21B Red IPA
Red IPA (July 2022)
Grain bill
| Gladfield Ale Malt | 4.6 kg | 64.8% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 1.2 kg | 16.9% |
| Gladfield Light Crystal Malt | 0.55 kg | 7.7% |
| Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt | 0.45 kg | 6.3% |
| Gladfield Dark Crystal Malt | 0.24 kg | 3.4% |
| Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt | 0.06 kg | 0.8% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | half tablet @ 10 min |
| Yeast nutrient | half tsp @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 10 min | WP | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Jade | 25g | · | 25g | · |
| Mosaic | · | 30g | 70g | 100g |
Yeast
| Mangrove Jacks M44 US West Coast | 2 packets |
Water additions
| Calcium Sulphate | 1 tsp in mash |
| Calcium Carbonate | half tsp in mash |
| Magnesium Sulphate | 1 tsp in mash — new vs Gen 5 |
| Lactic acid (88%) | as needed in sparge water, target pH ~5.0 (unusually low vs other batches' 5.5–5.7) |
About This Beer
Fourth captured Red IPA. Brewed five months after Red IPA Gen 5 (February 2022) using the same grain bill and hop schedule, with three deliberate process tweaks. The recipe has stabilised — Owen is now iterating on process variables rather than ingredients.
Grain Bill — Unchanged from Gen 5
7.10 kg total, all Gladfield, exactly as Gen 5:
- 4.60 kg Gladfield Ale Malt
- 1.20 kg Gladfield Aurora Malt (= Melanoidin in the original HBW recipe)
- 0.55 kg Gladfield Light Crystal
- 0.45 kg Gladfield Medium Crystal
- 0.24 kg Gladfield Dark Crystal
- 0.06 kg Gladfield Shepherds Delight (= Weyermann Special W in the original)
Hop Schedule — Unchanged from Gen 5 (Except Dry Hop Day)
250 g total, same Pacific Jade + Mosaic schedule:
- Pacific Jade 25 g at 60 min — bittering
- Pacific Jade 25 g at whirlpool 20 min
- Mosaic 30 g at 10 min
- Mosaic 70 g at whirlpool 20 min
- Mosaic 100 g dry hop on day 5 — moved up from day 7 in Gen 5
The Three Process Changes vs Gen 5
- Dry hop day 5 (was day 7) — earlier addition into more-active fermentation. Risk is some aroma scrub via CO2 off-gassing, but the 100 g Mosaic dose provides headroom.
- Magnesium sulphate 1 tsp in mash — new vs Gen 5. Adds a sulphate boost to support hop perception.
- Sparge water pH ~5.0 — unusually low. Other batches target 5.5–5.7. May be to reduce tannin extraction further or compensate for the heavy crystal/dark malt stack.
Fermentation
2 packets of MJ M44 US West Coast pitched at 19 °C for 14 days. Dry hop on day 5 from pitch: 100 g Mosaic.
FG hit 1.010 against 1.013 target — standard M44 over-attenuation at 19 °C, same pattern as Gen 5.
Water treatment: 1 tsp calcium sulphate, ½ tsp calcium carbonate, 1 tsp magnesium sulphate (new vs Gen 5).
Packaging
100 g of sugar for bottle conditioning. The notebook margin notes “previous brew 125 g” — Owen explicitly comparing to Gen 5’s 125 g. At 24 L bottled, 100 g is ~4.2 g/L — even lower than batch 25’s already-low 5.0 g/L that produced “less fizzy” beer.
Owen’s priming sugar journey across recent batches:
| Batch | Sugar | Volume | g/L | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazy IPA II (#23) | 130 g | 22 L | 5.9 | — |
| Black IPA (#24) | 120 g | 22 L | 5.5 | — |
| Black IPA (#25) | 105 g | 20.8 L | 5.0 | ”less fizzy” |
| Red IPA (#26) | 100 g | 24 L | 4.2 | not recorded |
This batch likely came out under-carbonated, but tasting isn’t recorded.
Numbers
| Stage | Target | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Mash + sparge | 34 L | 34 L |
| Pre-boil | 27 L | 28 L |
| Boil addition | 3 L | 3 L |
| Post-boil | 27 L | 28 L |
| Into fermenter | 24 L | 24.5 L |
| Bottle | 22.5 L | 24.0 L |
| Target | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| OG | 1.060 | 1.058 |
| FG | 1.013 | 1.010 |
| ABV | 6.17 % | 6.3 % |
OG fell 2 points short — closer to target than the recent Black IPAs (9–10 points off). The single-step mash here (vs Black IPA’s step mash with protein rest) appears to extract more reliably.
The brew ran 1.5 L wet through bottling — 24 L bottled vs 22.5 L target. Largest positive volume deviation in the captured collection so far.
Lineage
- Red IPA (June 2021)
- Red IPA (September 2021)
- Red IPA Gen 5 (February 2022) — same grain bill and hops as this batch
- This brew — Red IPA (July 2022) — Gen 5 recipe with three process tweaks