Imperial IPA used to essentially mean a “doubling” of everything in a recipe - dating from the time when kings and emperors would receive a brewer’s best efforts as tribute. In modern times, early efforts at west coast brewing powerhouses such as Stone, Rogue, and Blind Pig often did take that simple of an approach - start with a basic IPA, and make it times two. Over time, themes and variations came about that tweaked the formula. Preference shifted away from malt-dominators, towards a leaner, crisper, less sweet-finishing beer. The hopping regime also shifted from simply “more hops at more times” to later and later in the boil, spilling over heavily into the dry hop. The end result is a hop-dominated, high alcohol beer that threatens yearly hop supplies with it’s obsession over the richest oils and aromatics.
O.G: 1.086 READY: 6 WEEKS
Suggested fermentation schedule:
-- 1-week-primary,-2-3-weeks-secondary, -2-3-weeks-bottle-conditioning-
MASH INGREDIENTS
-- 10-lbs.-Rahr-2-row-
-- 4.5-lbs.-English-Maris-Otter
-- 0.50-lbs.-Briess-Caramel-10-
MASH SCHEDULE: SINGLE INFUSION
Recomended: Sacch’ Rest: 151° F for 60 minutes-Mashout: 170° F for 10 minutes
Actual: 1.4q/lb strike water to 152F. Added 5g of burton salts to mash, mash pH 5.5. At 30 min temp was 149F, with decent conversion. Temp maintained to 65 min. Added 2 gal boiling water to a temp of 160F until 80 min, then started recirculating. Added 0.5 tsp of pH 5.2 to the sparge water to pH 6.5. Lautered 7.5 gal to the kettle in 40 min.
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
-- 1 oz. Summit (FWH) -add to kettle as wort drains from the mash tun
-- 1 oz. Summit (60 min)
-- 2 oz. Cascade (20 min)
-- Whirlfloc
-- 2 lbs Corn sugar (5 min)
-- 2 oz. Cascade (0 min) -Steep for 15 minutes after turning off heat
--Cool for 30 min with immersion chiller. Whirlpool and settle for 20. Lots of trub got into the carboy. With so many hops, I might use a hop bag next time I brew big beer. I let the trub settle for 2 hours then siphoned the wort into another vessel. Still got a lot of trub, but not as bad.
O.G. 1.079. My OGs are typically low, think I need to add less water to the mash so I can sparge a greater volume.
FERMENTATION
-- Pitched two 11.5g packets of rehydrated (90F, cool to 75F) Danstar-BRY-97-West-Coast-Ale-Yeast into 70F wort (4.5 gal). Fermentation picked up after 12hrs at 66-68F. At day 4 the fermentation was still going strong, with a big krausen. Frementation slowed by day 6 and the krausen fell by day 8. Day 9 was hot and temp jumped o 70F. Used a wet towel on day 10 to drop the temp to 66F. Gravity at day 12 was 1.008. The beer was still very hazy with yeast. By day 15 the beer began to clear up a bit. Racked to a secondary on day 17. On day 18 I wrapped a wet towel around the carboy and blew a fan on it to cool down to 62F, which helped drop the yeast out. Temp was held at -62-64 until day 21, when I started the dry hop. The temp gradually raised and stabilized at 68F.
-- Dry hop 2 oz. Cascade at day 1 of dry hop and 2 oz. at day 3. Temp range 67-69F. On day 28 I bottled 42 bottles (114g corn sugar). FG 1.008, ABV 9.3%.
Conclusion
This is a big beer and I think it fermented too warm as it has a pretty fusel character to it that is a bit too much. I'll let this beer condition for awhile and see how it matures. I'll loose all the hop character but not much choice at this point. Just speaks to the importance of temperature control.
Conversion progress with iodine test
Sparging
Into the kettle
The boil
The wort
12 hours after pitching
Day 4
Dry hop
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