Hazy IPA II

About This Beer

Second entry in Owen’s Hazy IPA series, brewed 12 April 2022. Fills the gap between Hazy IPA I (January 2022) and Hazy IPA III (December 2022) — and it’s the moment Owen’s Hazy IPA recipe pivots in two big ways: a switch from M44 US West Coast to M29 French Saison, and a warmer 23 °C fermentation. The result is a dramatically drier beer than Hazy IPA I.

Grain Bill — Rebalanced

Same 6.8 kg total as Hazy IPA I, redistributed toward base malt:

The leanest-on-adjuncts version of the three. Wheat and oats together — the haze drivers in a typical Hazy IPA grist — drop from over 40 % in Hazy IPA I to under 20 % here. Hazy IPA III later reverts the oats partway back to 0.8 kg.

Hop Schedule — 300 g

300 g total (50 g boil + 150 g whirlpool + 100 g dry hop):

• Citra 25 g at 60 min — bittering
• Citra 25 g at 10 min — new in this batch
• Cascade 150 g whirlpool — added once wort below 90 °C; unchanged from Hazy IPA I
• Citra 100 g dry hop on day 7 — up 10 g from Hazy IPA I

Total Citra increased from 100 g (Hazy IPA I) to 150 g. Cascade unchanged at 150 g. This Citra-150 + Cascade-150 schedule carries forward unchanged into Hazy IPA III.

Fermentation — M29 at 23 °C

2 packets of MJ M29 French Saison pitched at 23 °C — the first major yeast change in the series. M29 is a diastaticus saison strain, capable of fermenting dextrins that ordinary ale yeasts cannot, producing a notably dry finish.

23 °C is warm enough to push M29’s saison ester character forward alongside the Citra dry hop. Hazy IPA I, by comparison, fermented at 19 °C with the much cleaner M44. Standard practice for M29 includes a brief diacetyl rest by raising the temperature in late primary — not explicitly recorded on this page but likely performed.

Dry hop: 100 g Citra on day 7 from pitch.

The fermentation result was dramatic. FG hit 1.004 — Owen wrote an exclamation mark next to the number. From an OG of 1.056, that’s 92.9 % apparent attenuation, ~12 points lower than Hazy IPA I’s M44 finish of 1.015. ABV came in at 6.83 % against a planned 4.86 % (the plan was set to match Hazy IPA I’s actual ABV — Owen was aiming to repeat that batch’s strength but the yeast change derailed that).

This is normal behaviour for a diastaticus saison; Hazy IPA III later hits an even lower 1.002.

Brew Day

Mash in 21 L at 67 °C for 60 minutes, mash out at 76 °C for 10 minutes. Water treatment: ½ tsp calcium chloride, 1 tsp calcium sulphate. Sparge 13 L at 76 °C, pH-adjusted to 5.7 with 88 % lactic acid.

60-minute boil with 1.7 L water added (vs 1.8 L planned). ½ tab Whirlfloc and ½ tsp yeast nutrient at 10 minutes. 20-minute whirlpool with 150 g Cascade once wort dropped below 90 °C.

Packaging

130 g of castor sugar (caster sugar — fine-grain sucrose, typically Chelsea brand or equivalent in NZ) dissolved in 250 mL of water for bottle conditioning. At 22 L bottled that’s ~5.9 g/L, middle of the standard range. The fine-grain caster sugar dissolves faster than granulated.

Numbers

OG over-shot by 4 points — likely the new ale-heavy grain bill extracting better than expected. FG well below target — the M29 diastaticus story. ABV ended almost 2 percentage points over plan.

Lineage

• Hazy IPA I (January 2022) — heavy oat/wheat grist, M44, 19 °C
• This brew — Hazy IPA II (April 2022) — lean grist, M29, 23 °C, dramatic dry finish (1.004)
• Hazy IPA III (December 2022) — middle-ground grist, M29 retained, even drier finish (1.002)
• Hazy IPA V (September 2023) — Taiheke substituted for Cascade
• Hazy IPA VII (September 2024) — back-to-basics after VI’s oxidised hop failure
• Hazy IPA VIII (November 2025) — pressure-fermented variant