21B Specialty IPA: Red IPA
RIPA 2 (Under Pressure)
Grain bill
| Gladfield American Ale Malt | 5.5 kg | 75.9% |
| Gladfield Munich Malt | 0.7 kg | 9.7% |
| Gladfield Redback Malt | 0.55 kg | 7.6% |
| Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt | 0.45 kg | 6.2% |
| Gladfield Eclipse Wheat Malt | 0.05 kg | 0.7% |
Adjuncts
| Yeast nutrient | half tsp @ 10 min |
| Whirlfloc | half tablet @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 10 min | WP | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citra | 20g | 30g | 50g | · |
| Superdelic | · | · | 100g | 100g |
Yeast
| LalBrew BRY-97 | 2 packets |
Water additions
| Calcium Sulphate | 1 tsp in mash |
| Calcium Carbonate | 1 tsp in mash |
Tasting notes
About This Beer
RIPA Under Pressure was Owen’s first experiment with pressure fermentation — a technique he adopted to capture CO2 naturally and avoid the need for bottle-conditioning sugar. The RIPA grain bill he’d refined across earlier batches — American Ale Malt, Munich, Redback, Shepherds Delight, and a small Eclipse Wheat — was carried over unchanged.
The hop schedule introduces the rapid-cool-to-80°C whirlpool technique: heat off at the flameout addition, rapid cooling to 80°C, then a 20-minute whirlpool stand before resuming cooling. This keeps the hops at a temperature that extracts aroma and flavour oils without driving off the most volatile compounds. Citra and Superdelic split the whirlpool addition; Superdelic returns for a Day 3 dry hop.
Primary fermentation completed at around 4 psi in 3 days. Owen targeted 2.7 vol CO2 (16 psi at 6°C) but needed to top up with external CO2 to reach it. Bottled at 3 psi into chilled sterilised bottles via an open system — some CO2 loss, but still very acceptable. Key learning: once primary is complete, crank to ~20 psi rather than waiting.
OG 1.053, FG 1.012, ABV 5.51%. 22 litres bottled 16 March 2024.
Lineage
- RIPA 1 (Feb 2024) — companion batch on the same recipe, brewed one month earlier with standard (non-pressurised) fermentation. The pair forms an A/B test of pressure vs non-pressure fermentation.