This IPA was one of those ones that are born out of the limited inventory that a home brewer sometimes has: limited space means limited grain storing capacity, so before you know it you have no base grains for ale, only those grains you got to make a lager “one day”. With this realization, I took the thin lager grains, gave them some crystal malt for roastiness and added lots of hops, mostly inspired by Brewdog’s Punk IPA. The combination of thin grains (in terms of mouthfeel) and very hoppy beer, made a bitter and light IPA. Dry hopping with Amarillo hops and Cascade gave this IPA a very nice bite and mouthfeel, and so it was named a “Chewy IPA” – an IPA with a bite.
Mash
1.5kg Lager Grains (UK, 2.5 EBC)
80g of Crystal Malt 60 (UK, EBC: 150)
3 litres of boiled Brita filtered London tap water, start temp before grains: 64°c
Multi-stage mash:
100 minutes: Protein rest, water temp 55°c after adding the grains
90 minutes: Mash, 53°c -> addition of 2000ml -> 67°c
10 minutes: Mash temp raise, 62°c -> addition of 1000ml -> 68°c
0 minutes: Grains taken out and drained (+ squeezed)
Roughly 5.5 litres mash was left with 1060 gravity at 49°c.
Yeast
6g Mangrove Jack’s US West Coast (M44) yeast dissolved in 500ml Brita filtered London water (31°c)
Left to activate from start of boil, about 2 hours.
Wort (boil)
5.5l mash water brought to an immediate boil
60 minutes: 5g Chinook hops (12.7%), 5g Simcoe hops (15.5%), 150g Mutton light DME
30 minutes: 5g Chinook hops (12.7%), 5g Simcoe hops (15.5%)
5 minutes: 10g Chinook hops (12.7%), 10g Simcoe hops (15.5%)
0 minutes: in the ice bath, 10g Chinook hops (12.7%), 10g Simcoe hops (15.5%), 10g Amarillo hops (8.1%)
Wort was a total of 3l with a gravity of 1109 at 18°c
Fermentation
3l of the cooled wort was added to 2.5l Brita filtered London tap water and the yeast mix
Total of 6l with OG=1054 at 19°c.
Drinking while making
Dry Hopping (6 days after brewing)
Fermentation stopped so earlier dry hop introduced: 20g Amarillo hops, 10g Cascade hops and 10g Cirta hops
Bottling (14 days after brewing)
FG=1012 at 19°c, making it a 5.63% ABV beer, IBU=112, EBC=14 (SRM=7).
Total of 6l, dirty golden straw colour.
42g dextrose added for priming to achieve a CO2 volume of 2.5.
Tasting notes
Lightly cloudy beer in a honey colour, strong carbonation. Dense and creamy head that although thin, is very persistent.
Citrusy and full aroma, clear Amarillo hops presence that creates volume on the palate. Less hoppy than expected despite the large amount of hops in the dry hopping stage.
Strong hop bitterness with no astringent after taste. Thin grain presence and no malty volume, the lager base malts clearly making it very thin. There is also no strong flavour in any particular way, just a crisp, clean and bitter beer. Very refreshing while still being strong.
It was a very nice experiment in using lager grains for making an ale, resulting in a very clean beer.