East Valley Crossfit IPA
I’m a member at a local Crossfit gym. As every Crossfit affiliate is independently owned and operated, there are some awesome ones, and less than awesome ones. I’m really thankful to be part of an awesome one, and an awesome one that loves craft beer. East Valley Crossfit hosts a Crossfit or lifting event a few times per year, and whenever feasible, I try to brew a batch for those events.
With the 3rd Annual EVCF Iron Fest coming up quickly, it was time to squeeze in another IPA. Our gym loves IPAs, especially anything I throw Citra in, so my Citra Burst IPA seemed like a good place to start. I’m always tweaking something with my recipes, and this one is no different. I’m dropping the amount of both Munich and Crystal malts. We’re also going to add some Carapils for extra body, and use CaraStan (35-40L), rather than C15. I’m really digging the English crystal malts lately, and I try to find an excuse to use them wherever I can.
Like all my dry-hopped beers recently, I ran some dry hop tests a la this post, only using Sierra Nevada Pale Ale as the base. I played around with Citra/Amarillo/Simcoe, Citra/Amarillo/Centennial, and then tried adding a hint of CTZ to each. Of the four, the Citra/Amarillo/Centennial was my least favorite, as it was just too fruity. In the end, the Citra/Amarillo/Simcoe with a splash of CTZ won out. It was fruity and tropical with some pine and grunge.
With no yeast handy to re-pitch, I made a 1.5L starter of WLP001, as it’s clean and predictable. That was followed by an easy brew day. 60min mash, 60min boil, followed by a 15min whirlpool before kicking on the chiller. This is the first beer where I was able to fully capture the fermentation profile with data from COSM.
Brewed: 04-09-13
Dry Hopped: 04-17-13
Kegged: 04-23-13
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: ~63
6 Gallons
11.5lbs 2-row
1lbs Munich
8oz CaraPils
8oz CaraStan
Mash @ 152
.7oz Apollo @ 60
Blend: 1.5oz ea Citra, Amarillo, and Simcoe + .5oz CTZ
Add:
2oz @ 15
3oz @ 0
WLP001 – California Ale Yeast (1.5L Starter)
Dry Hop:
1.25oz ea Citra, Amarillo, and Simcoe + .5oz CTZ
Split in two additions
All my kegs and fermenters were tied up when I went to dry hop this, so I just threw the hops straight into the primary. 6 days after that I kegged it, and dropped it into the kegerator to carb up. This beer was a little rushed, as it will only get 11 days in the keg before it’s served. I also decided against fining this beer with gelatin, in the case we have any vegans at the event.
So I think we’re roughly 9 days in now, and it tastes really good. Huge citrus and fruit aroma that’s very tropical. Stone fruit and tropical fruit. Definitely some grapefruit too. It’s really nice. The beer didn’t fully clear up, but no gelatin and a short timeline are to blame for that. Flavor is more hops, some bready malt notes, and a crisp bitterness. The Carastan didn’t come through as much as I would have hoped. I’ll probably go up to 10, maybe 12oz of that in the future. Carbonation is about 90% there. It’s definitely more carbonated than a beer on cask, but not quite to my normal 2.4vols. It could have used another couple days in that regard.
All in all, this IPA turned out really nice, and I’m sure it will disappear very quickly this Saturday. With 100-200 people and only 55 pints to go around, someone always draws the short straw =(
Looks delicious…but I have just come to expect that from you! What I thought was interesting is it appears your ferm chamber needs to cool about 5 times in a 24 hour period. I don't have any sweet electronically monitored devices like you, but I know mine kicks on way more often…I need to fill in the gaps in my chamber and make it more energy efficient! How'd the event go…how long did it take to kick the keg?
Used your advice in crafting my IPA recipe and it got a respectable 34 in the NY region for NHC. I knew it wasn't really bitter enough, and by the time it was judged it was a little older than I would have liked. But still a pleasant surprise against 47 other IPAs at that level.
for this beer you have CTZ at roughly 10% of your dry hop combo. i've seen you use 33% CTZ in the past (your amber i think?) and you report that it was just enough to add some dankness without it being to overpowering. how much CTZ do you generally like to add in your dry hop? i mean you are the dry hopped bud light king…
Haha, thanks. I'm finding just a splash of CTZ really gives the dry hop aroma a bigger punch. You'd never pick out the CTZ in this beer, as there's no dank character, but the dry hop aroma is better than last time I brewed it without the Columbus.
You're just looking at the first 12hrs. It kicks on probably 10-12 times a day. I tape the temp probe to the fermenter bucket with a little bit of insulation, so that helps too, as to more accurately measuring the wort temp rather than the air temp. The air temp in the fridge takes much bigger swings.
Nice work on the IPA. It's really tough to score well in the NHC. 34 probably wasn't far off from placing.
Oh ok, I was going to say that is quite the efficient fermchamber. I still think mine kicks on more often then that though. I have a pretty poorly made insulated box around a mini fridge.
Now that I look, the IPA did make the mini best of show round!
How did you calculate the size of your starter? Cause when I make my usual calculations it seems as though its way to small for that amount of beer?
Keep in mind I use a stir plate for my starters. Without a stir plate, you'll get 2.5-3x less cell growth, so you'd need a 2-3x bigger starter.
Aha! That makes sense of it. Didn't think of that:-)
Scott, congrats on the plug in this month's Beer Advocate!
Thanks! I'll admit, I was really, really excited about that!
I'm going to brew this this weekend. I got 10oz CaraStan per your comments. My LBS in Gilbert doesn't carry Apollo so I will use Warrior. And since the WLP090 worked so awesome in the Blind Pig clone of yours I did, I opted to use that. We'll see how she turns out.
I know I'm way late responding to this, but ya, those changes should be totally fine. How did it turn out?
No worries. I had to postpone it a week so it's in the primary now and I'll dry hop on Sunday. Hit all my numbers though. I'm sure it will be great.
Just brewed this today for the pac vs mayweather fight coming up. I been brewing too many big beers so I figured this would be a nice session type beer, plus I want to remember the fight!!
Also I subbed Apollo with Columbus , looking forward to trying it!
I brewed this and pitched the yeast 3 days ago, got a good healthy fermentation going. As I don't have a temperature controlled fridge to put the batch into, I can't really control the temperature. Is there any problem with having the beer continue to sit at around 20-21c (69-70f)? Thanks!