Articles Comments

The Beer Circle » Brew It Yourself, Dogfish Head, IPA » Novice Homebrewer Batch #5- India Pale Ale

Novice Homebrewer Batch #5- India Pale Ale

June 20th, 2012 | 5 Comments | Written by

The Ingredients- IPA

My work approached me and asked if I would be interested in brewing a couple of batches for our company golf outing. At this point, any opportunity I have to brew a beer, I will accept. Everyone at work thoroughly enjoyed my strawberry wheat, so I agreed to recreate that beer for the outing, and told them I would come up with another recipe.

I finally settled on making an India Pale Ale for the golf outing. There is a recipe for the Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA within “Extreme Brewing” by Sam Calagione, so I decided to brew a clone. However, I was also at the mercy of my local homebrew shop, so the recipe was slightly altered, not that I minded. They didn’t have any of the British amber malt or the Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale yeast that the recipe calls for, so I had to go with some substitutes.

The Hops for Continuous Addition

As always, Mr. Steve’s was more than helpful and recommended using a California Ale yeast for the IPA, as many local homebrewers use this yeast. When I noticed that there was not any British amber malt in stock, I decided to go with Crystal Malt. Why? I know some people don’t like to use crystal malt with an IPA as it adds a little bit of a sweetness to it, but I thought that it may be perfect for my target audience. My coworkers certainly appreciate hops, but I don’t think they would go for a complete bitter hop bomb.

For reference, my recipe for the six-gallon batch is listed below:

6 ounces of Crystal Malt
7 pounds light dry malt extract
1/2 ounce Warrior hops
1/2 ounce Simcoe hops
1/2 ounce Amarillo hops
1/2 ounce Amarillo hops (end of boil)
California Ale yeast

Dry Hopping in the Secondary

The brew day was rather successful and it was my first experience with continuous hopping. While I haven’t created any fancy machinery to continuously add hops to the boil like Dogfish Head has, I sat there with my bowl of mixed hops and added a pinch every minute or so. Following primary fermentation, this beer smelled amazing and maintained a generous hop presence. This beer was also my first exposure to dry hopping, as I added more hops (Yeah!) during secondary fermentation. In the secondary, I added 1 ounce Amarillo hops and 1/2 ounce Simcoe hops.

One other thing that I noticed was the actual fermentation of the beer using the California Ale yeast was much less aggressive than other beers that I have brewed. I think it is attributable to the fact that this yeast is not as aggressive as the Belgian and other ale yeasts that I have used to date, but also probably due to the fact that there was not added fruit or other fermentables to the beer.

Written by

Jeff is a traffic engineer that loves his beer, and especially loves trying new beer. As a student at the University of Pittsburgh, Yuengling was a staple and the beginnings of liking something better than fizzy yellow water. This has evolved into an entire hobby, with Jeff keeping a blog of all of the beers he tries. Vacations most certainly involve at least one brewery or bottle shop visit to gather a region’s coveted fruits. Now, Jeff has ventured into homebrewing, and there is probably no saving him from being engulfed entirely by beer. While Imperial Stouts and IPAs rank highest in Jeff’s eyes, sours are sneaking up on those styles, and Jeff loves to try all different styles.

Filed under: Brew It Yourself, Dogfish Head, IPA · Tags: , , , ,

  • Jay W.

    You may want to consider using your 5g Carboy for secondary (looks like a 6 or 6.5 in that pic).  Do a little bit of reading about limiting headspace in secondary, it is generally beneficial. 

    • http://kupkosmindbottled.blogspot.com/ Jeff Kupko

      Yeah, it’s a 6g carboy. I have two of those, so I’m limited to what I have at this point.

  • Pingback: Novice Homebrewer- Batch #5 India Pale Ale Review | The Beer Circle

  • David Wood, Jr

    Cali Ale yeast is a very fast fermenting strain! If you didn’t have an “agressive” fermentation it may be a result of underpitching the yeast. How many smack-packs, vials or pouches did you pitch? What was your OG? Did your Secondary fermenter start bubbling like it was in primary after you transfered it? If it did, it may have to do with the amount of headspace in your secondary. Did you get a metalic taste from your beer?If so,  Oxygen may have something to do with that. Did you partial boil your wort? If so, you will have a tough time extracting the amount of Alpha Acid required to bitter your beer properly. One other thing… go to Northern Brewer for your ingredients. They have everything!  

    • thebeercircle

      I used one vial. The secondary didn’t bubble like it was in primary. No metallic taste at all…it was a great beer! I also fully boiled my wort.