I’m new to brewing, I’m about to brew my 5th batch. I’m going to try brewing an Imperial IPA. I’ve learned to add part of the extract at the start of the boil and the rest at the final 15 minutes of boil for better hop utilization. when I was at the home brew shop the person there mentioned I need to age the beer because of the higher alcohol content. I’m just not sure for how long and wether that’s in a secondary fermenter or bottle aging?
No, you age barley wines, not IIPA. Your homebrew shop guy is mistaken. Unfortunately you will find most of them are about many things concerning brewing.
My suggestion is to sub out at least 5% sugar for some of your extract and keep the crystal malts to a minimum. You want this beer fairly dry to show case the hops. Too sweet and the hops will clash. These beers are meant to specifically showcase the hops. That is why they should be dry and fresh.
Aging beer because of alcohol content is because of a need to reduce fusel (hot) alcohols. This is best accomplished by maintaining a cool 65 - 68f fermentation temp (measure witha stick-on thermometer) and not room temp
while there are reasons to age big beers there is no NEED to do so if properly fermented. And IPAs should be consumed young before the hops fade
Fred
. And IPAs should be consumed young before the hops fade
Fred
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Thanks, the reason I’m doing a big IPA is I love a great hoppy beer.
Then try my amarilo pale ale
I’ll do that. First though I tried creating a recipe using beersmith, I’m going to try that.