September Brew of the Month: Farmhouse IPA

Cashmere hops

By Max Spencer

Late August and early September is harvest season for many crops, including one of our favorites as brewers: hops! Harvest season always puts me in the mind of agriculture — the smell of a farmyard, produce fresh out of the fields and long hours of hard manual labor.

Recently I found myself in the possession of fresh wet hops thanks to one of our regular customers and felt that I should make a special beer with them. I decided to make a wet-hopped farmhouse IPA inspired by agriculture and driven by opportunity.

The phrase “farmhouse” refers to historical beers, typically some kind of pale ale, brewed at farms for the consumption of farmhands during the farming seasons. A well-known example of a modern beer inspired by this tradition is the Saison.

Saisons (“seasons” in French) are derived from ales brewed in Wallonia, Belgium. In this region farmhands were entitled up to five liters of beer each workday (the average ABV would have been around 3-3.5%, so farming wasn’t necessarily an all-day rager). I utilized Saison yeasts in my take on a wet-hopped IPA to add the “farmhouse” aspect that I was looking for in honor of harvest season and the farmhands that are working hard for our benefit.

Not everyone will have access to fresh hops, so in the recipes I added hop schedules that use pellet hops. If you do have fresh hops, scroll down to the bottom for a wet-hop schedule.

ALL GRAIN

• 8.5 lbs. Pale malt
• 4 lbs. Maris Otter
• 1 lbs. Carahell
• 1 lbs. Golden naked oats
• 0.5 oz. Magnum @ 60 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ 30 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ 15 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ flameout
• 1 oz. Motueka @ flameout
• OG: 1.065
• Bitterness: 61.5 IBUs
• SRM: 6.2

EXTRACT (Boil volume: 3.85 gallons)

• 8 lbs. Pilsner liquid extract
• 2 lbs. Wheat liquid extract
• 1 lbs. Carahell
• 1 oz. Magnum @ 60 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ 30 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ 15 min
• 1 oz. Mosaic @ flameout
• 1 oz. Motueka @ flameout
• OG: 1.064
• Bitterness: 59.9 IBUS
• SRM: 6.9

YEAST

With yeast, you have all kinds of options! I wanted to do something fun with my IPA, so I used two yeasts: Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison and White Labs 644 Saccharomyces “brux-like” trois. The Belgian Saison is known for producing spicy phenolics, fruity esters and providing a dry, acidic finish. 3724 is also notorious for stalling out, so I co-pitched with the S. “brux-like” trois, a highly attenuating yeast that imparts flavors of mango and pineapple. I thought they both would work well with the tropical flavors of the Cashmere hops I was able to use.

If you wanted to keep it to a single yeast strain, I would recommend Wyeast 3711 French Saison or the Danstar Belle Saison. Additionally, if you want to avoid Belgian yeast all together, you can use any American ale strain to create a clean IPA.

WET-HOPPED

Use your favorite bittering hop (I like Magnum) for a 60 minute addition to achieve around 50 IBUs, or 60 IBUs if you want a high level of bitterness. Starting at 30 minutes until flameout add approximately an ounce (3-5 handfuls) of wet hops every 5 minutes. Dump any remaining hops, or around 4-8 oz if you have an extreme amount left, in at flameout to get a huge burst of aroma and flavor. Be sure to stir the hops in as you go to make sure they are submerged into the wort.