Recipe: Never Say no to Nelson (Clementine Christmas IPA)
Clementine IPA
If you haven't heard by now, I made my first entry into a homebrew contest. You can read about it in the ole archives here. I finally got around to typing up the recipe (pre cutting my fingers off), and now here they are for your viewing and brewing pleasure.
Recipe
Grist
5 kg Belgian Pilsner (Castle) 350 g Belgian Pale (castle) 300 g Best Cara Pils
Mash
65 C for 60 min Collected ca. 33 liters Pre boil gravity: 1.045
Boil
40 g target 10.5% alpha @ 60 min 100 g Mosaic 12% alpha @ 0 Min (hop burst)
At flameout also added: 1 liter of strained clementine juice measured @ 1.043
The zest of 2.5 kg clementine in a mesh bag (not weighed)
Fermentation
Collected 22 liters
OG: 1.010
Aerated 60 sec with pure O2
pitched 1 package US 05 not rehydrated
Fermented 13 days primary @ 19 C
Racked to secondary with 80 g nelson dry hop
3-12-14
bottled with 116 g sucrose to carbonate to 2.2 volumes
Tasting Notes and Grain to Glass Video
Color: Pretty orangish yellow color. A color I love to see in an IPA, and right where we were going for with a west coast vibe in mind. Not terribly clear, even with a cold crash and time in the bottle it's still relatively cloudy. A side effect of the fruit and pilsner I reckon.
Head Retention: Pretty good. It's got a big thick bubbly white head from the start that takes a good while to dissipate. Leaves decent lacing and at least some semblance of head sticks around throughout the entire beer. Cara pils is the way to go it seems as this is one of the better head retention beers I have made...even factoring in all the extra oild from the fruit skin.
Aroma: A bubblegum amalgamation of tropical fruit wine nelson and piney citrus mosaic with a hint of the real citrus clementine aroma in the background. A very complex aroma I am pretty satisfied with.
Taste: Strong taste of that same bubblegum hop and clementine fruity flavor followed by a rush of bitterness. Dry highly carbonated mouthfeel, so it ends crisp and dry. Possibly a touch too much carbonation, but it also helps the low body so thats a plus as well. It does suffer slightly from a bit too much bitterness. If the IBU was down a little I think the hop flavor might shine a bit more. There is an ever so slight organic type flavor, not easily put to words, but certainly present. It is not an off flavor but something different. Most certainly something from the large fruit addition.
Overall: A beer I am quite proud of brewing. A bright mix of real fruit flavor and perceived fruit flavor from a great mix of hops. Complex and depth of flavor are something I want to inject more of into my beers, and this is the first one I can honestly say has that.
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