Another week. Another swapped beer tasting. This time we dive into a Mosaic and Citra focused IPA brewed by Brewella Deville. We sent her some of John’s Vienna Lager and you can check out her post on the beer as well.
For this Brew Dudes Hombrew Swap Exchange 3 we got a little West Coast IPA tutelage. Brewella sent us a very nice very clean IPA bittered with Columbus and the seasoned well with Mosaic and Citra. We’ve been playing with these types of hops a lot ourselves recently. Mike has been edging himself towards that “juicy” East Coast style as well. So it was nice to see a similar play on that hop flavor and aroma forward take on IPA. Brewella also scores some points for throwing WLP013 London Ale yeast in there. Something that most American IPA brewers would never attempt to use English yeast this way but it seems to be a quiet trick to that “juicy” character.
Whatever your stand on this emerging East Coast IPA debate is, a simple and well brewed IPA is still just a great IPA. Brewella’s beer did not disappoint. 2-row, munich and a touch of crystal 10L and 20L lend a great subtle malt backbone to this brew. The color pushes the darker end of the IPA style, but I rather really prefer a light copper colored ale myself. Makes me thing some efforts been put into the grain bill outside of a 50/50 pils/2-row base.
The columbus bittering charge delivers just north of 40IBU. To low for an IPA you say? Well get with the program. Super battering is out and hop flavor and aroma with late additions is the way to go with this take on IPA. Mosaic and Citra charges spread over 10 minutes, flame out and dry hopping do not disappoint. Fruity, floral, sweet and dare I say juicy? Now is this over the top like some of the gravy slash OJ like styles popping up here in the North East? No. But I think it strikes a nice balance somewhere between the two coasts.
Enough hop flavor and aroma to set the hops off, but not an overwhelming fruit experience either. Nicely balanced and incredibly drinkable. Perhaps this East Coast style will refine itself to something more like Brewella’s example. (Heresy for some I know.)
I have to mention before the end, I loved the notes Brewella sent to us on water usage. 75% RO, 25% tap and a touch of gypsum and sulfate. Clearly well thought out and what I hope is a continual process of improvement for her. Brewing, tweaking and re-brewing. It works here and made for a well balanced drinking experience. I thought the overall impression of the beer was great. I’d like to drink a couple more in that West Coast sun talking about water salts! What you don’t discuss water salts while drinking?
Thanks Brewella for the beer! And thanks for participating in our little homebrew swap exchange experiment.
BREW ON!
brewella deville
Thanks for the opportunity to swap beers guys, that was a great experience.
You were right about the acid malt. It’s the last adjustment I make to get my mash pH as near 5.4 as I can. For some reason, going any lower than that sends the mineral levels too high or the acid malt needed becomes too noticeable in the final flavor of the beer. I like to keep brewing simple and that seems to be a good target for most of my beers. Simple also means that when you’re using about 4 gallons of water per batch even a sleepy head can figure out that means 3 gallons of RO and 1 gallon of tap water. I’m not well versed in chemistry but the free downloadable EZ-Water spreadsheet makes it incredibly easy. Once I enter the grain bill, I use the spreadsheet to adjust the levels of gypsum and calcium chloride to get my mineral levels in green zone (I really only pay attention to chloride, calcium, and sulphate). The spreadsheet predicts the mash pH, and finally I enter the minimum amount of acid malt to get the pH near 5.4 That’s it. I add the water salts to the kettle while I’m warming the strike water and I don’t measure pH during the mash.
Oh, the yeast nutrient I use is Fermax from BSG. It was something the guy at the LHBS recommended and I’ve never tried any other brand so I can’t compare it to anything else. It’s also cheap enough and easy enough to use that honestly I’ve never given any thought to brewing without it.
John
Awesome information, Brewella, Gets us thinking about our own brews.