With the Alameda fair coming up and the TBSP Banquet, I needed an IPA to share.  And with a ton of open hops in the fridge, I thought it was time for something big.

Brewer’s Notes

I found this recipe off of an internet forum, based from an interview given on Brewer’s Network in 2012.  While I don’t have all of the hops in the quantities required, this formed a good base.  It is an expensive beer, however.  The grain bill was $43 + almost 11oz of hops.

I brewed with my Dad while they were visiting California.  It was fun to show him my system after having brewed on his system last year.  He did purchase the grain, so there may be some inaccuracies on the amounts.  Mash was 155F +/- 5F.  Added first wort hops at 2.5gal volume, between heating bash to boil, about 15 minutes of steeping as temperature rose from 155 to 210F.  Then added DME, increasing volume to 3gal.  Boiled 60m, then added flameout addition and steeped for 5 minutes.  Added 2.5gal water to bring total ferment volume to 5.125gal.  Oxygen for 1 minute, then ferment target at 70F

OG:1.069 @ 77F, target 1.070
FG: 1.024@ 59F, target 1.024

Fermenting Notes

Primary

Target Temperature range: 70F
Average: 72.08F
Standard Deviation: 2.23

jai_alai_primary

4.2.2015 – 1.023 @ 65F – Racked to secondary.  Pretty good IPA. Sweet malt backbone that can use more hops or dry out.  Dark golden color with a large amount of solids still in suspension.  Bittering is good, well-balanced.  Simcoe will add a nice front + nose.  Added 2oz for dry-hop, but drinkable as-is.

The temperature probe died sometime during the primary, throwing lots of bad data into the report, which I filtered out.  Even so, the fermentation control & numbers are not very good.  Secondary will be in the fermentation chamber, but not under temperature monitoring.  As it is fairly cool this week and the recipe calls for slowly cold-crashing the secondary to 34F, this isn’t a bad thing.

Secondary

Target Temperature range: 70F
Average: ?F
Standard Deviation: ?

4.9.2015 – 1.024 @59F Fruity aroma, strong flavor from Simcoe.  Beer tastes big, with a lot of body and clean finish with fruity aftertaste.  It’s served too warm, and needs the carbonation and temperature for mouthfeel, but I am excited for the final product.  Force-carbonated at 20psi, then bled off and reduced to 12psi at 45F.

Tasting Notes

4/19/2015 – Beer is already mostly gone.  Brought keg to TBSP Patrol banquet, but they only drank about 1.5gal.  Good floral aroma from the Simcoe with a heavy body that is offset by the hops.  Seems surprisingly balanced for a 6.5% ABV beer.  I need to understand how the body comes across so well with this malt profile, in the past I had only created similar beers with Maris Otter.  This beer was served alongside other professional beers and held its own very well.  Bottled and submitted to Alameda Country Fair.

5/3/2015 – Val kicked the keg, all too soon.  While the beer was best really fresh, it stayed very drinkable throughout.  Will make this again, if we can afford it.

6/9/2015 – Scored a 26 in competition. They just didn’t like it.
Fair Results

Recipe