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Hah. It does seem like the universal consensus is "brew an IPA, even if we don't agree with your recipe."
No?
Posted 34 days ago.
You don't need caramel malt to get sweetness. Period.
Seriously....try an IPA with marshall's Lil Slack grainbill: 80% Pale, 15% Munich, 5% Honey Malt, add a bunch of fruity hops.
IT WILL BE SWEET. Period. It won't be nasty, caramelly, cloying... it will be sweet, fruity, and almost, like... tangy. It isn't hop water. It isn't astringent, it is just GOOD.
Posted 34 days ago.
I never said that I needed it to get sweetness. That honey malt, plus the golden promise, gets that, I'm sure. I feel like it adds a layer of flavor that I enjoy.
If you're telling me that 12 ounces (in a 1.011 FG beer) is cloying, I say hogwash.
Posted 34 days ago.
IPA is always the answer.
I'm not a west coast IPA guy either actually. I just like them super pale and super dry and caramel malt doesn't make for pale, dry IPA.
And oats, so much oats. And 6oz dry hopping per 5 gals. I'm a madman.
Posted 34 days ago.
Olan, I am not convinced you really do like the caramel in the IPA more than you would like one made without. You'll never know until you try.
Posted 34 days ago.
Honey malt adds plenty of sweetness, save the Crystal for pale ales/ambers :)
Posted 34 days ago.
Hah, Ray, I have tried so. many. IPAs lately.
Posted 34 days ago.
Olan, use the crystal if you want, but 12oz is hardly "add another layer of flavor" or whatever. 12oz is a major player in the overall flavor profile.
The problem I see is getting that beer to reliably attenuate to 1.011. If it gets over 1.012 I could see it being cloying.Posted 34 days ago.
We'll find out.
Posted 34 days ago.
As long as we're chanting IPA, anyone have any experience with Topaz, any at all? I just can't get it to work for me thus far in anything and still have a pound and a half. Sounded good, just not performing how I thought.
Posted 34 days ago.
I used it in a single hop pale ale. I enjoyed it on it's own, but not sure what it would pair with. My tasting notes said it had a clean, neutral flavor.
Posted 34 days ago.
Never used it before. "Fleshy citrus and apricot" sounds interesting, what character do you get from it?
Posted 34 days ago.
I actually don't think the FG is as important as Dan does. Lagunitas is like 1.018/1.020, my current batch of my house IPA, overshot my mash temp, and finished at 1.016 and isn't the least bit cloying.
It isn't the attenuation, for me, that gives C-malts their sticky-sweet taste... it is the actual flavor they can impart.
I mean, it isn't that big of a deal, lots and lots of IPAs use crystal malts, I just personally think, ESPECIALLY if you're trying to make a fruity-hop IPA, crystal works against that goal. I could even probably be convinced that crystal is valuable if it is a really piney-resinous IPA... but I will admittedly defer to others, since I don't care for that character much.
Posted 34 days ago.
Boy I don't get the clean flavor. I've tried it in two beers all by itself, and one with belma. I found a slightly grassy, dank, apricot with minimal citrus. I have never used fleshy in a description before, so can't really argue that one. Perhaps I'm just using too much of it at once.
Posted 34 days ago.
I have a similar experience with motueka being a fucking weird hop on its own, or even with certain other hops. I absolutely LOVED the kiwi express kit from NB, and im down to the point where ive had Motueka and Wakatu/Waktu/Wakatau/whateverthefuckitis together and it still isnt 'right'. (Kiwi express is Motueka/Wakatu/Nelson Sauvin). Starting to really think that brew relies heavily on the Nelson, but man that shit is expensive the last i checked...
Posted 34 days ago.
