Shoal Coast IPA

Shoal Coast IPA

After brewing for over a year I finally decided to do a true IPA. (I guess that not totally true. I did brew a Wheat IPA last spring but that has yet to be discussed.)

I wanted to try things a little bit differently with this brew. Here was my grain bill:

10# Maris Otter

1# Crystal 60

1# Crystal 20

1# Cara-Pils

At this point I had begun reading John Palmer & Colin Kaminski's Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers, so this was my first attempt at playing with water chemistry.

Some have told me that you should focus on learning to brew good beer before messing with the water chemistry and that this should be the last book of the four element books that you should read. I disagree. Water makes up the base of your ingredients and is going to have a profound effect on how your beer will taste. Your mash and what goes into it is the foundation as to how your beer will turn out.

Using 80% distilled water and adding some Gypsum, Epsom Salt, and CaCl to build the water to the desired profile; here were the final results (ppm):

Ca: 76

Mg: 17

Na: 3.1

SO4: 156

Cl: 55

HCO3: 28

RA: -41

pH: 5.3

Since I had never made this beer without any water adjustments I really don't have anything to compare it to. However, I will say that this beer and all others after it have been noticably better, which I believe to be due to the attention to my water chemistry.

I wanted a fuller bodied beer so I mashed this at 156 for 60 minutes and boiled it down for 75 minutes. Instead of doing any bittering additions at the beginning of the boil; I decided to do get all of my bitterness, flavor, and aroma with all late hop additions. I began the first addition with 1oz of Chinook at 20 minutes, another at 15 and third at 10. I then added an 1oz of Willamette at 5 minutes and other another at flame out. Then at the end of fermentation I dry hopped an ounce of whole hopped Willamette for about 5 days.

Wanting a sweeter full bodied IPA; I did not use an American ale strain of yeast. Instead I used the highly flocculating, low attenuating, Wyeast 1968 London ESB. I fermented fours weeks at 62 degrees. In the end I got exactly what I wished for, which may have been a little too much. The IPA came out with the body, head, and sweetness that I was looking for. The the roasty, rich maltiness was rather dominate in the beer. It almost took away from the hoppy profile that I was expecting.

When I try this brew again; I am going to make a few modifications to this recipe. I think it needs to have a bit drier finish so the mash temperature will probably be more in the 149-151 range. I will probably stick to a sixty minute boil and change up my hop schedule just a bit. I will probably have a small early hop addition to add a bit more bitterness to it and I am changing up the hop bill to get a more classic American citrusy/piney hop profile. The late addition schedule will probably remain the same but will have a blend of Centennial and Zythos additions. The grain bill will remain the same but I want to see how Wyeast 1056 American Ale does with this brew.

So this beer turned out well and it was not lacking in flavor. A few more goes with this recipe and I think I will have a really good flagship beer to have on tap for all to enjoy!