My mate Dave asked me to brew him an IPA which he could take away in a jerry can, ferment, dry hop, and bottle at home when it's done. Dave has been a recipient of Davy Uprichard's excellent cider juice of 2014 and has confirmed his position on the 2015 guest list, so by now he's no stranger to alcoholic beverages by the jerry can.
Dave lives in the Wexford Mountains, where everything except strawberries and Wexford queens is in short supply. Dave's initial request was for a "Double IPA" prompting me to produce a simple enough recipe along the lines of BrewDog's Hardcore IPA, which to my surprise drew horror. 9% abv was the issue. Clearly there was a problem with definitions! So after a bit of ping pong the "Double IPA" was binned and a new recipe for quaffing of around 5% drawn up, with hop fruitiness.
This meant lots of US hops and a simple grain bill. Where I decided to throw a semi curve ball was the yeast. This would normally be a US-05 or WLP-001 no-brainer, but I decided to go withBrett Sacch WLP-644. This gained a bit of notoriety this year when it was DNA sequenced and found not to be brettanomyces but in fact saccharomyces. White Labs have subsequently renamed it in an artist-formerly-know-as fashion and it's now Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois.
A few things that are unusual about WLP-644:
Again as it was going to be hoppy, it meant Leixlip water was out. As I've written before Leixlip water is far too hard to be suitable for brewing this sort of beer without treatment, and so I opted to use water from the Lucan County instead. As there is no such thing of course as Lucan water, they just get a blend of our Leixlip water and another very soft source, I think currently Ballymore Eustace (ironically both sources are 100% Liffey water). On the day in question Lucan water was showing 90 ppm on the TDS meter and in comparison Leixlip was at 230 ppm. TDS isn't hardness but it's a general indication, and Lucan was showing a mere 40% of whatever Leixlip was on the day.
Recipe for 40 litres
Unusually for such a large brew I overshot my efficiency targets by a few percent, which is the opposite to what I'd expect: instead of 70% or so on this size of a brew, I actually hit 77%. Also, even more annoying was when I was drawing up the recipe I left US-05 as the yeast in BeerSmith as it didn't have an entry for WLP-644 (it's the old version, 1.4), which of course meant the anticipated attenuation was much lower, at around 72%. Using these two figures (70% efficiency and 72% attenuation) would have resulted in 5% abv on the dot. Mental note: put in the right yeast at the start in future!
Dave lives in the Wexford Mountains, where everything except strawberries and Wexford queens is in short supply. Dave's initial request was for a "Double IPA" prompting me to produce a simple enough recipe along the lines of BrewDog's Hardcore IPA, which to my surprise drew horror. 9% abv was the issue. Clearly there was a problem with definitions! So after a bit of ping pong the "Double IPA" was binned and a new recipe for quaffing of around 5% drawn up, with hop fruitiness.
This meant lots of US hops and a simple grain bill. Where I decided to throw a semi curve ball was the yeast. This would normally be a US-05 or WLP-001 no-brainer, but I decided to go with
A few things that are unusual about WLP-644:
- It's slower than regular saccharomyces. Allow 2 weeks to finish primary.
- It super attenuates. Think 85% or more, compared to ~75% for regular sacch.
- With lots of wort aeration it can generate a small amount of acetic acid, so in effect you can get a mildly "sour" beer without bacteria, although mild is the operative word.
- It can form a pellicle.
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| Lucan County Water |
Recipe for 40 litres
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.50 kg | Pale Malt (2 Row) MCI (5.9 EBC) | Grain | 95.00 % |
| 0.50 kg | White Wheat Malt Bairds (4.7 EBC) | Grain | 5.00 % |
| 30.00 gm | Hop Extract [51.00 %] (60 min) | Hops | 87.4 IBU |
| 60.00 gm | Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) | Hops | - |
| 60.00 gm | Citra [12.00 %] (0 min) | Hops | - |
| 90.00 gm | Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) | Hops | - |
| 150.00 gm | Citra [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) | Hops | - |
| 60.00 gm | Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) | Hops | - |
| 0.50 items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) | Misc | |
| 1 Pkgs | WLP644 (White Labs #WLP644) | Yeast-Ale |
| Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG | Measured Original Gravity: 1.058 SG |
| Est Final Gravity: 1.008 SG | Measured Final Gravity: 1.008 SG |
| Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.3% | Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.5% |
| Bitterness: 87.4 IBU | Calories: 542 cal/l |
| Est Color: 10.3 EBC | Color: |
Unusually for such a large brew I overshot my efficiency targets by a few percent, which is the opposite to what I'd expect: instead of 70% or so on this size of a brew, I actually hit 77%. Also, even more annoying was when I was drawing up the recipe I left US-05 as the yeast in BeerSmith as it didn't have an entry for WLP-644 (it's the old version, 1.4), which of course meant the anticipated attenuation was much lower, at around 72%. Using these two figures (70% efficiency and 72% attenuation) would have resulted in 5% abv on the dot. Mental note: put in the right yeast at the start in future!
Using hop extract in this one was a no-brainer as it meant the hop debris if I had used pellets was greatly minimised. I still don't have a way of dealing with large amounts of hops that I'm 100% happy with. Guess I'll just have to keep at the whirlpooling.
The wort was split into a 33 litre fermenter and a 25 litre jerry can for Dave to take home. I had made a moderate sized starter with the WLP-644, though I'm not sure that was necessary as it was vigorously healthy when I was slanting it. Dave got half the starter and I got the other half. I split the dry hops and vacuum packed Dave's share for the arduous journey up the mountains.
As I said earlier about WLP-644, this brew took a fortnight at 22°C to hit terminal gravity of 1.008. It dry hopped about a week in, and once terminal gravity reached it was fined with gelatine at 2°C for a few days before being racked and in my case kegged. Dave bottled his.
Tasting Notes
Bright copper and opaquely coloured with a lasting white head and associated lacing, this is quite an awesome brew! Very fruity and also quite bitter. It's definitely in the "Double IPA" league when it comes to hop flavour and bitterness. There is no perceivable acidic taste and the pH meter, showing 4.5, confirms there is no real acid present. It's one of the better IPAs I've brewed. What would I change? Well nothing really apart from the bitterness. At around 90 IBUs it's not to everyone's taste, and I think a few of Dave's mountainous mates are finding it a bit tougher going than the large bottles of McArdles off the shelf that they're used to.
As I said earlier about WLP-644, this brew took a fortnight at 22°C to hit terminal gravity of 1.008. It dry hopped about a week in, and once terminal gravity reached it was fined with gelatine at 2°C for a few days before being racked and in my case kegged. Dave bottled his.
Tasting Notes
Bright copper and opaquely coloured with a lasting white head and associated lacing, this is quite an awesome brew! Very fruity and also quite bitter. It's definitely in the "Double IPA" league when it comes to hop flavour and bitterness. There is no perceivable acidic taste and the pH meter, showing 4.5, confirms there is no real acid present. It's one of the better IPAs I've brewed. What would I change? Well nothing really apart from the bitterness. At around 90 IBUs it's not to everyone's taste, and I think a few of Dave's mountainous mates are finding it a bit tougher going than the large bottles of McArdles off the shelf that they're used to.
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| Quare Good Lad |