So we brewed a saison and then an ipa. The saison turned out pretty good, the ipa turned out to be pretty much the saison but not as good (definitely not a typical ipa). We used Munton’s extra light DME for both (in the boil and for priming). Has this happened to anyone else? Is it the DME, or maybe the sanitizer, or what else? Cheers
did you use different yeasts or not?
I doubt it is the DME. But we need more details that ‘tastes the same but not as good’. How about a recipe?
We did use different yeasts, we used a french saison yeast for the saison and an american ale yeast for the ipa. By mostly the same but not as good I meant that the ipa really didn’t have any noticeable hop characteristics, or at least what I expect from an ipa. It was very mellow and had alot of citrus and just kind of disappeared. We used the 60 minute clone brews recipe for the ipa:
4 oz british crystal malt
4 oz british amber malt
7.25 lb muntons DME
1 oz warrior hop
Then a quarter oz of warrior, simcoe, and amarillo 5 times throughout the 60 minute boil and dry hopped in the carboy with the same. We primed with 1 and a quarter cups of DME. Thanks for considering this!
Honestly, I would need the times you added the other hops and what their AA% is… I’m thinking you didnt add enough or you did alot of late additions which would give you more flavor but not bitterness. Were the hops old?
Did you ferment hot? If you didn’t chill it down to below 70 or fermented in a warm room (mid 70s), fermentation temps could have been up to 80 degrees. This will create esters, fusels, and other off flavors that aren’t appropriate in an IPA.
From the recipe I see 1oz of hops but the text under the list might indicate 3.75 oz.
If it’s 1oz. you won’t get anything resembling an IPA. Did you dry-hop?
The timing of the additions and better understanding of the quantities added along with fermentation temps and durations would help us quite a bit.
Paul
What volume did you boil? It’s hard to get the IBU contribution expected from an IPA with a partial boil due to the limit of solubility of alpha acids. It’s impossible to get over 55 IBUs from a half volume boil and, realistically, difficult to hit 45. You’ll get even less if you boiled less than half volume.
Sounds like a DFH 60 Min IPA clone… what a great recipe! Done properly it tastes very similiar.
Sounds like you mimicked “countinual-hopping” with the 5 additions. In a partial boil (< 5 gal) you wont extract nearly enough bitterness (alpha acids) from the Warrior/Simcoe. Malzig is right - if its a REALLY small boil (< 3 gal), all those early additions wont give up their acids - they’re just soaking up precious wort.
If you’re in between 3-5 gal, double the Warrior at the beginning and keep the rest the same. If your boil is < 3 gal, either invest in hop extract for bitterness or a bigger brewpot.
Isomerized hop extract: http://www.hopunion.com/tetrahydroisomerizedhopextract.html
PS: a few hints on this recipe:
- I believe DFH uses Ringwood yeast (WY 1187) for IPAs. I love it for this recipe, but make a starter. English ale will also give similiar results.
- do more than 5 additions - just split the hop mix up for adds every 2 min, grab a beer, and kick back for an hour while you add.
Statements like that drive me crazy. >:(
Belgian beers are not fusel and poor brewing technique mistakes.