wacky1980 Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 (edited) they're just so damn good! i'd never really looked at a recipe until the last few days. surprised to find out that the haze and fruity, grassy goodness with relatively low bitterness is all done with standard brewing ingredients (no additives, weird adjuncts, special hop varieties, etc). the main difference between a standard american IPA and an NEIPA is the hop schedule. in most ales, hops are added quite heavily during the boil to extract a lot of the bitterness, but with an NEIPA, hops are added mostly post-boil and quite heavily "dry hopped" during fermentation for aroma, while letting the yeast and grains do most of the work on the flavor side. anyways, i'm trying my hand at building my own recipe. after studying a few recipes from reputable pro brewers, as well as dozens of recipes by other homebrewers and a lot of discussion on best practices and science behind those practices, i think i've devised a solid first version recipe that should (hopefully) produce a decent beer. it also requires a significant adjustment in my brewing methods, as i've never used the "whirlpool" method after boil, and i will have to do a lot better on limiting exposure of the fermented beer to oxygen because this particular style apparently is very sensitive to oxidation. i expect to modify this recipe a few times before settling on a final version. anyways, here goes: wacky1980's no-name NEIPA 5 gallon batch final volume 1.067 OG - 1.017 FG - 6.6% ABV 63 IBU - 5.6 SRM color 10lb UK pale malt 1lb dextrine 1lb flaked oats 1lb flaked wheat 156° single infusion mash for 60min .25oz Citra hops @ first wort hop .25oz Simcoe hops @ first wort hop .25oz Amarillo hops @ first wort hop 60min boil .25oz Citra steep 40min @170° .25oz Simcoe steep 40min .25oz Amarillo steep 40min .50oz Citra steep 20min @ 170° .50oz Simcoe steep 20min .50oz Amarillo steep 20min pitch London Ale III (Wyeast 1318), ferment @ 65° .50oz Citra @ high krausen, 8 days pre-kegging .50oz Simcoe 8 days pre .50oz Amarillo 8 days pre 1oz Citra 4 days pre 1oz Simcoe 4 days pre 1oz Amarillo 4 days pre i just got done filing my taxes and my refund is bigger than i was expecting, so i'm gonna go ahead and buy ingredients for a couple batches worth this week, and maybe one or two brewery upgrades i've been eyeing. if anyone wants to give this beer a taste, come find me in about a month. Edited April 3, 2018 by wacky1980 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted June 8, 2018 Author Share Posted June 8, 2018 so i took my next brew in a different direction. instead of going after the NEIPA style, i came across a new experimental hop variety called "sabro" that is likely to be the next citra or simcoe (i.e. big disruptor in the hops industry). it was kinda expensive, so i just bought enough for one brew and decided to build my own recipe: an all-sabro IPA. finally got all the ingredients together last week, and we're gonna brew it tonight. if it turns out even halfways decent, i'll probably tweak it a couple times and put it in a local homebrew competition coming up later this year. it's probably a little $$ foolish to only use sabro for an entire recipe, because there are a lot cheaper hops out there for increasing bitterness and i have absolutely no idea how sabro will fare for both bittering and aroma (they're being touted as good for both but we'll see). i've just never brewed with this type before, and i want to get a good idea of what it offers. i feel like this is the best way to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 so i brewed this ipa up on friday night last week. i think it went alright. gravity was a little low out of the mash so i boiled it for an extra 20 minutes to reduce it. ended up hitting target gravity of 1.062 (i think i was actually at 1.061 but that's good enough), but i only had 4.5 gallons of wort instead of the intended 5 gallons in the fermenter. so we're gonna be short by about a 6-pack when we get it bottled up. i was hoping the fermentation would be mostly done by today so i could transfer it over to secondary, but it still needs to drop a few more points before it's ready to move. maybe by saturday... anyways, it smells pretty fucking good and i can't wait to see how much that improves after i add the rest of the hops. if the gravity comes down to where it's supposed to end up (1.014) i should come away with a 6.5% ABV beer with about 60 IBU of fruity, minty hops and a subtle maltiness. if gravity doesn't hit the mark, the malt will be more pronounced but the hops should still be pretty prominent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 we transferred to secondary fermentation tonight. gravity was still significantly higher than where i wanted it, but it was stalled out for three days so i figure transferring it might be the only way to shock it back into active fermentation. secondary might give it the kick it needs to hit final gravity, but at this point it's probably gonna end up under-fermented. when we brew it again, we'll have to adjust some variables to see if we can figure out the weak fermentation. might be the water we used, might be that we're not making a yeast starter. or it could be something completely different. oh well, trial and error. on the upside, our first lager was finally ready to sample tonight. it still needs a couple months of bottle aging, but it was carbonated enough to crack a bottle for first impressions. it's definitely the clearest beer we've ever made, and the flavor was still a little malty but in-line with the lager style. when we try it again in august, it might be just about perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted June 28, 2018 Author Share Posted June 28, 2018 bottled this bad boy last night. as predicted, gravity didn't hit its mark. was supposed to come down from 1.062 to 1.014 and it ended up at about 1.028, which should make for a beer with approx 4.5%ABV instead of the 6.3% we were aiming for. the taste was affected by the shitty fermentation as well. the beer ended up maltier than intended. regardless, the fancy hops did their thing. sampling it last night didn't really do it justice because it was warm and also not carbonated, but the hop flavor was interesting. i could taste coconut and mint, and maybe even a little bit of blue cheese funk. we ended up with a case of 12oz bottles and a 12-pack of swing-top pint bottles. gotta let it carbonate in the bottle for another week or so, then it will be ready to chill and drink. even though we didn't get the fermentation right, i'm still excited because this is my first original recipe brew. hope it's ready to drink on the 4th... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacky1980 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Drank the first bottle of this tonight. I was expecting a sweet, malty mess, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was sweet, but nowhere near what I was expecting. The hops were a little on the lighter side, but the unique flavors imparted by the experimental strain were all there. Might need to increase the hop bill by another 50% next time. Balance was malt-heavy because of weak fermentation, but not bad. Aroma was also a bit sweet but also hoppy and appealing. Mouth feel was thin. Not sure if a better fermentation would fix that, or if I should add some oats or lactose to boost body. Aftertaste was bitter, as expected, but not dank or piney. With a little tweaking, I think this has the ability to become a very good IPA. Gonna make a couple adjustments and try it again soon. But for now, I have a couple cases to drink through. Sacrifices... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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