Tasting: Dave's IPA (aka Huw's Magical Mystery IPA)

Huw's been a regular brewing assistant over the last 4 months or so. Without him, I would never have been able to get the wedding and birthday beers done. After all his brewing experience over the last few months he's kicked off on his own and brewed his first solo beer, an extract and specialty grains IPA.

Aroma: Pine, lychee, passionfruit and pineapple.
Appearance: Pale gold, good, sticky white head and a decent amount of haze that seems to be partly from yeast and I'm guessing some from the dry hopping.
Flavour: The hop assault hits first, fruit and pine and some spicy hop business. That's followed by a restrained light cracker flavour from the malt and finishing with a bitterness that lets you know you're drinking an IPA. Not much sweetness, it's nice and crisp. The flavours work very nicely together.
Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel on the light side, carbonation not too effervescent, the absence of most of the malt makes it feel lighter even though the actual FG is 1.015.

Wow! What a first effort! It took me ages to brew a beer this good and Huw's managed it on his first go. He's managed to brew it well, ferment it cleanly and has produced a crisp, drinkable IPA with a range of flavours that cohere nicely. I'd never have guessed it's an extract brew if I didn't already know.

It's good to see Ella and Galaxy working nicely in combination. One of my goals this year was to get to know our locally grown hops better and this is a good start. There's some of the characteristic Galaxy passionfruit and a slight dankness but it's not overwhelming Ella at all. There's a pine quality which is the dominant part of the the aroma

As an IPA it's pretty much just what I like. The malt is taking a back seat and the hops are doing their job well. It doesn't have that hop sweetness that can be a problem for some fruity IPAs, it just finishes crisply with a nice bitterness. It's not what many people would describe as balanced but the balance is just what I like in an IPA.

Next time: There isn't much to be picky about with this beer. I guess working on the clarity would be one thing. If I was going to change anything I'd probably increase the dry hop rate to the same as the flame out addition to give the aroma a little more pop.


For reference, the recipe:

Huw's Magical Mystery IPA (23L batch)
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.011 (1.015 measured)
IBU: 54
EBC: 9
ABV: 6.7% (6.1% measured)

90% light dried malt extract
4% NFH Crackerjack (biscuit malt)
6% corn sugar

23 IBU of Aramis @ 60 min (any clean bittering hop is fine)
2.1g/L of Galaxy @ flame out (16 IBUs with a 20 minute hop stand)
2.1g/L of Ella @ flame out (15 IBUs with a 20 minute hop stand)
1.3g/L of Galaxy @ dry hop
1.3g/L of Ella @ dry hop

US-05 yeast