I am working on a grain bill for what I hope will be my house IPA. I have made a few versions now and I am really leaning towards a hop combo I have tried a few times that I can only describe as being reminiscent of a nice crisp orange soda. It is by no means a cloying sweet weird soda like IPA, and it’s not even juicy per-se even though I do live in NE It is however very crisp and refreshing with orange zest and citrus overtones with a nice flavor and balance so far.
For my base malt I have been using a roughly 80/20 2-row and white wheat. I enjoy the lightness of the 2-row and wheat combo, as it provides a great neutral base for the hops. At an average of 6% ABV this is very drinkable.
Knowing that, and knowing I would like to keep the body similar to what I have, does anyone have any suggestions for a specialty or even fairly neutral base malt that would provide a nice orange tint to this beer. Why you say? Because I can and I know most people are visual tasters.
I’ll get some disagreement on this I’m sure but my vote is for a half pound of British Crystal ~60L/5 gallons. I have had good luck with Baird’s. I find it doesn’t really add much body and the caramel toffee flavors are neither particularly sweet or strong in their C55 when used at that level. If it’s still not orange enough then add small (very small, like ~1/2 oz.) amounts of Midnight Wheat to get you there.
This is good thought, I have also been toying with the idea of switching to an English ale yeast and doing the early dry hop/ biotransorfmation thing… But I worry that will get me too far away from the crispness I enjoy in this beer.
If anyone has had Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA, that is where I started for this beer, I have just leaned more towards a simcoe/centennial/Amarillo as opposed to what I’ve heard smuttynose uses which is almost all simcoe/Amarillo. I was particularly drawn to this beer for its clean clear finish and drinkability.
I guess what I’m really seeking is a color only contribution. I worry changing out a large portion of the base grist will change the beer too much, like if I were to add a significant portion of crystal/Vienna/munich. I was hoping for more of a 1-3% specialty, similar to how one would get red tones in an irish red.
I wish I had a picture. I usually use a grain bill of 80% pale malt and 20% munich for my IPA’s, no crystal. It is quite orange and provides a nice malt backbone without too much sweetness. I find that by using a grain bill that isn’t too sweet I can keep the ibu’s at a lower level and concentrate on aroma hops. Its very drinkable.
I know this won’t be popular but, have you thought of using a couple drops of red and yellow food coloring? It won’t change the flavor at all and will allow you to adjust both the hue and intensity. You may want to dilute the coloring and try it in a small quantity of beer and then add to the batch accordingly.
There are a number of good options on grain combinations that will give you an orange hue but I would be cautious about changing the flavor along with the color.
I would consider some oats or flaked grain that will yield haze without adjusting flavor. If you’re still a little too yellow then a tiny amount of sinimar or dehusked carafa to edge the color darker. The protein from oats and/or flaked grain would give a little more body but not affect the flavor.
I would say 6-7 would be about right, honestly the color of the top banner of this page would be nice (at least on the computer I am on). I would put my current recipe at about a 2.5 SRM. It is very light and brilliantly clear.
The clarity is another consideration. For some reason I like VERY clear beer and always strive for it, which I consistently achieve. I feel that for some reason a nice clear IPA is just more drinkable than a hazy one (yes I know this is all in my head!)
SO a brilliantly clear IPA at about 6-7 SRM, leaning toward the orange and not the red is really what I want! I like the idea of mostly keeping the base and maybe trying a tiny bit of sinimar or debittered/dehusked dark malts to get the tint. I really appreciate the feedback, this is giving me some good ideas. I’ll be brewing this for my rotation this weekend so hopefully I can nail something down by then.
Aromatic gives a nice orange highlight, but I’m not sure if the flavor might be too potent for an IPA at the amount you need to hit that color.
I use Munich and Victory together in my IPA’s quite a bit. It comes out a bit deeper than gold, but not quite orange at about 15% Munich and 5% Victory.
I know its a big change in your grist, but my house IPA is 75/20/5 2-row/Munich I/Victory. It clocks in at 6.4SRM. Don’s seem to have a current pic, but I know I have posted pics of it on the Pics of Recent beers thread. Byt the way it is delicious. The grist %s came from somebody on here, maybe erockRph or fmader and I have been loving it for the last 3+ years
My last hoppy lager was predominantly pilsner with some munich, vienna, and a tad of caravienne. It was pretty on the border of gold/orange and some more caravienne would have gotten it there for sure…
I think I may try the caravienne, any idea on grist %? I am thinking maybe 1 oz of chocolate for some reddish hues and a small % of caravienne could get me the color and not drastically change the base of this beer. maybe sub out a pound of 2 row for the caravienne? It would look something like this
How close is caravienne to cystal malts? I am finding lately I really don’t care for them except for in certain English styles, just too much raisin for me. I am hoping the caravienne stays out of the way?
While looking at the caravienne profile from briess (both my locals carry mostly briess) I noticed Caracrystal wheat. They specifically call it out for it’s orange hues, and this is already a 20% wheat IPA. Anyone ever tried this malt?
Caravienne is a crystal malt. ~20L depending on the maltster. Some I have found to impart very little sweetness. Others, Cararuby specifically, is sweeter than most and is too sweet for my tastes at 1/2#/5 gallons.
I’ll reiterate my recommendation for 1/2# or ~3-4% of Baird’s C55 and tiny amounts of midnight wheat if you want to tweak it darker.
It is however very crisp and refreshing with orange zest and citrus overtones with a nice flavor and balance so far.