearted clone recipe.

I came across this recipe at Brew 365 that looked good for a beginner:

All Grain Recipe - Bells Two Hearted IPA ::: 1.064/1.012 (5.5 Gal)

Grain Bill (75% Efficiency assumed)

10 lbs. - 2 Row Pale Malt
2 lb. - Vienna Malt
1/2 lb. - Caramel/Crystal Malt (15L)
1/2 lb. - CaraPils

Hop Schedule (47 IBU)

1/2 oz. - Centennial (60 min.)
1/2 oz. - Centennial (45 min.)
1/2 oz. - Centennial (30 min.)
1/2 oz. - Centennial (15 min.)
1/2 oz. - Centennial (flameout)
1 oz. - Centennial (Dry Hop)
*optional*
If you like a bit more hop, use 1/2 oz of Centennial as a First Wort Hop addition

Yeast

Wyeast American Ale II Yeast (#1272) - 1800 ml starter

Mash/Sparge/Boil

Mash at 153° for 60 min.
Sparge as usual
Cool and ferment at 65° to 68°

Notes

Let this one clear nicely, drink fresh.

When I went to pick up ingredients at my local homebrew shop, they were all out of Centennial. So, I had to substitute and decided to go for Cascade instead. I also had to use 10L Caramel instead of the 15L the recipe calls for.

Starting Gravity: 1.053
Ending Gravity: 1.006

In the end, this one turned out really good. It's not really that much like Two Hearted, but I wouldn't' expect it to be too close with a completely different hop. I would love to see some better efficiency from my equipment, but that's not the recipe's fault.

This was also the first batch to go into our new kegerator. Not having to bottle or prime is awesome. My best friend was here visiting from D.C. and described this as "near professional". I'm so proud.

Cascade IPA in the Primary...

...and in the Secondary

Houblonmonstre Tripel IPA

My wife got me the Houblonmonstre Tripel IPA extract kit from Northern Brewer for my birthday and we finally brewed it on Sunday. It's described by them as a cross between a Tripel and and IPA, and since those are pretty much my two favorite styles, I'm pretty excited.

From what I can tell, the part that makes it a Tripel is really the yeast. They recommend Wyeast #3522 Belgian Ardennes Yeast. This was my first experience with a smack pack and it was really convenient. I've always used dry or liquid before. It took almost 48 hours to start bubbling, but when it did it took off like crazy!

The kit used 5 oz. of hops total. The smell coming out of the airlock is amazingly hoppy, mixed with the odor that you'd expect from a Belgian yeast. It also contains 12.15 lbs of malt extract and 2 lbs of corn sugar, which makes for a LOT of fermentables.

Northern Brewer packs their malt extract in plastic jugs and moves enough products that I'm expecting this extract is "fresh". Their recipe also calls for two thirds of the extract to be added in the last 15 minutes. I'm hoping that these factors, plus all of the hops and other flavors in this beer, will combat some of the "extract twang" that I'm trying to get away from.

They also provide a cute/stupid story about how this "mash-up" came to be:

"Once upon a time a poor homebrewer was lamenting the lack of time that the modern world allowed him for his hobby, and so he cried himself to sleep. While he slept, a collective of Ardennes Forest Beer Gnomes (Houblonmonstres, in Flemish) came into his house and took pity on the poor homebrewer. Unfortunately, the Gnomes were already three sheets when they broke into his home, and so they combined the ingredients for an IPA and a Belgian Tripel. This recipe is the result of their drunken meddling: an elegant and pale strong abbey ale carpet-bombed with American and continental hops. You're going to have to do the brewing yourself, though."

So far, I've been really impressed with this kit. We'll see if that feeling persists in 2 months when it's ready to drink.

Houblonmonstre Tripel IPA
from Northern Brewer

O.G: 1082 / Ready: 2 months

Fermentables

• 3.15 lbs. Pilsen Malt Syrup (boil for 60 min.)
• 6 lbs. Pilsen Malt Syrup (boil for 15 min.)

Boil Additions

• 1 oz. Yakima Magnum (60 min)
• 1 oz. Saaz (15 min)
• 1 oz. Cascade (15 min)
• 1 oz. Saaz (5 min)
• 1 oz. Cascade (5 min)

Special Ingredients

• Priming Sugar - 2 lbs. (Add at end of boil.)

Yeast

• Wyeast #3522 Belgian Ardennes Yeast. Optimum temperature: 65-85° F

UPDATE - 11/9/2009

Bottled this yesterday. The best way to describe it it that it tastes like a tripel that accidentally got hopped with an IPA hop schedule. It's different, but really good. I'm looking forward to when it's ready to drink. I think it's going to be great.

I've also finally gotten around to uploading some of my pictures.


The beer after moving ot the secondary. It looks a lot darker in this picture than it actually was.


This is a little bit that wouldn't fit into the zecondary, so I put it in a growler with an airlock rather than getting rid of it. This shows off the color a lot better than the growler.