Homebrew #12: Imperial India Pale Ale (IPA)

IMPERIAL IPA
July 11, 2009

After the failure of my first and only attempt at making an IPA and because the upcoming club competition style was IPAs, I felt it was time to give the style another try. When it comes to IPAs and the hop selection it seems that anything goes. Fortunately, the American Homebrewers Association just released their annual poll of the best commercial beers available in America, and the #1 beer was Russian River's Pliny the Elder IPA. The article also included a clone recipe provided by the creator and owner himself, Vinnie Cilurzo, so I decided to use that as a reference point for my own recipe. A normal IPA recipe may include anywhere from 8-13oz. of hops in a batch, but I decided to go with 21oz. I was able to do this by using a large portion of lower alpha acid hops in the form of East Kent Goldings. I was lucky enough to find them on sale for 50% less allowing me to use more than normal. The lower AA hops ended up producing a very well balanced and not over aggressive flavor and bitterness. The aroma was sweet and citrusy, and the flavor was BIG, just was I was going for. Another very successful batch!

• 4 lbs. Light LME
• 3.5 lbs. Light DME
• 0.5 lbs. Cara-Pils Malt
• 0.5 lbs. 40L Crystal Malt
• 0.5 lbs. Biscuit Malt
• 1 oz. Columbus hops @ 90 mins.
• 1 oz. Magnum hops @ 90 mins.
• 0.5 Amarillo hops @ 90 mins.
• 1 oz. Columbus hops @ 45 mins.
• 1 oz. Centennial hops @ 45 mins.
• 1 oz. Centennial hops @ 30 mins.
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops @ 30 mins.
• 2 oz. Centennial hops @ 0 mins.
• 1 oz. Cascade hops @ 0 mins.
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops @ 0 mins.
• 3.5 oz. East Kent Goldings hops @ 7 days till bottling (dry hop)
• 2 oz. Cascade hops @ 7 days till bottling (dry hop)
• 2.25 oz. East Kent Goldings hops @ 3 days till bottling (hop tea)
• 1 oz. Cascade hops @ 3 days till bottling (hop tea)
• 1 oz. Fuggle hops @ bottling (hop tea)
• 1 oz. Hallertau hops @ bottling (hop tea)
• SafAle US-05 dry yeast

Grains mashed @ 155F for 45 mins. Full 90 min. boil for extract/hops. Fermented @ 76F and transferred to secondary on Day 14. Bottled on Day 21.