21B Specialty IPA: Red IPA
West Coast RIPA I
Grain bill
| Gladfield American Ale Malt | 4.2 kg | 62.7% |
| Gladfield Vienna Malt | 1.6 kg | 23.9% |
| Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt | 0.4 kg | 6% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 0.3 kg | 4.5% |
| Gladfield Rye Malt | 0.2 kg | 3% |
Adjuncts
| Yeast Nutrient | 2 g @ 10 min |
| Whirlfloc | 1 g @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 10 min | 0 min | WP 80°C | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mosaic | 15g | 20g | 25g | 20g | 80g |
| Riwaka | · | 25g | 25g | 20g | 100g |
Yeast
| LalBrew BRY-97 | 1 packet |
About This Beer
West Coast RIPA I is the first iteration of a recurring Red IPA series, using an American Ale base with a substantial Vienna malt contribution to balance the coloured malts, and a near-equal split of Mosaic and Riwaka across the hop schedule. The series continued with West Coast RIPA II (June 2024, different yeast) and West Coast RIPA III (September 2024, added Nectaron).
This brew also marked the first use of the conical fermenter with its trub collector — which changed how the hop addition and transfer was handled.
Ingredients
The grain bill builds red colour and malt complexity through Aurora and Shepherds Delight, with Rye adding a dry spicy mouthfeel. Vienna at nearly 24% is the anchor: it softens the hop-forward character and prevents the coloured malts from dominating. The American Ale Malt base keeps it clean.
330g of hops across two varieties. Mosaic from the 60-minute bittering addition through to dry hop; Riwaka enters at 10 minutes and carries through equally. The near-equal dry hop split — 80g Mosaic, 100g Riwaka — was a deliberate choice to give Riwaka’s grapefruit and tropical character space to lead.
Brew Day
Mashed in at 66.5°C with 17L for 60 minutes, mash out at 76°C. Sparged 16L at 78°C. Pre-boil 29.5L, post-boil 27.5L. Flameout additions added at 0 minutes, then the wort was rapidly cooled to 80°C and held there for the whirlpool additions before chilling to pitching temperature. Good oxygenation on transfer into the FermZilla conical. 26L into the fermenter, OG 1.063. Spent grain went to chickens and bread.
Fermentation
Fermented at 18°C under light pressure (3–4psi). Fermentation was well underway within 24 hours — gravity 1.050 at day 1, near the end of primary by day 4 at 1.016. Day 3 saw very high krausen close to the top of the fermenter; with 26L in the vessel and 18°C fermentation the foam was higher than expected.
Day 5, the trub was dumped from the collection jar twice using CO2 purge — the first time using this process. Dry hopped with 80g Mosaic and 100g Riwaka. Gravity before dry hop was 1.015, dropping to 1.011 a few hours after the hops went in as the floating hop pellets disturbed the pill readings. Pressure climbed to 12psi after the spunding valve was closed.
Over days 7–12 the temperature was stepped up to 20°C for the rest phase, then cooled gradually to 3°C for packaging. A second trub dump was done at day 10. Pressure self-carbonated to 26psi at 20°C, dropping to 14.9psi at 3°C.
The Result
Bottled 19.25L using the counter pressure filler on day 13 (30 April 2024). FG 1.012, ABV 7%. Not particularly red in the glass — a little lighter in colour than the red IPA label suggests — but very drinkable. A slight fresh aftertaste at bottling; consistent with earlier batches, that character fades within a week or two of bottle conditioning.