There is a fair amount of debate over what an IPA should be in terms of bitterness, strength, character and aroma. People have even written entire books on the subject of IPA's (Pete Brown's Hops and Glory is a good read).
A lot of the newer breweries are producing creations with levels of hop flavour that really do make your tongue feel funny while many traditionalists continue to produce the more balanced and lower ABV variants that have been consumed in vast quantities for decades.
I was inspired by a dry hopping experiment I'd done with an old colleague where a standard pale ale was taken to new heights of glory by the addition of a rather large amount of Chinook. The flavour of this hop is wonderfully unique, it's all pink grapefruit and zesty goodness, and it had to be included in my offering!
In the end I decided the DBC IPA should be a beer dominated by A-list hops including the likes of Cascade, Summit, and Apollo along with whole leaf Chinook for dry hopping. Caramalt and wheat were added to the grist to provide a biscuit flavour and help with head retention respectively. Topped off with a start gravity of 1062.5 to give it a final ABV of 6.5% meant this beer was set to be no shrinking violet.
Rocking motion through the use of our fork-lift was also applied to the beer during its conditioning, in a similar manner to madeira, with the hope of recreating some of the agitation that the real McCoy would have undergone on its transcontinental maritime journey. Had some really good feedback off this one, with plenty of people crying out for more and some Ale aficionados journeying far and wide in search of it. Wish I'd made twice as much, as I write we've long sold out.
A lot of the newer breweries are producing creations with levels of hop flavour that really do make your tongue feel funny while many traditionalists continue to produce the more balanced and lower ABV variants that have been consumed in vast quantities for decades.
I was inspired by a dry hopping experiment I'd done with an old colleague where a standard pale ale was taken to new heights of glory by the addition of a rather large amount of Chinook. The flavour of this hop is wonderfully unique, it's all pink grapefruit and zesty goodness, and it had to be included in my offering!
In the end I decided the DBC IPA should be a beer dominated by A-list hops including the likes of Cascade, Summit, and Apollo along with whole leaf Chinook for dry hopping. Caramalt and wheat were added to the grist to provide a biscuit flavour and help with head retention respectively. Topped off with a start gravity of 1062.5 to give it a final ABV of 6.5% meant this beer was set to be no shrinking violet.
Rocking motion through the use of our fork-lift was also applied to the beer during its conditioning, in a similar manner to madeira, with the hope of recreating some of the agitation that the real McCoy would have undergone on its transcontinental maritime journey. Had some really good feedback off this one, with plenty of people crying out for more and some Ale aficionados journeying far and wide in search of it. Wish I'd made twice as much, as I write we've long sold out.
