So... What is it?
The India Pale Ale (IPA) is a hop-forward beer style with higher alcohol content (typically average 7-7.5%). It originated in the 18th century during British colonization of India, when brewers added extra hops and increased alcohol to preserve beer for long journeys. George Hodgson's "October beer" gained popularity in India, leading to the term "India Pale Ale." Now the IPA has evolved, and is largely responsible for the boom of the new era of craft beer, with breweries the world over experimenting and creating various sub-styles of amazing and unique IPA’s!
What's our like?
So how do you take such a popular and notorious style of beer to the next level? you get open AI (artificial intelligence) from Chat GPT to write you a recipe and brew it to the letter!
This may be a beer made by a machine, but it punches with the classic flavour of an old school west coast IPA, and this AI IPA has balls! coming in at a boozy 8.1% The mouthfeel is full and well rounded with a decent weight of bitterness balancing the malty backbone. The hops come punching through with citrus, a touch of pine and finishing with a resinous weight of hop oil.
Batch Size & Stats
- 19L / 5 gal finished beer
- 24L (6.3 gal) wort
- Starting gravity – 1.076
- Final gravity 1.014
- ABV – 8.1%
What ingredients?
Water
With sparging
- 23L (6 gal) strike water approx. 67°C (152.6°F)
- 9.3L (2.4 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
Without sparging
- 30L (7.9 gal) strike water approx. 67°C (152.6°F)
Malts
Total Grain Bill 7kg (15.4lb)
- Pale ale malt – 5.5kg (12.1 lb)
- Light Munich malt – 500g (1.1 lb)
- Carapils malt – 500g (1.1 lb)
- medium crystal malt – 500g (1.1 lb)
Hops & whirlfloc tablets
Chinook
- 50g (1.7 oz) - 60 minutes left in the boil
Citra
- 50g (1.7 oz) - flame out boil then allow to steep for 15 mins
- 50g (1.7 oz) - dry hop day 7
Simcoe
- 50g (1.7 oz) - after Citra’s been steeping for 10 mins add citra and steep for 5 more mins
- 50g (1.7 oz) - dry hop day 7
Whirlfloc
- 1.5g (0.052 oz) / 2 tablets – 15 minutes left in the boil
Yeast options & fermentation temperatures
- lallemand west coast ale – ferment at 20°C (68°F) to 25°C (77°F) 11g (1 packet)
- US-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- AUS-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- S-04 – ferment at 18°C (64.4°F) 22g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
Step by step process
Step 1 – Milling
- Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches (credit card width)
- Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
- Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person
Step 2 – Mashing
Mash for 60 minutes at 67°C (152.6°F) with 23L (6 gal) of strike water
- Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature (you can use the calculator in our website for this)
- ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)
- its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed
if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
Step 3 (optional) – Sparging
- if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 9.3L (2.4 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
- if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
- as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil
Step 4 – Boiling
- once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 50g (1.76 oz) of Chinook
- at 15 minutes left in the boil add 1 whirlfloc tablet (OR granulated whirlfloc 0.7g (0.025 oz)
- after 60 mins of boil turn off your heat source and add 50g (1.7 oz) of Citra and allow to steep for a total of 15 minutes
- after citra has been steeping for 10 minutes add 50g (1.7 oz) of simcoe and allow all to steep for a further 5 minutes. then move on to cooling
Step 5 – Whirlpooling / cooling
- After 15 mins total of hop steeping begin chilling wort down to yeast pitching temperature
- once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort
Step 6 – Yeast Pitching
- It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
- Wort Aeration (Optional) if you have a paint mixer give your wort a quick blitz before pitching yeast to help add more dissolved oxygen into the wort to help the yeast have a healthier kick start into fermentation
- Now add your tincture of Vanilla extract! (or you can wait till end of fermentation if you prefer)
- Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively
- To make a yeast starter you can use either:
- DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040
- some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
- 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching
- To rehydrate yeast
- Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)
Step 7 – Fermentation & Dry Hopping
- Allow yeast to ferment over the next two weeks (aprox)
- If you have a temperature-controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
- After 7 days of fermentation its time to dry hop, add 50g (1.7 oz) each of simcoe and Citra and allow fermentation to continue for a further 5-7 days
- It's important to note that fermentation times will vary based on your circumstances like temperature, amount of yeast pitched, the healthiness of yeast, the gravity of the wort, pH, etc. so don’t stress be patient and know that these times are just a rough guide
- If you have temp control then when there are 2 days left of fermentation raise the temperature by 2 degrees for a diacetyl rest (once gravity reaches roughly 1.014) & gravity is the same 3 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)
Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing
- begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
- If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
- After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated, remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.
