#7 - Come and get ya hops! (IPA)

Batch #7 (Brewed Wednesday, February 18, 2009)

Goal:
Big, hoppy IPA

Ingredients:
2 lb. 2-Row (Briess) Barley Malt
2 lb. 2-Row (Maris Otter) Barley Malt
½ lb. 40L Barley Malt
¼ lb. Carapils Barley Malt
3 lb. bag of Light Golden DME
1 lb. bag of Light Golden DME
1 oz. Simcoe hops (for bittering)
2 oz. Cascade hops (1 oz. for flavor, ½ oz. for aroma, ½ oz. for dry hopping)
Wyeast American Ale 2 slap pack

Notes:
Everything went normal. My "assistant" sparged the grain after steeping, and we got a good bit more liquid out of the grain.
Boil times were 60 minutes for 1 oz. Simcoe, 20 minutes for 1 oz. Cascade and 5 minutes for ½ oz. Cascade.
I racked to secondary after 2 weeks. Dry hopped with ½ oz. Cascade hops.
The beer was bottled on Tuesday, April 28. (Yes, 7 weeks in secondary!)
After 2 days, mild carbonation was seen and the beer was very tasty! Took the beer to my LHBS owner and was told it would score something like 32 or 33. His main concern was a dry finish, probably attributable to leaving the brew in secondary for so long, bringing the FG to a low 1.011. Also, dry hopping adds to the dry finish. The dryness is less apparent at serving (chilled) temperature than at room temperature. Even at room temperature, though, I liked the dryness that was apparently a knock against my beer. To each his own, I guess :).

Original Gravity: 1.050 @ 77 degrees (corrected value is 1.05206)
Final Gravity: 1.011 @ 72 degrees (corrected value is 1.0123)
Calculated Alcohol: 5.20%

Lesson learned: Hops are TASTY! Yeah, Weizens are still my favorites, but I'm no longer afraid of a big, hoppy monster. We TORE through this batch, drinking the entirety of it in less than 2 weeks. Lord, we're gonna be fat! But it was awesome!!!