Double Dog's Ass IPA

First try at an English-style IPA. I love the hops. The name comes from my girlfriends reaction to the first taste... "I'll have to lick TWO dogs asses to get this taste out of my mouth!" Joyce DOES NOT like the hops.

Brewer:	Rathole		Email:	am1nightcreature@yahoo.com
URL:	http://hometown.aol.com/rathole2331/apology.html
Beer:	Double Dog's Ass IPA		Style:	India Pale Ale
Type:	Extract w/grain		Size:	5.5 gallons
Color:	21 HCU (~12 SRM)		Bitterness:	67 IBU
OG:	1.065		FG:	1.008
Alcohol:	7.3% v/v (5.8% w/w)
Water:	Local well water, no treatment
Grain:	1.5 lb. American crystal 40L .5 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
Steep:	Steeped the grains 1/2 hour at 155°
Boil:	60 minutes	SG 1.071	5 gallons
	7 lb. Light malt extract 2 lb. Light dry malt extract
	Forgot the irish moss... too busy drinking barleywine. Pinch of copenhagen. 1 large moth, boiled for approximately 15 seconds. 1 small moth, steeped while chilling the wort 1/2 oz each of KG, Fuggles and Willamette at flame out, steeped for 10 minutes.
Hops:	1 oz. Columbus (15% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (4.5% AA, 20 min.) .75 oz. Kent Goldings (4.1% AA, 20 min.) .5 oz. Willamette (3.7% AA, 20 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (4.5% AA, 10 min.) .75 oz. Kent Goldings (4.1% AA, 10 min.) .5 oz. Willamette (3.7% AA, 10 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (4.5% AA, 5 min.) .75 oz. Kent Goldings (4.1% AA, 5 min.) .5 oz. Willamette (3.7% AA, 5 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (aroma) 1.5 oz. Kent Goldings (aroma) .5 oz. Willamette (aroma)
Yeast:	2 packets Danstar "windsor" yeast rehydrated per instructions
Log:	Brewed 4/30/05 actual OG measured at 1.060, lower than I wanted. Should still be OK I think 5/1 Fermentation perking along well 24 hrs later 5/6 Transfered to secondary, dry hop with 1/2 oz each of flavor hops. SG 1.026 Cloudy. Fruity and yeasty tasting, moderate perceived bitterness, not overwhelming, probably due to residual sugars which are still noticeable. Nice english hop aroma. 5/14 SG still 1.026, pitched pint starter of champagne yeast. (A nice little trick I learned when your gravities don't come down to where you want... brings most all gravities down to the teens) 5/22 SG still high, 1.024 hopefully it will come down. Needs some age, too. Kinda woodsy and slightly citrusy tasting. 5/24 early AM: wow, by checking the gravity must of stirred up the yeast some, it got foamy as heck and is perking along. I expect the gravities to drop rapidly soon. will let you know. 6/2 SG 1.014 still cloudy, but less so. Noticable bitterness but well in balance with the malt, actually could use more. Nice hop aroma of goldings and fuggles. May dry hop with another ounce of goldings (leaf) but we'll see. Most likely will put in a dose of isinglass due to forgetting the irish moss. This will be good, even as is. 6/19: Dose of isinglass, and added another ounce of KG dry hop. 7/22: Bottled with 2/3 cup corn sugar. FG 1.009!! Should put it at 6.8% alcohol.
Carbonation:	2/3 cup corn sugar
Tasting:	7/29: Tasted the first bottle. Not fully conditioned. Nicely balanced malt and bitterness, noticable bitterness, not lingering. Next time, I would bump the bittering a bit, I wanted a more noticeable bittering. Lots of wonderful hop aromas and tastes, different from the cascade/centennial green hop aromas I'm used to. I have to admit, when I bottled it, a taste of the unconditioned warm beer was dissapointing, I was thinking you could not use this much of the english style hops, and I was thinking of going to a more traditional 30/15 minute hop schedule. It came together very well in the less than week in the bottle, and I expect it to improve. Try the "Butte Creek organic IPA" for a commercial equivalent. 11/24: Had one of the last few bottles. Nice aromas of KG and fuggles, but a little light in body. Not bad though. I don't know if the champagne yeast fermented it too dry or if it's the grain I used. I would also make it with a little darker crystal malt, maybe 60L and some more bittering hops to punch it up a little. 1/12/2006 NOBODY READS THIS SO FOR GAWDS SAKE DON'T E MAIL ME TO TELL ME OTHERWISE! Seriously, I tasted one of the last two bottles tonight. Malty, spicy, lightly bittered, peppery, just slightly astringent, nice. How long since I brewed it? ten months? good beer. enjoy. 5/4/2006: Drinking the last bottle now. All bitterness is gone, perfect balance with malt. Light on the malt taste, with earthy, woody, winey aroma. Good, mature IPA that goes down easy. I may make this again, with a more traditional hop profile as mentioned above. Still reminds me of Butte creek IPA and Shipyard IPA, both of which are heavy on the kent goldings.

Recipe posted 08/01/05.