A Blueberry IPA
On the first of September, I embarked on my first (and possibly only) attempt at making an IPA. My buddy has been trying to perfect his recipe for many years; I can now fully appreciate the difficulty in brewing a great India Pale Ale. The focus of any great IPA is the hops; you can mess up the mash and the wort, but with enough hops, the beer will be an IPA (IMO).
| Grain | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pale Ale | 2 lbs |
| CaraPils | 0.2 lbs |
| CaraBelge | 0.2 lbs |
| Hop | Amount | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Tettnang | 0.2 oz | 60 min |
| Tettnang | 0.4 oz | At F.O.; 15 min |
| Perle | 0.4 oz | At F.O.; 15 min |
| Fuggles | 0.4 oz | At F.O.; 15 min |
| Perle | 0.6 oz | +7 Days |
| Fuggles | 0.6 oz | +7 Days |
*F.O. = Flame Out; turn off burner, add hops, and whirlpool
Since all of the flavor should be coming from the hops (and the fruit added), I simplified the mash schedule to a single 148°F (64°C) for 60 minutes. I also scheduled 0.6 lbs of frozen blueberries to be added at day 7 along with the dry-hopping. My brew log consisted of the following:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 11:16 | Dough in 1.5 L water at 70°F |
| 11:25 | Added 1.5 L boiling water – 124°F |
| 11:37 | 118°F – 3.5 L total with grains |
| 11:52 | 116°F – turned on burner |
| 12:08 | 150°F – burner on low |
| 12:20 | 158°F – burner off |
| 12:36 | 148°F |
| 12:46 | 142°F – burner on |
| 12:55 | 148°F – burner off |
| 12:58 | 152°F |
| 13:08 | 150°F |
| 13:10 | Burner on – Mash Out |
| 13:21 | 168°F |
| 13:31 | Start Sparge |
| 13:46 | Sparge End – Go to Boil ~ 4 L |
| 13:51 | Boil Begins – Add first hops |
| 14:51 | Boil Ends – Add add’l hops – whirlpool |
| 14:58 | Stopped whirlpool – put in freezer ~ 3.25 L |
| 19:00 | Racked to carboy |
| 15:00 (+1 Day) | Fermentation begins |
| 19:30 (+7 Days) | Dry-hopped and added blueberries |
| 14:00 (+26 Days) | Bottled with 0.7 oz sugar |
I ended up using a generic beer yeast called “Best West USA” as the yeast options are limited in Germany. It did the job. When bottling, I ended up making a huge mess; I was working with a new bottle filler (with no auto-siphon). Literally beer on the walls…
The final product tasted thinner than I had anticipated. Additionally, the hop flavor was not overwhelming, so I would not consider it true to the style. If I do attempt this recipe again, or another using frozen fruit, I will definitely make sure that I filter again before or while bottling. This beer still had small chunks of blueberries in it, which was not unpleasant from the taste, only from the consistency. I personally do not care for a chunky beer.
Verdict: unsuccessful
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