Making A Session NEIPA
Here I am, typing this post admitting to the internet that I messed up my session New England IPA. I’m also here, typing this post to let you know that despite the errors I made I managed to crank out a pretty decent beer. There are a couple of bold things I did while making this beer that turned out well and I may try again. Here they are:
- 30 minute mash
- 30 minute boil
- zero boil hop additions
Here is the final recipe design:
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.012
IBU: zero (per software)
ABV: 3.7%
Fermentables:
54% Maris Otter
18% Table Suger (I’ll explain later)
18% Home Toasted Quaker Oats
10% Munich Malt
Hop schedule:
3oz Simcoe (13% AA) @ FO
3oz Amarillo (9.4% AA) @ FO
2oz Mosiac (13% AA) @ FO
4oz Amarillo (9.4% AA) Dry Hop 7 days
2oz Mosiac (13% AA) Dry Hop 7 days
Yeast
WLP004 (Irish Ale)
I’ve already posted a video to YouTube about how I made things but I wanted to give the specifics here.
Aside from what’s stated in the video I wanted to add some extra tidbits.
Why toast the oats? I home toasted the oats because I wanted to add a little more nuttiness as well as mouthfeel. With this beer, it didn’t make too much of an impact. If I do decide to make a NEIPA again I’m going to choose to forgo the toasting process to see how impacts the final product.
Why so much sugar? I wanted to use a single base malt so I decided originally on using only 1 pound of sugar, but had to bump it up to make up my mistake on the amount of water used (and error I swear not to make again).
Why was the ABV so low? As stated above, I goofed on the amount of water I started with. Come to think go of it, I would have been worth the while to boil my wort until I had achieved my estimated pre-boil gravity.
Why call it Margot’s Finger? While packaging this beer I was listening to the soundtrack to the movie “The Royal Tenenbaums”. A character named Margot in the film was missing half a finger (an accident with her real family, she was adopted).
In summary: I’m actually pretty happy with this beer. I’m about 2 weeks from keg day and I think it’s really starting to develop some nice flavors. The “juicy fruit” (gum) flavor I was describing in the video are still there but there’s a layer of complexity the hops are adding now.
I really kind of winged this recipe, so in the future I’ll make sure I have everything in place that I’ll need to make this beer to my specifications. But, hey it turned out well enough for me. As a matter of fact I can drink this beer all night and not get a buzz. which for me is suiting me well right now.