American IPA History

• Post Prohibition to Now... except the hazies.

American Legend

The Modern American IPA trend owes it all to Ballantine - the only major IPA to survive Prohibition

 

It was big (1.074), bitter (60 IBUs), dry hopped (special process) and oak aged for a year

The Early Followups

• Anchor Liberty feels like a modern American IPA (dates to 1983, not '76)
  • Crisp, dry with a mix of Clusters and eventually all Cascade
• Bert Grant launched the first marketed IPA (1983)
  • Only 50 IBUs but all Cascade

The Mature Crowd

• In the first craft bubble, IPAs started to appear in earnest. 
• East/West divide on malt/hop

Multiplication

• 2000 - Russian River releases "Pliny the Elder" for Hayward's IPA festival.
• The race was on!
• IPAs became bigger, dry and more ruinously bitter 

Triplification

• 2005 - Russian River releases "Pliny the Younger" at 10+%
• FTR - DFH released 120min IPA at 18% in 2003, but that's more barleywine

IPA Evolution in a Nutshell

• We've gone from dark amber beers aged in barrels for a length (Ballantines was aged for 5-12 months) with sweetness
• Over time, the colors have dropped paler with crisper bodies.
• Less bitter and tea like hop tannins, more fruity, piney, citrus and tropical notes

The BIG Truths About IPA

• IPA increasingly focused on Hop Expression
• Bitterness reduced in favor of Aroma/Flavor
  • all late hops, whirlpools, etc
  • extract is no longer a dirty word
• Color is as pale as pale
• Malt has moved to plain choices
  • pale 2-row and pilsner, no darker crystals

 

(Yes, this applies to Hazies as well)

Triple IPA

The Basics

The Stats

• OG - 1.100
• ABV - 10+%
• IBUs - 100+
• Characteristics: Should be as pale as possible while being big. High hop aroma and high hop flavor with a burst of hop bitterness to handle residual sweetness. 
• How much alcohol do you want to perceive?

The Challenges

• Building a big beer that ends very dry/clean
  • fighting the natural tendency for sweetness
  • avoiding fusel alcohols and stess impacts from the high OG
• High bitterness without "greenness"
• Dissolving lots of hop oils and delivering them over the ethanol
• Not losing a ton of volume to hop absorbtion

The Malt

• Simpler is better
  • 90+% of pale or pilsner malt (still plenty of color)
  • A dose of carapils/wheat for heading
  • Sugar boosts OG without increasing FG
• Drive dryness
  • Mash low - 148°-150°F
  • Make it Brut with Enzymes

The Water

• Start with clean water. Remove chlorine, chloramine.
• Acidify properly to ensure best enzymatic activity.
• The mineral balance is heavily sulfate to further emphasize dryness
• Use gypsum and epsom salts to drive the crispness

The Hops

• You're Going to Need More than You Think!
  • Hop utilization goes down as OG goes up
  • Experience of Bigger beers hides the hops.
• Use Concentrated Hops
  • More efficient for big beers without overloading the kettle
  • Extract delivers a bitter wallop
  • Cryo/Lupo style hops deliver more oil
• So, so many dry hops and often in multiple doses

The Ferment

• Use a clean, hop expressive, very attenuative yeast.
  • Chico, California Ale, Imperial House, etc.
• Use a lot of yeast, brew a batch of IPA and get a yeast cake going
• With a big OG beer like this, use extra O2 and yeast nutrient (more on this later)

The Dry Hop

• All the hops
• Multiple dry hops are the norm. Shorter durations typically than "traditional" dry hops thoughts
• The whole idea is to layer in as much hop character as possible
• Dry hops are all post primary ferment.

Packaging/Oxygen

• Control your post primary oxygen exposure to avoid damaging hop aromas

Brewer's Notes

A Few Takes

Jamil Zainasheff

Heretic Brewing - Evil3 (collab)

Keys

• It is a balancing act
• Wants smooth alcohol
  • needs a touch of heat
• Uses nutrient additions/timing to manipulate the character
• Limit crystal to 2-3%
• Use simple sugars (dextrose)
• Hop like you've lost your mind

Mitch Steele

New Realm - Evil3 (collab)

Keys

• 10+%
• No speciality malts - pale and sugar (10%)
  • enough body from the amount of malt
• Mash 148°F for 2 hours
• 110-140ppm Sulfate
• 60-80 IBUS
• 2 dry hops
  • post ferment
  • 2nd in brite
• Use Hop oils?

Tim Kazules

Five Threads

Keys

• Huge pitch of viable yeast
• O₂ - knockout & 6-8 hours
• Ferment low (66°F) for 2 days, bump to 68°F for a few and then to 72°F for completion
• 100+ IBUs
• No more than 10% sugar in boil. Additional sugar after 75% fermentation
• 3 days between dry hops at 58°F

Breaking Down 

Craig's Old School TIPA

The Recipe

For 10 Gallons, 90 min boil, 1.100 OG

Malt
30 lbs Domestic 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lbs Wheat Malt
1 lb Maris Otter

Mash (with Alpha Amylase)

145°F for 60 min
156°F for 20 min
168°F for 20 min
Fly sparge 60 minutes

Water

Filtered water with campden

Add 2 tsp of Gypsum to mash and to boil

The Recipe

Hops

1oz  each Chinook & Warrior - First Wort Hop
25ml CTZ Hop Extract (dissolved in EverClear) - 90 min
1oz Columbus - 60 mins
2 oz Simcoe - 30 mins
2 oz Centennial - 15 mins
1 oz each of Simcoe, Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Amarillo - 1 min
1 oz each Simcoe Cryo, Centennial Cryo, Columbus Cryo, Amarillo Cryo - Cool Whirlpool (20 mins)
1 oz each Warrior, Simcoe, Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Amarillo - Dry Hop for Flush and seal the conical with CO2 after adding the dry hops.

5 days at 60°F
 

The Recipe

Yeast

Wyeast 1056, WLP001, US-05

 

Ferment

65 degrees 3 days

67 degrees 3 days

70 degrees until terminal gravity

Crash for 3 days post dry hop at 40°F

 

Keg with Biofine

Other Craig Thoughts

Other Things to Try

Quad IPA

• Do all of this, but add more sugar!
• El Segundo's Nuclear PP - 12% ABV

Fermentation

• Sugar Feed
• Kveik

Hopping

• Crush your pellets and purge with CO₂
• More concentrated hop formats (eg incognito)
• Colder shorter dry hopping
• Terpenes and other hop oils
• Wort acidification - 4.8-5.0 to adjust for drying hopping pH bump

Other Thoughts

What else would you try?

Tasting A TIPA

El Segundo Power Plant

Power Plant

11.1% ABV - 8th Edition

"irresponsibly overloaded with Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, and Mosaic"

 

What do you get?