Officers' strength IPA

[db]

Hi,

I'm new to brewing, have just done 4 batches from various kits that have turned out thoroughly enjoyable - a lager, a bock, a dark ale, and a Mexican cerveza.

I'd like to do an IPA for my 5th beer. Black Rock do an East India Pale Ale kit. I'd like to do one with a higher alcohol content, as per the traditional IPA. I'm not brave enough, nor have the gear to do a mash (if that's the right term?), so I'm wondering if anyone can give me headsup if this can be done from a kit, or if I'll kill it or make it taste nasty?

I've googled this quite a bit, but can only find recipes for higher content IPA's by doing a mash or partial mash.

Many thanks,
db

[Stu McKinlay]

Here's a starter...

Use two cans of the IPA kit and a can of unhopped pale malt.
Buy some decent yeast - S04 or US05. You'll need two packets for a beer that strong. I find US05 to be a reasonable English-style yeast at the sort of high ferment temps we get around this time of year. I get some stonefruit esters (peach/nectarine).
Dry hop at the end of fermentation - or in secondary - with english-style hops such as goldings or or fuggles.

[Kempicus]

It's not really to daunting, definitely use two tins of malt (and not sugar) but you could also use less water, fill her up to about 13L and you should get about 7% out of it. You definately want to use some extra hops in the boil as well to get that lovely bitterness that an IPA demands. You don't strictly need to secondary ferment either just leave a bit longer in the bottle and it conditions out nicely. All in all you don't need to do much different just tweaking the end volume will get you the percentage that you want.

[jt]

You should get enough bitterness out of a Toucan by it'self , unless the extra malt balances it too far back

But you wouldn't go astray with some hops for flavour. Maybe boil the malt with Stu's suggested hops for 5 minutes - and add the dry hops at the end.

[denimglen]

Try www.howtobrew.com for extract with grains method. A little more work but will produce a much better beer and isn't all that complicated. I think he has a recipe for an IPA there, but it might be an American styled IPA.

[db]

Slowly reading some of this - great resource!!

[Martin Bridges]

I did the Victory & Chaos IPA from How To Brew as my second batch. It came out OK but there's a bit of a musty old-hops aroma to it. I did dry-hop so maybe that's it. Bizarrely the beer reminds me a lot fo Greene King IPA (see my blog for more details!).

Martin

[db]

Thanks guys for the headsup. I'm very new to this and don't have all the terms sussed yet, but If I'm understanding you right, the simplest way to acheive a higher strength IPA is to add less water to one Kit (any increased risk of incomplete fermentation this way?). Beyond that, the suggestion is to use two IPA kits, use malt instead of dextrose, and use a third-party yeast (or two actually)? And lastly, you're suggesting adding hops for extra bitterness to help with the IPA's authenticity?

[Stu McKinlay]

one kit in 10L of water will probably give you a gravity around the 1.040 mark - around 4%
two in 20L, the same - again, a beer around 4%
this will make for a pretty bitter combination, as the kits are made quite bitter - to be "watered down" with sugar and water.
I'd possibly try three kits in 20L, to up gravity close to the 1.060 mark and give a very strong bitterness. or two kits and one unhopped extract for a medium bitterness (as suggested above).

either way, with a strongish beer you'll want two packets of yeast to get a nice strong ferment going. extract is harder to ferment than all grain, so give it a fairly long ferment before bottling - I'd suggest two weeks at a minimum. check out the write ups and yeast calculator at www.mrmalty.com for some further info.

I don't do secondary ferments but to "recreate" the dry hopping of an IPA, I'd suggest that you do. I'd normally dry hop in the keg, and I'm guessing you don't have that option. after primary has finished (ie. no more bubbles, or very few), rack into another container and add some hop pellets in a sock or bag. leave them for another week or so and then get into your bottling.

Just a suggestion... read all you can and then go with your gut feeling (or the one who seems most trustworthy!).

Good luck. I'm drinking an average homebrew now and it's still far better than an average commercial beer. I'm loving it.

[jt]

"read all you can and then go with your gut feeling (or the one who seems most trustworthy!)."

very true, after all it's you that's got to drink it. personally I'd go for the three tins (be they all kits or mix of kits and malt) so you get volume. Nothing worse than running out of a good beer. If by any chance we've all put you wrong and it tastes like shite after 6 weeks, you can always pop it away and let it mature

Also important is get out there and talk to and drink with other brewers - and share your beers - the feedback and knowledge you can share is invaluable

cheers, jt