Alpine Tundra IPA
Brewed: 6/4/2023 Kegged: 6/19/2023
2023 IPA.
See I wanted an IPA to have on tap for visiting family ... particularly my Brother-in-Law "Jon".
I had a significant amount of IPA hops in the freezer that I wanted to use for this brew.
Looking through the IPA's I'd brewed in the past, I didn't really want to re-brew any of those with the "new" hops. I decided to brew a brand-new recipe.
I figure the bitterness for my new IPA should be right in the middle, so I aimed for 65IBU.
I didn't want to use any "cara" malts, so I used pale and Vienna malts with a small amount of Chocolate Rye Malt to bring the color up into the proper IPA range.
I decided to go right down the middle on ABV, aiming for 6.5% ABV.
I prefer dry, crisp West-Coast IPA's so I opted for a low mash temperature (150ish) and designed my water profile with about 12g of gypsum added to accentuate the hop character.
The hops I decided to go with (mostly because I had a bunch of them): Mosaic / Galaxy / Citra / Talus. They are great IPA hops, so that should be a good IPA combination.
I added them as late in boil as possible to get appropriate bitterness, and to add at least 4 oz of dry hops as well. I dry hopped in the fermenter with the suis vid magnets to drop hop bags. I also help some back to dry hop in the keg.
I wanted the beer to be as clear as possible, so I'll added gelatin fining, but told myself I wouldn't freek out if there is some haze as long as it isn't ugly cloudy.
The resulting recipe is below.
On untappd: Alpine Tundra IPA
For more about this beer, see Sheppy's Blog: Alpine Tundra
| Alpine Tundra IPA --- Batch 1 |
| Style | American IPA | Batch Size | 5.50 gal | |||
| Type | All Grain | Boil Size | 6.60 gal | |||
| Brewhouse Efficiency | 68.00 | Boil Time | 60 minutes |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.060 SG | Estimated FG | 1.011 SG | ||||
| Recipe Bitterness | 58.5 IBUs (Rager) | Alcohol by Volume | 6.4 % | ||||
| BU : GU | 0.977 | ||||||
| Recipe Color | 7.4 SRM |
|
|||||
| Measured OG: | 1.063 | Measured FG: | 1.011 | ||||
| ADF: | 82 | Measured ABV: | 6.9% |
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.71 gal | Denver, Colorado | Water | 1 | - | - |
| 12.00 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) | Water Agent | 2 | - | - |
| 1.00 tsp | Lactic Acid (Mash) | Water Agent | 3 | - | - |
| 10 lbs 4.0 oz | Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 4 | 76.6 % | 0.80 gal |
| 3 lbs | Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) | Grain | 5 | 22.4 % | 0.23 gal |
| 2.0 oz | Chocolate Rye Malt (250.0 SRM) | Grain | 6 | 0.9 % | 0.01 gal |
| 0.500 oz | Eclipse (HPA-016) [17.60 %] - Boil 40.0 min | Hop | 7 | 26.9 IBUs | - |
| 1.00 Items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) | Fining | 8 | - | - |
| 1.000 oz | Citra [13.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min | Hop | 9 | 10.6 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Mosaic (HBC 369) [12.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min | Hop | 10 | 9.8 IBUs | - |
| 0.500 oz | Eclipse (HPA-016) [17.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min | Hop | 11 | 7.1 IBUs | - |
| 1.00 tsp | Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) | Other | 12 | - | - |
| 1.000 oz | Talus (HBC 692) [6.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 13 | 4.1 IBUs | - |
| 1.0 pkg | Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] | Yeast | 14 | - | - |
| 1.000 oz | Citra [12.00 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 0.0 Days | Hop | 15 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Eclipse (HPA-016) [17.60 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 0.0 Days | Hop | 16 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Mosaic (HBC 369) [12.20 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 0.0 Days | Hop | 17 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Talus (HBC 692) [6.20 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 0.0 Days | Hop | 18 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
Mash Profile
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saccharification | Add 32.32 qt of water at 157.1 F | 150.0 F | 45 min |
| Heat | Heat to 156.0 F over 10 min | 156.0 F | 20 min |
If steeping, remove grains,
and prepare to boil wort
From Denver water, gypsum puts my water profile at
Ca=123,Mg=8,Na=21,SO4=270,Cl=23,HCO3=104
Acid to bring water pH to around 5.3
Mash as directed.
Boil as directed.
Chill water to as close to 60F as possible.
Pitch yeast and pre-load fermentor to 5psi.
Pressure ferment with spunding valve set to 7 - 10 psi.
Dry hop half of the dry hops a day or two into fermentation.
After main fermentation is done set spunding valve to 5psi. Let total fermentation go a total of 2 weeks.
Pressure transfer into keg with the rest of the dry hops.
Chill and add gelatin after a couple days in the fridge.
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: | Strike Temp: | |||||
| Mash Temps: | ||||||
| Pre-boil OG | (1.054 SG) | Pre-boil Vol | (6.60 gal) | |||
| Actual Mash Efficiency | Pitch Temp | |||||
| Fermentation | ||||||
| Day 1: | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
Brewing Notes
5/31/2023 Buying ingredients today. I'd like to get this brewed Sunday, but right now the Chubby is what I'd like to ferment in and T.Ra.Sh Light is in there. I may keg that early and leave at room temp for awhile to "condition".
6/3/2023 Measured out the hops into bittering/ 10 minute/ dry hop bags. Also measured out gypsum. Not planning on doing water tonight because it will likely rain. Brew day tomorrow. Yum😋
6/4/2023 Brew day today. Raining, so I'm glad I didn't set up on the patio last night. The brew went well. I missed that the Talus was supposed to all be in at 5 minutes rather than with everything else, so I separated out 1oz of the 10 minute bag. This likely means the IBU is actually lower, but who cares? Set up the pressure fermentation with hop bags ready to drop via suis vide magnets. The pre-boil gravity was low. I added sugar. This resulted in an OG a bit high. Oh well.
6/5/2023 Fermentation only starting to get going around 6pm the next day. Pressure a little over 10 psi. I'll reduce that once we get full krausen.
6/7/2023 Still going strong. Tilt says 1.034 at 70 degrees. The pressure keeps creeping up. Was at 15psi this morning. Vented to hopefully get down around 10psi again. We'll see this evening where it is.
6/8/2023 Still active with a very thick kraussen. Tilt says 1.020 at 69 degrees. 10 psi. Reduced that a touch.
6/9/2023 Starting to slow down, but the kraussen is still very thick. Tilt at 1.011. PSI around 9.
6/11/2023 Tilt says 1.007 at 65. Starting to get real clear and the kraussen is almost gone. I think I'll dry hop tomorrow.
6/12/2023 1.007. Kraussen gone. Pulled magnets to dry hop. 12 psi.
6/15/2023 Super clear. No change in gravity. PSI creeped up again. Venting a little gas.
6/19/2023 Kegged. FG right at planned 1.011. This is a 6.9% ABV beer. Pressure transfer went ok, but I still am not sure about this pressure fermentation / transfer. I was mostly closely monitoring the gas, but I still got some de-pressurization which caused the trub to jump up. The beer also doesn't taste as hoppy as I thought it would. I put dry hops in the keg so hopefully that helps.
6/21/2023 Have guests coming starting tomorrow, so trying to quickly carbonate this. Seems close, which might be an advantage of pressure fermentation. Lots of gunk in first pour today, but I think the second will be better. Going to skip gelatin right now so I can concentrate on keeping high psi on keg in fridge.
6/25/2023 Big hit with IPA drinkers of the Trash family. Even those who don't normally drink IPAs say they like it.
7/7/2023 Yummy hoppy beer. Keg is getting low I think. Clarity is pretty good now. I'm going to have to try brew again.
7/23/2023 Killed the keg. Didn't last real long but at least I got to share it with quite a few people. 😋
5/31/2023 Buying ingredients today. I'd like to get this brewed Sunday, but right now the Chubby is what I'd like to ferment in and T.Ra.Sh Light is in there. I may keg that early and leave at room temp for awhile to "condition".
6/3/2023 Measured out the hops into bittering/ 10 minute/ dry hop bags. Also measured out gypsum. Not planning on doing water tonight because it will likely rain. Brew day tomorrow. Yum😋
6/4/2023 Brew day today. Raining, so I'm glad I didn't set up on the patio last night. The brew went well. I missed that the Talus was supposed to all be in at 5 minutes rather than with everything else, so I separated out 1oz of the 10 minute bag. This likely means the IBU is actually lower, but who cares? Set up the pressure fermentation with hop bags ready to drop via suis vide magnets. The pre-boil gravity was low. I added sugar. This resulted in an OG a bit high. Oh well.
6/5/2023 Fermentation only starting to get going around 6pm the next day. Pressure a little over 10 psi. I'll reduce that once we get full krausen.
6/7/2023 Still going strong. Tilt says 1.034 at 70 degrees. The pressure keeps creeping up. Was at 15psi this morning. Vented to hopefully get down around 10psi again. We'll see this evening where it is.
6/8/2023 Still active with a very thick kraussen. Tilt says 1.020 at 69 degrees. 10 psi. Reduced that a touch.
6/9/2023 Starting to slow down, but the kraussen is still very thick. Tilt at 1.011. PSI around 9.
6/11/2023 Tilt says 1.007 at 65. Starting to get real clear and the kraussen is almost gone. I think I'll dry hop tomorrow.
6/12/2023 1.007. Kraussen gone. Pulled magnets to dry hop. 12 psi.
6/15/2023 Super clear. No change in gravity. PSI creeped up again. Venting a little gas.
6/19/2023 Kegged. FG right at planned 1.011. This is a 6.9% ABV beer. Pressure transfer went ok, but I still am not sure about this pressure fermentation / transfer. I was mostly closely monitoring the gas, but I still got some de-pressurization which caused the trub to jump up. The beer also doesn't taste as hoppy as I thought it would. I put dry hops in the keg so hopefully that helps.
6/21/2023 Have guests coming starting tomorrow, so trying to quickly carbonate this. Seems close, which might be an advantage of pressure fermentation. Lots of gunk in first pour today, but I think the second will be better. Going to skip gelatin right now so I can concentrate on keeping high psi on keg in fridge.
6/25/2023 Big hit with IPA drinkers of the Trash family. Even those who don't normally drink IPAs say they like it.
7/7/2023 Yummy hoppy beer. Keg is getting low I think. Clarity is pretty good now. I'm going to have to try brew again.
7/23/2023 Killed the keg. Didn't last real long but at least I got to share it with quite a few people. 😋