Brew of the Month, May Edition: Matt's 30 Minute IPA

By Matt Ross

May’s Brew of the Month recipe was created to fill a void in my palate. Beer of all styles appeal to me and I can appreciate almost anything, but lately I’ve just wanted to punish my tongue with hops. May’s Brew of the Month recipe was crafted to do just that. I present the 30 Minute IPA.

The beer I've been craving has a light malt presence with moderate attenuation and almost no yeast character. It's obviously hop forward but not extremely bitter. I prefer more flavor and aroma, specifically tropical fruit, citrus and pine. I studied award-winning homebrew IPA practices and through my research as well as conversations with other homebrewers, I decided on doing a hop stand, and first wort hopping. These are probably considered “advanced” methods but in my experience, timing and patience are the most important points.

To explain, first wort hopping is an old German technique where you add a small amount of your bittering hops (up to 30%) to the wort in your kettle when you begin draining your sparge water. This does a number of things. According to the folks at Beersmith, it will increase your overall IBUs by 10% but produces a more well-rounded bitter instead of a tongue scraper. It should be noted that this recipe and method were used on an all-grain system. I have read but cannot confirm that similar results are gained in extract brewing when you first wort hop at the same time you add your malt extract.

The grain bill on this recipe is pretty no nonsense with mostly pale malt and a bit of C40, Victory and flaked barley. Total grain weight came to 13.88 pounds and I mashed at 153° for an hour. Prior to draining the mash tun of sparge water, first wort hops (.25oz of AU Topaz) were added to the kettle. Once the sparge water was drained off I took the collected wort and boiled it for 45 minutes. I call this brew the 30 Minute IPA because I did not start adding kettle hops until the 30-minute mark. Starting at 30 minutes I added one ounce of hops every ten minutes until the boil was done. I then began chilling the wort along with the hop stand process.

A hop stand occurs after the boil when you chill your wort down to 175° or lower and add hops. 175° is important because that is the temperature that hops isomerize (create IBUs). In short, you are making bitterless hop tea. Brewers will often stack techniques and whirlpool during this stage but it is not necessary. I went with one ounce of Simcoe for 30 minutes. From here it was a pretty standard fermentation around 65° with US-05 and dry hopping for 5 days in secondary with one ounce each of Citra and Mosaic.

All in all, this beer was very fruit forward. It has intense tropical fruit aroma and flavor that finished with a sneaky bitterness that was not overwhelming. I chose Topaz, Simcoe, Mosaic and Citra because my palate enjoys the big fruit flavor they lend. If you prefer a different flavor profile change up the recipe to make it your own. Hope you enjoyed this edition of Brew of the Month. Brew on.

All-Grain Recipe

• 12 lbs Briess Pale malt
• 0.75 lbs Briess Caramel 40L
• 0.75 lbs Briess Flaked Barley
• 0.38 lbs Briess Victory
• 0.25 oz Topaz FWH
• 0.75 oz Topaz 30 min.
• 1 oz Simcoe 20 min.
• 1 oz Topaz 10 min.
• 1 oz Citra @ Flameout
• 1 oz Simcoe Hop stand 30min (under 175°)
• 1 oz Citra Dry Hop 5 days
• 1 oz Mosaic Dry Hop 5 days
• Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast

Extract with Specialty Grains

• 1.5 lbs Briess Amber LME
• 7 lbs Briess Pilsen Light LME
• 0.75 lbs Briess Caramel 40L
• 0.50 lbs Cara-Pils
• Hops: See Above
• Yeast: See Above

The staff at Siciliano's is always eager to answer your homebrewing questions. Stop by for help developing custom-made recipes like this one!