Sunshower IPA

This brew is in celebration of those hot Florida days where a quick sunshower takes the edge off for just a brief moment. The basis of the beer is destined to be full of refreshing citrus and tropical fruits followed by a firm bitterness and creamy mouthfeel. A little something to take the edge off any day. And yes, I am fully aware summer is almost over. But here in Florida a good IPA is welcome anytime! Besides we still have another couple months of some heat.

There is no one beer that inspires this brew, in fact there are several. With so many great beers and brewers out there it's hard not to find inspiration in a cold pint. Over the last few months I have had the pleasure of tasting some new to me beers that led to the development of this beer.

My first inspiration comes from Port Brewing's Wipeout IPA. This fine beverage is very chewy with wheat and a slight malt sweetness coming from English crystal malt. The hops are very aromatic American varieties that just fill your nose with awesomeness when you pull it close. Some of the hop varieties used in Wipe Out that will be incorporated into my recipe are Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe.

The second inspiration is a simple hop addition of Citra. This was a last minute addition based on a recent trip to Funky Buddha Brewery. On that visit I enjoyed their limited offering Crusher Pale Ale. This beer was low gravity but did not lack flavor. The Citra and Amarillo hops they used provided a ton of flavor and just about jumped out of the glass to smack you in the face.

The next couple inspirations are yeast derived. The primary yeast is going to be Conan, a proprietary strain used by The Alchemist. This is a shot in the dark for me since I have not had the pleasure of drinking a Heady Topper. However I was lucky enough to score some yeast from a home brewer I've interacted with on Instagram and homebrewtalk.com. I was sent a slurry of this yeast that was built up from the dregs of Heady and has been used in several batches successfully. This yeast is known for a tropical and peach aromas. I know it'll carry through since making the yeast starter that was the first thing I could smell. It's also been characterized as leaving a creamy mouthfeel.

And my final inspiration (told you there were a few) comes from Anchorage Brewing. Their style of taking classic base styles and fermenting/aging in oak barrels with Brettanomyces makes for some incredible beers. Each beer I have tried from their offerings has been exceptional. But in this case the two that stand out are their Galaxy White IPA and Bitter Monk Double IPA. I tried both of these after the were in the bottle for over a year. This far exceeds conventional wisdom for a hop forward IPA. But the fruitiness and funk from the Brettanomyces melded well with the bitterness and the brett seems to be good at preserving the hop character.

So with all this knowledge dropped on you of the things that I like in an IPA I might as well sum up the project. I am brewing an  8 1/2 gallon batch of IPA, which might border on Double IPA if my efficiency or attenuation goes over my anticipated targets. 5 gallons destined to go into a used barrel inoculated with Brettanomyces while the rest is a straight forward IPA. You'll here a little more of my barrel project in a later post since this seems to be the year of the barrel for me. 

Recipe:

Style: American IPA 

OG: 1.066

Target FG: 1.008

IBU's: 68

SRM: 6.2

Boil Size: 10 gallons

Batch Size: 8.5 gallons

Boil Time: 60 minutes

Mash: Single infusion light body 150*F

13 pounds 2-Row 61.9%

6 pounds White Wheat 28.57%

1 pound Simpsons Caramalt 4.76%

1 pound Table Sugar 4.76%

1oz Magnum First Wort 28.92 IBU's

1oz Magnum 60 min 26.29 IBU's 

0.5oz Simcoe 10 min 4.43 IBU's 

0.5oz Citra 10 min 4.5 IBU's 

0.5oz Simcoe 5 min 2.43 IBU's

0.5oz Citra 5 min 2.47 IBU's

0.5oz Centennial 0 min

0.5oz Simcoe 0 min

0.5oz Amarillo 0 min

0.5oz Cascade 0 min

0.5oz Citra 0 min

0.5oz Centennial dry hop

0.5oz Simcoe 0 dry hop

0.5oz Amarillo 0 dry hop

0.5oz Cascade 0 dry hop

0.5oz Citra 0 dry hop

Yeast: Conan

UPDATE: 24 Sep 2013

-After about two weeks in the primary I took some gravity readings and it looked to be a little under attenuated at 1.020. I decided to play it safe and pitched some US-05 to make sure I could get the gravity where I wanted it. The flavors and aromas are phenomenal. The yeast although under pitched still did a great job providing those peachy notes. 

-I have also decided that I'm going o do the five gallon portion as my straight IPA and the three gallon portion as my brett version. I have also decided to do a second dry hop just to really emphasize the aroma.

UPDATE: 15 Nov 13
After having a few bottles without official tasting notes here is what I have. The under pitching really screwed this one. It's still a good beer but it has a little hot solvent note to it. The hops really worked out well together and the grain combo was good too. I think the next time I need to not be as overly ambitious and make the time to build the starter to where it needs to be and not jump the gun.