Red IPA (Generation 5)

About This Beer

This is the fifth generation of Owen’s Red IPA — a recipe that started as a kit from Home Brew West in Henderson, Auckland, and has been refined across successive batches into something distinctly his own. The structure has stayed consistent because it works: deep red-amber colour, a solid malt backbone, assertive hop character from Mosaic, and reliable head retention. What changes each generation is the detail — malt substitutions, hop adjustments, and water chemistry refinements.

Ingredients

The grain bill totals 7.09 kg, a near-capacity load for the Grainfather G30. Gladfield Ale Malt at 4.6 kg forms the clean base, giving the hops room to express themselves. The colour and complexity come from four specialty malts: Aurora replaces the original Melanoidin, Light Crystal replaces Caramalt, Medium Crystal replaces Pale Crystal, and Shepherds Delight replaces Weyermann Special W. Dark Crystal at 240 g anchors the colour firmly in the red-amber range and adds caramel depth.

Mosaic drives the hop character across all three stages — 30 g late in the boil, 70 g in the whirlpool, and 100 g dry-hopped at day 7. The new addition this generation is 25 g of Pacific Jade in the whirlpool, added alongside the existing 25 g at 60 minutes. Pacific Jade’s herbal-spice character sits cleanly behind Mosaic’s tropical-berry profile without competing.

Two packets of Mangrove Jacks M44 US West Coast yeast provide a clean, attenuative fermentation — this batch finished at 1.013 from 1.060, hitting 78% apparent attenuation.

Brew Day

Mash in at 67°C with 21.5 L of treated water — 1 tsp calcium sulphate and 0.5 tsp calcium carbonate added to the mash. Mash rest for 60 minutes, mash out at 75°C for 10 minutes. Sparge with 12.5 L at 75°C, with 88% lactic acid used to bring the sparge water down to approximately 5.1 pH — an ongoing experiment in managing overall beer pH.

Pre-boil volume hit 27 L. During the 60-minute boil, 3 L of boiling water was added to compensate for evaporation, returning post-boil volume to 27 L. Whirlfloc and yeast nutrient added at 10 minutes. After flameout, the whirlpool was held for 20 minutes before chilling and transferring to the fermenter.

Fermentation

Pitched at 19°C and held there throughout primary. Dry hop at day 7 with 100 g Mosaic. The cue to package: airlock popping more than 1 minute apart. A clarification step at 13°C for 1 day before bottling helped drop the beer bright.

Bottled on 2022-02-24 — 14 days after brew day — with 125 g of white sugar across 22.5 L for bottle conditioning. Priming sugar was reduced from the 150–160 g used in earlier generations; the result still delivers good carbonation, mouth feel, and head retention.

The Result

Deep colour, malty, hoppy, and sessionable at 6.17% ABV. Head retention and flavour are exactly what five generations of iteration have been building toward. The Pacific Jade whirlpool addition landed well — present as a subtle herbal note, not dominant, sitting behind Mosaic’s tropical and berry character.

At $74.70 for 22.5 L, this comes in at $3.32/L — a solid result for a high-quality Red IPA brewed to a calibrated recipe.