Yeah, I’d think so. This is about the time of year I was there for Beer Camp and they were brewing it then.
Denny, I am going with your (Sierra Nevada’s?) recipe. I will be brewing it this weekend.
By the way, we just got in this year’s version of Celebration in Colorado. I picked up a sixer and its not red like I thought I remembered - rather orange/amber. 
I’ve already had two six-packs this season. It is amber, not red.
Such a good beer.
I brewed Denny’s recipe this past Sunday (was going to brew on Saturday but the hot water heater went out and flooded half the basement in the process >:(, but not the brewery, it has a floor drain ;D).
Looks pretty good. Happily bubbling away at 68 degrees in the 14 gallon conical (I brewed 10 gallons). I overshot the OG a bit at 1.068. Rustic orange/amber color.
Hopefully I will be able to dry-hop this weekend and keg it by the next. I will let you know how it turns out.
Yes please.
Just had one tonight. This is a good vintage.
So, does this qualify as a Red IPA or just plain American IPA according to BJCP?
Good either way. Just something I think about.
A classic example of American IPA.
Thanks Denny! Now I can name an IPA that I can enjoy more than one of.
You guys have just convinced me to go pick some up, and also bust out the homegrowns and brew a batch! Thanks.
I thought about using it as an IPA in a recent bjcp exam I administered, but figured too many people would recognize it. It is pretty distinctive, I think.
I racked mine into the secondary onto the dry hops last night. Gravity 1.012. It did not taste nearly as hoppy as I expected but hopefully the dry hops will help with that.
I just dry hopped my take on this.
I used pale 2 row and 1.5 of Simpsons Medium Crystal.
Color (although still hazy due to young age) seems really close. The English crystal seems less caramel and a bit more biscuity. It reminds me of the SNCA flavor. Hops seem too subdued to me, maybe the dry hop will push this forward, but I might have to add more in the whirlpool on a future version. So far, pretty happy.
Last year when I brewed this, we did a triangle test and mine was also lacking in hops sharpness. I am using homegrown hops throughout though. Which water profile are you guys using? I’m considering amping up the sulfate level on this weekend’s batch. I shoot for about half of the Bru’nWater “pale ale” profile.
You mean you were using water with less than 150 ppm sulfate to brew an IPA? I’m not surprised the beer was lacking.
I experimented with lower sulfate content in a pale ale a few years ago and used 100 ppm sulfate. The beer was fine, but it lingered too long on the palate and it certainly had muted hop character. From that experience, I can assure anyone that 150 ppm sulfate would be the lowest I’d ever consider in a pale ale or IPA. But for the best flavor and character (to me), I still use the full 300 ppm sulfate as noted in the Pale Ale profile in Bru’n Water.
I think I am at about 150 ppm sulfate. I never considered going all the way up to 300 though :o
On my last three batches of IPA, I’ve been toggling between going for the full 300 ppm sulfate, and half those targets (about 150 ppm sulfate). I think I prefer something closer to the full 300 ppm, but the beer starts out very sharp and needs to mellow in the keg just a touch. The 150 ppm level is more of an approachable IPA for those who aren’t mega hop heads or bitterness lovers.
This image is to assist with color questions in the recipe. I used Simpson’s Medium Crystal at 1.5 lbs. in a 5 gallon (in the keg) batch along with only pale 2-row (Rahr). Color appears pretty close, but there is some more haze in the homebrew version on the right.
Taste of the malt alone is decently close (in my opinion). The crystal is rated at somewhere above 60 lovibond.
1GCjAu (87.5 KB)
- I am not convinced I can use an image from Google Drive… so may have to try again.
Yep, no image showed up. Image function is kind of a PITA on this board. You have to have a third party image-hosting site like photobucket (maybe not the best option these days). You can direct link to an online image though. Kind of clunky. I would share a lot more images if it was easier to do so.
Let’s try this again…
Left - SNCA Commercial
Right - Homebrewed Version
1.5 lbs Simpson’s Medium Crystal in a 5 gallon batch with only 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
