After the Post Road IPA disappointment, I figured something with the word “luck” in the title might bring us some.  Also, this recipe gives me a chance to use up quite a bit of the loose hops I have in the freezer!

Brewer’s Notes

Taking the root recipe from Beer Captured, this brew isn’t very complex, but we’ve modified it by replacing the 2-row with Maris Otter, and the Cascade for Mosaic.  While in Bend, OR for Central Oregon Beer Week, we had quite a few SMaSH beers that were based on Maris Otter & Mosaic.  Many of them were too fruity, especially after warming up, so this attempts to balance that out a bit.  This was a pretty typical brew, holding the mash +/- 5 deg. F.  It’s still a bit malt-forward with strong bittering on the finish.  Very mild aroma, with notes of citrus and grapefruit.  Color is lighter, which is good. Missed the OG by quite a lot, I’m not sure why.

OG: 1.070 @ 80F, target 1.059
FG:  1.016@ 69F, target 1.015

Fermenting Notes

Primary

Target Temperature range: 70F

Average: 70.58F
Standard Deviation: 1.63

lucknow_ipa1_primary

6.22.2014 – 1.020 @ 67F – Racked to Secondary.  A bit sweet still, hopefully will come down a few more points in secondary.  Light citrus aroma moves to sweet bitterness in flavor and clean finish.  More body already due to malts?  Expect the dry-hopping to make this come alive – it won’t last long!  Added 0.5oz of Mosaic as a dry hop at the end of primary.

Secondary

Target Temperature: 70F
Average: 70.22F
Standard Deviation: 0.26

lucknow_ipa1_secondary

6.30.2014 – 1.016 @ 69F – Racked to Keg.  We lost power today, resulting in the drop in temperature. This reminds me I need to write some code in the fermtroller to handle power outages!  It didn’t affect the beer, however.  Removed the dry hop after 7 days.  Great aroma, grapefruit, citrus, and melon.  Fruity aroma carries into the flavor.  Light body with easy but noticeable bitterness on the finish.  Needs a bit more body & carbonation, maybe add some crystal in the next batch for flavor?  Light amber color & very clear.  Placed keg in fridge and carbonating at 10psi for about 2.1vols.

Tasting Notes

7/21/2014 – on 7/9, I force carbonated at 30psi for a few minutes, then brought it back down to 10.  Tried to get some bottles ready to travel back home for vacation, but ended up overcarbonating the beer, and it overflowed a bit in my luggage.  I need to get the CO2 under control before doing a real taste test, but the brew is very drinkable.  The Maris Otter is giving it a little smoothness in the mouthfeel & the Mosaic is coming out in the aroma as some light citrus and grapefruit.  Not nearly as strong as some of the beers we had in Bend.  Looking forward to a real pint later this week.

8/4/2014 – Updating after having the IPA on tap for a while, I’m happier with it.  The smoother mouthfeel seems to have dropped out a bit, but the hop flavor is present and not overwhelming.  Slightly over bittered, could bring the IBU down a little on the boil and balance the beer out a bit more.  Would be interested to see what happens if the beer is filtered, as there is a fair amount of haze.  Had to take the keg out of the fridge to lager the Oktoberfest, there’s about 2.5 gal left.

Recipe