Hazy IPA I

About This Beer

Hazy IPA I is the founding entry in Owen’s Hazy IPA series and his very first self-designed recipe. The notebook page labels it “OP recipe” (Owen Paterson) — the moment he stopped working from kits supplied by Home Brew West and League of Brewers and began designing his own beers. It carries notebook batch number 20, a deliberate marker that this was a step beyond the apprentice brews that came before it.

The recipe is restrained for a Hazy IPA by later standards — a single bittering addition, one whirlpool variety, one dry hop — but every element is purposeful and the structure it establishes becomes the platform for the generations that follow.

Grain Bill

Total grain bill is 6.8 kg, deliberately simple:

• Gladfield Ale Malt — 4.0 kg (58.8%) — clean base, lets the hops carry the beer
• Gladfield Wheat Malt — 1.4 kg (20.6%) — body, head retention, and contribution to haze
• Gladfield Flaked Oats — 1.4 kg (20.6%) — soft mouthfeel and lasting haze

This is the textbook Hazy IPA grist: high-protein wheat and oats together pushing the share of unmalted and high-protein adjuncts past 40% of the grain bill, which is what gives the style its characteristic permanent haze and creamy texture. No crystal, no specialty malts — the hop expression is everything.

Hop Schedule

A three-addition schedule totalling 250 g:

• Citra 10 g @ 60 min — bittering only. Owen has chosen one of his favourite aroma hops for bittering duty rather than reaching for a high-alpha bittering variety. The dose is small enough that the bittering contribution is modest and the flavour contribution near zero.
• Cascade 150 g — whirlpool, 20 min, added once wort below 90°C — the whirlpool is the heart of the recipe. Holding the addition until below 90 °C preserves the volatile aroma compounds that would otherwise be driven off. Cascade carries the late-boil flavour and aroma.
• Citra 90 g — dry hop at day 7 — single dry hop addition during active fermentation, contributing the lifted citrus and tropical aroma at the top of the beer.

The Cascade-forward whirlpool is a notable choice — later generations of this series lean more on Citra and Mosaic. Cascade’s softer grapefruit-pine character anchors this first version.

Fermentation

Two packets of Mangrove Jacks M44 US West Coast dry pitched at 19 °C. The plan was 19 °C for 8 days followed by 13 °C for 7 days to clear, but fermentation effectively stopped after about 5 days. Dry hop at day 7 with 90 g Citra. Bottled at day 12, so the cold-clear stage ran approximately days 9–12 — about 4 days at 13 °C rather than the planned 7.

Mash pH after mash-in measured 5.5 with grain and calcium sulphate alone — no acid required in the mash. Sparge water was adjusted to pH 5.7 with approximately 1 mL of 88% lactic acid; a margin note in the notebook reminds the brewer this is to prevent tannin extraction during sparging.

Wort pH at the end of the boil, after the whirlpool addition: 5.6 — well within the acceptable range into the fermenter.

Packaging

Bottled approximately 2022-02-08 — 12 days after brew day. Approximately 2 g of Lalvin CL23 Premium Wine Yeast (champagne) was likely added at bottling to assist conditioning, given the long primary at 19 °C and the move down to 13 °C for clearing. Final volume into bottles: 21.5 L.

Numbers

Boil-off ran higher than planned — the gap between the 28.5 L post-boil target and 26.75 L actual carries through to a 21.5 L bottling volume vs the 23 L target. Cost approximately NZD $67 ($3.11/L).

Lineage

This is the founding entry in the Hazy IPA series that continues through Hazy IPA III (December 2022), V (November 2023), VII (September 2024), and VIII (November 2025). The basic structure — Gladfield Ale plus Wheat plus Oats with Citra and Cascade — establishes the platform; later versions extend it with different hop combinations and the move to M29 French Saison for higher attenuation and drier finishes.