Jarrylo Session IPA Kegged

Tonight (10 January 2016) I kegged my Jarrylo Session IPA, which has been fermenting for 11 days. The yeast had dropped very clear, and the beer had a malty flavor (all that Munich!) with a rather subdued bitterness. I'd probably place it in the pale ale rather than than IPA category. Nonetheless, it's shaping up nicely!

Final gravity is 1.017, down from 1.047, for 3.9% abv. I added the dry hops (weighted down with two stainless steel washers--I note that three would probably be advisable, as the bag didn't really sink as much as I'd hoped!). I'll be force carbonating, and hopefully can let it go at least a week before tapping.

Jarrylo Session IPA

For my last brew of 2015, I'm making a session IPA that is a modest departure from my previous session IPA. This is primarily to adjust for and use up ingredients on-hand, but also in order to try out a new yeast strain with some promise for session beers ("Conan"). I used WLP002 (English ale) for my last session IPAs, and liked it, but thought that the potentially low attenuation of Conan also has promise for a session IPA. We'll see how it works!

The other twist on this brew is that I'm using Jarrylo hops, a relatively new variety. They're not particularly intended for IPAs, but an IPA seems like a good way to showcase hop character, particularly in the late additions and dry-hop. Because Jarrylo is described as having notes of banana, pear, and spice, I figured some more citrusy/fruity varieties would meld well for the bittering and flavor hops additions. So, Citra and Mosaic are also in the mix. When smelling the Jarrylo hops pellets, I get a fair bit of pepper and maybe some fruitiness behind that. Perhaps it's a mistake to dry hop with this one for an IPA, but that's what homebrewing is all about!

Jarrylo Session IPA

• 5.25 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 3.75 lbs. Borlander Munich Malt (Briess)
• 0.5 lbs. caramel Munich 60L (Briess)
• 1 oz. Citra hops pellets (13.2% alpha), 15 minute boil
• 1 oz. Mosaic hops pellets (12.8% alpha), 10 minute boil
• 2 oz. Jarrylo hops pellets (14.2% alpha), 2 minute boil
• 2 oz. Jarrylo hops pellets (14.2% alpha), 2 week dry hop
• 1 pkg. Vermont Ale ("Conan") yeast, The Yeast Bay (prepared in 1L starter)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (10 minute boil)

Procedure

• I mashed in with 3.75 gallons of water at 169.8°, to hit a mash temperature of 156°. The mash was down to 153.5° after 25 minutes and 150° after 45 minutes. After 50 minutes, I added 1.1 gallons of water at 190°, to raise the mash temperature to 156°. I elected to use a shortened mash procedure in order to add a tiny extra bit of body to the final beer (per the session beer workshop I went to at AHC). So, only 60 minutes passed between when I mashed in and when I collected the first runnings.
• I vorlaufed and collected the first runnings, and added 3.75 gallons of water at 179°, which raised the mash bed to 166°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
• I collected a total of 6.9 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.037. This equates to an extract efficiency of ~75%.
• I started the boil, and added the hops per the schedule above.
• After 60 minutes of boiling, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort to 70°. Then, I pitched the yeast and set the beer to fermenting, at 68°. I brewed this batch on 30 December 2015. Starting gravity was 1.047.
• Note on the yeast starter: Because I am liking the Conan strain, I overbuilt my starter. I made 1.6 L of a 1.040 gravity, and set aside 0.6 L for my next batch (~100 billion cells, approximately). 

Beer Tasting: Seven Seas Session IPA

After 5 weeks in the keg, it's a good time to formally taste my latest session IPA! Overall, it seems like I'm about one iteration away from the "house recipe."

Seven Seas Session IPA

• The Basics
• Original gravity = 1.052; final gravity = 1.018; abv = 4.3%; estimated IBU = 50.
• Appearance
• Very persistent ivory head with a little bit of lacing on the glass; it starts quite high, and lowers a bit as I drink the beer, but never disappears. The beer itself is a rich gold with a slight haze.
• Aroma
• A strong but not overwhelming pine and grapefruit dominate. I don't pick up much in the way of malt (except towards the end of the glass, when the beer is warmed up a notch).
• Flavor
• The malt is in the background on this one, but definitely there. It supports a prominent bitterness from the hops, which is quite pleasant at the forefront but fades perhaps a little more harshly on the finish than I care for. In other words, the bitterness sticks around.
• Mouthfeel
• The body is just about perfect on this one; moderate, but not overly thin or overly chewy. Carbonation is moderate and on-point for an IPA.
• Would I brew this again?
• Yes, with only slight modification. The appearance, aroma, and mouthfeel are exactly perfect for me, so I wouldn't change the malt bill, mashing schedule, yeast, or dry-hopping. The only minor issue that I would care to fix would be to tone back the nature of the bitterness a bit; something a little more subtle might be nice. It's not bad in this way (as discussed at my homebrew club when I brought it), just slightly outside my personal preference. So, I would probably change up the bittering hops for this recipe; dial them back just a touch, and aim for something with a smoother bittering profile (?Cascade). The beer is definitely a big step closer to my house session IPA recipe. Once I get the bittering hops figured out, I think the recipe is set!
• Overall rating
• 7/10

On Falconer's Flight 7C's: I quite like this hop blend. It basically says "West Coast IPA." And despite the slight shortcomings for the bittering profile in this particular recipe, I think it would be fine for bittering in a bigger beer (i.e., a standard strength IPA). It's just a _touch_ much for a session IPA.

Seven Seas Session IPA

My first real attempt at a session IPA was adequate, but needed some work. So, I've tuned up the malt and hop bill a bit in order to bolster the brew all around. The result: Seven Seas Session IPA. The name is a bad pun on the hops variety, Falconer's Flight 7C's.

Seven Seas Session IPA

• 7.5 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 1.25 lbs. 10° Munich malt
• 1 lb. white wheat malt
• 0.5 lb. crystal 60° malt
• 0.5 lb. crystal 15° malt
• 1 tbs. 5.2 pH stabilizer
• 1 oz. Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend hops pellets (10.3% alpha, 4.9% beta), 15 minute boil
• 2 oz. Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend hops pellets (10.3% alpha, 4.9% beta), 10 minute boil
• 1 oz. Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend hops pellets (10.3% alpha, 4.9% beta), 5 minute boil
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet (10 minute boil)
• 1 pkg. English Ale Yeast (WLP002), prepared in 1 liter starter, 12 hours in advance
• 2 oz. Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend hops pellets (10.3% alpha, 4.9% beta), 14 day dry hop

Procedure

• I mashed in with 16.75 quarts of water at 170°, to hit a mash temperature of 159.7° at the start. After 10 minutes, the mash was at 159.5°, 157.6° after 45 minutes, and 154.5° after 60 minutes.
• I added 0.8 gallons of water at 210°, which raised the mash temperature to 160°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected 3.25 gallons of wort. Then, I added 3.8 gallons of water at 185°, which raised the mash temperature to 168°. This was then vorlaufed after 10 minutes at the remainder of the wort was collected.
• All together, I collected 6.75 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.043. This works out to 74% efficiency.
• I brought the wort to a boil, and added the first ounce of hops at 45 minutes, two more ounces at 50 minutes (along with a Whirlfloc tablet), and the final ounce of hops at 55 minutes. 
• After 60 minutes of boiling, I turned off the flame and chilled the wort as much as I could. Given the high temperatures (and the warm-ish tap water), I was only able to chill down to about 90°. I transferred the wort into the fermenter, and then set it to chill in the fermentation chamber. Once I reached 70° (after about 3 hours), I pitched the yeast. I started fermentation at 68°, and will drop the temperature to 65° once visible fermentation was under way (persumably within a few hours).
• In the end, I had 5.25 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.052. I plan to ferment for at least 10 days before dry hopping.

Beer Tasting: Azacca Session IPA

My first intentional attempt at a session IPA has been in the keg for about a month. A perfect time for a tasting!

Azacca Session IPA

• The Basics
• Original gravity = 1.045, final gravity = 1.015, abv = 3.9%, estimated IBU = 38.
• Appearance
• The head is white and fairly thin, but still pretty persistent. The beer itself is slightly hazy and light gold in color. Quite pretty!
• Aroma
• Fairly weak, considering that it was dry-hopped for so long. There are slight tropical fruit notes, with perhaps a whiff of citrus.
• Flavor
• Light and hop-forward, with a pleasant floral and tropical fruit taste; very smooth on the finish. The bitterness is noticeable but restrained; I might up the hops a bit for any future iterations. There is a slight (but not unpleasant), rounded mineral taste at the finish. The malts are very much in the background, perhaps too much so.
• Mouthfeel
• Pleasant and fine carbonation; the body is adequate but perhaps a touch thin. 
• Would I brew this again?
• Yes, but with some modifications. I quite like the concept of session IPAs, which hit all of my buttons (hop-forward, not numbing in alcohol content). Truth be told, I was a little disappointed with Azacca hops. My personal preference for an IPA is to have a big nose punch, and Azacca just isn't there. It has pleasant aroma and great flavor, but is restrained to the point where it might be better suited for light dry hopping in a blonde or perhaps plain pale ale. Next time, I'm going to try something different from the hops, and perhaps a little more for bittering. I also would like to up the maltiness on this just a touch--a small amount of crystal malt (perhaps crystal 60) might be what I need. Finally, I'm thinking about a little wheat to aid with head formation and retention. All in all, I feel like I'm on the right track with this brew, but have a little work to do to dial it in.
• Overall rating
• 5.75/10

Azacca Session IPA Update

Today (July 15), I kegged five gallons of my Azacca Session IPA, which was brewed 12 days prior. I added 2 oz. of Azacca hops pellets for dry-hopping, and will let it condition at 68° for five days before carbonating at serving temperature.

Gravity was 1.015, down from 1.045. This works out to 3.9% abv, nearly exactly as calculated. The beer is incredibly clear (as expected from the WLP005 yeast strain) and light gold in color. At least on initial tasting, the beer was only moderately bitter (hopefully to be accentuated as the beer conditions and carbonates), with a clean and definitely malty backbone, although not overly malty.

Azacca Session IPA

A few weeks back, I attended the National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego. One of the highlights (among many) was a lecture on "Brewing Session Beer" by New Belgium Brewing's Andy Mitchell, focused on brewing low-alcohol but high-flavor beers. My overall tastes (particularly for stuff I am going to put on tap in 5 gallon quantities) tend towards beers in this domain. I like to be able to enjoy a beer or two without ending up completely buzzed (and I want my liver to hold up for a few more decades of enjoying homebrew). One of the really interesting parts of Mitchell's lecture focused on brewing session IPA's, with a particular eye towards getting a beer with some nice body and flavor while avoiding watery mouthfeel.

Tips for brewing a session IPA (taken from my notes) included:

• Malt
• Less malt means less flavor! Instead of reducing the amounts of all malts in the beer (relative to a higher gravity grain bill), just scale back the base malt and leave the specialty malt as usual. If you scale back everything, it may result in a watery beer. 
• As another alternative, use a more flavorful base malt, with as Vienna or Maris Otter.
• Use a higher temperature mash rest, up to 158°. This will result in a greater proportion of unfermentable sugars, which will result in a bigger body for the finished beer.
• Consider a shorter mash time. [my question is if the mash is cut too short, is there a risk of an over-starchy beer?]
• Hops
• Balance is key; due to the lower starting gravity of session beers, you don't want to overhop. A smaller addition of hops in a session IPA can result in perceived bitterness equivalent to that of a higher gravity IPA with more hops.
• The bitterness ratio (IBU/SG) can be a useful tool to guide you. For an IPA, you might want to aim for a ratio of around 0.8 (e.g., 35 IBUs / 1.044 s.g.).
• Use a "hop burst" technique instead of a bittering addition. This gives increased aroma and avoids over-bittering the beer. In practice, this means adding hops only for the last 10 to 15 minutes of the boil.
• Water
• Avoid adding sulfate to the water; adding chloride can be OK. (oops, I forgot to follow this guideline in my recipe)
• Yeast
• A strain with relatively low attenuation is worth using. For this, consider stepping outside the box of what you normally brew. For instance, if you normally are aiming for American yeasts, look into the British yeast toolbox, because many of these finish less dry.
• Thames Valley strains are good for fermenting at lower temperatures with good character and relatively low attenuation.

Using these guidelines, I set out to design my own session IPA. Thanks to the AHA and BSG Craftbrewing, I had recently acquired 5 oz. of (free!) Azacca hops. It is a very North American strain, with lots of tropical and citrus (according the descriptions I've read). Additionally, the American Dwarf Hop Association suggests that it fares well in a single-hop beer. That's all the excuse I need to center my beer around this variety!

While designing this recipe, I used a few basic principles: 1) a simple malt bill utilizing a strong supplement to my usual 2-row base malt; 2) a high temperature mash to maintain a robust body for the beer; 3) hop bursting to maximize aroma and achieve a balanced bitterness; and 4) a British ale strain selected for comparatively low attenuation. In short, maximum body with balanced hoppiness. Thanks in part to all of the free hops, this batch was also pretty inexpensive: only $15 in raw materials. I'll find out how successful I was in a few weeks!

Azacca Session IPA

• 6.5 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 3 lbs. 10° Munich malt 
• 1 oz. Azacca hops pellets (10.3% alpha), 15 minute boil
• 1 oz. Azacca hops pellets (10.3% alpha), 10 minute boil
• 1 oz. Azacca hops pellets (10.3% alpha), added at flame-out, steep for 5 minutes before cooling
• 2 oz. Azacca hops pellets (10.3% alpha), 2 week dry-hopping
• British Ale yeast (White Labs, WLP005), prepared in 0.75 L starter
• 1 tbs. 5.2 pH stabilizer (added to mash)
• 1 tbs. gypsum (added at first hops addition)
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet (10 minute boil)

Procedure

• I mashed in with 15 quarts of water at 169.8° and stirred for two minutes. The mash stabilized at 159°. After 50 minutes, the mash temperature was down to 157°.
• I added 1.1 gallons of water at 180°, to bring the mash temperature up to 160°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected 3.25 gallons of wort.
• Then, I added 3.75 gallons of water at 180°, to bring the mash up to 165°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
• All told, I collected 7 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.038. This works out to 77% efficiency.
• I brought the mixture to a boil, adding the hops per the hopping schedule in the recipe (at 45 minutes, 50 minutes, and flame-out). This is essentially the "hop-burst" method, to gain all of the bittering units (with extra aroma) at the end of the boil.
• At flame-out, I let the beer sit for 5 minutes before starting cooling. This was with the intent of maximizing the hops aroma from the final addition.
• I cooled the wort and transferred it into the fermenter, aerating per usual with the Venturi pump. I pitched the yeast, sealed up the fermenter, and placed it in my fermentation chamber. The initial setting was for 68°. I had visible fermentation when I checked it seven hours later, and vigorous fermentation within 12 hours. At this point, I dropped the fermentation temperature to 66°.
• I brewed this beer on July 3, 2015. Starting gravity was 1.045, with an estimated 6 gallons of wort into the fermenter.

Azacca IPA reaching high krausen