NEIPA - New England IPA

 

First time brewing a NEIPA, and although this is freshly transferred to a keg, green beer for sure, I can see why this style is becoming so popular among homebrewers. Such a balanced, aromatic, crazy hazy and refreshing beer with tons of hop flavor, without the bitterness that drive folks away from an IPA.

Here's my take on this recipe:

Grain bill for 5gal batch:

• 8 lb Great Western 2 row malt
• 1/2 lb Dextrapills
• 1 lb Aromatic Munich 18L
• 1/2 lb Crystal 15L
• 2 lb flaked oats

Water profile (ppm):

CA = 104

Mg = 12

Na = 20

Cl = 169

SO4 = 48

Cl/Sulfate = 3.54

Mash time = 60min

Mash temp= 160F

Boil time = 10 minutes (yes, only 10 minutes)

Hops:

After flame out, cooled wort to 170F, added 6oz Citra pellets to spider, stirring wort for 20min. By then, temp dropped to about 160F.

Into fermenter with yeast cake from S05 batch, at 67F. Added a suspended muslin bag + cheese cloth with another 6oz of Citra pellets, hanging on top of fermenter.

After few hours, fermentation was active. Next day, about 24h from pitching, lowered the hop bag into active fermenting wort. Left until end of fermentation, which occurred only 4 days after pitching.

Kegged, with care to not oxidize the beer by flushing keg with CO2, as well as pressurizing fermenter with CO2.

Final numbers:

OG=1.049 (lower than expected 1.058, reason is, ended up with 5.5 gals instead of 5 gals. Miscalculated the evaporation rate for 10min boil)

FG=1.015

ABV=4.4% (planned was 5.5, for same reason above)

IBU= unknown, since no boil time, no proper calculation

SRM=7

Cheers, a keeper for sure. Next time I may increase the Crystal malt for a darker, more orange color. May use Crystal 40L instead of 15L.