Carboy

My homebrewing misadventures

My god, the hops

A Vermont-inspired Imperial IPA demands more hops than sense

From Carboy

I'm not a big fan of IPAs. For me, the vast majority are overly heavy on the hops, taste terrible and are essentially undrinkable. But there are some IPAs that are decent and some that are quite good. So when I found a recipe from Northern Brewer that purports to be a clone of a certain highly rated IPA from Vermont, which is delicious, I couldn't resist. After eight or so years of brewing, I figured I should try an IPA at least once.

This beer required so many hops, almost all after the end of the boil, including two rounds of dry hopping. It also called for something I've never used before called a "hopshot". It was basically two syringes of liquid hops, put in at the start of the boil.

From Carboy

We'll see how this turns out. Northern Brewer's recipes are pretty good. I have high hopes, and it certainly can't be any worse than most of the commercial IPAs out these days. It might even been half decent.

Recipe for Off The Topper

Imperial IPA, All-Grain

6 gallon batch

Ingredients

Grains
13.5 lb Fawcett Pearl Malt
12 oz Baird’s Light Carastan Malt
12 oz White Wheat Malt

Hops
Turn off heat at end of boil, add Flame Out Hops.
Allow to stand for 10-15 min before chilling
- 2 oz Simcoe
- 1 oz Columbus
- 0.5 oz Apollo
Once the wort has cooled to 180 degrees, stop chilling and add the following hops. Allow to steep for an additional 10-15 min, then resume chilling.
- 1 oz Columbus
- 1 oz Simcoe
- 1 oz Amarillo
- 0.5 oz Centennial
- 0.5 oz Apollo
Dry hops
Split the dry hops in half, and add in two different stages.
Dry hop with half in primary for 4 days, then transfer to secondary and dry hop with the other half for another 4 days.
- 2 oz Simcoe
- 1 oz Columbus
- 1 oz Amarillo
- 1 oz Centennial
- 0.5 oz Apollo

Adjuncts:
10 mL Hopshot, 60 minutes at start of boil<br /> 1 lbs Brun Leger, 0 minutes at end of boil

Yeasts
WLP095 Burlington Ale Yeast

Original recipe from Northern Brewer.

Mash schedule

Heat 18.75 quarts to 212° F
Saccharifcation rest for 60 minutes at 151° F
Heat 9.84 quarts strike water to 212° F
Mash out for 10 minutes at 170° F
Heat 12.2 quarts of sparge water to 170° F
Sparge out.

Fermentation schedule

14 days primary fermention at 68° F
Add first dry hops at day 10
14 days in secondary fermenter
Add last dry hops at day 24
Keg

Stats

  • ABV: 6.9 percent

Stats by iBrewmaster

By Tom on 10/09/2017

Stage: Brewing


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