BeerBorg

Just finished bottling this up. As a refresher, I did a number of new things on this one. 40 minute steep. Crashed before I transferred to a secondary. Dry hopped (a lot of hops, the posted recipe shows 1.5 ounces of three different hops, I actually did 2.25 ounces of each instead) in the secondary. These, and a few other processes and details, were on the top 10 ways to make a better IPA by Russian River. I can't remember who posted that, but hats off to you. Thanks!

I ended up with a ton of hop sludge in the bottom of the carboy, so I only bottled 49 bottles instead of the normal 52 or so. Oh, the sacrifices we make. I wonder if I could make Hop Soup out of that sludge. Maybe I should change the name of this to Hop Soup!!!, I think I might.

The next two to three weeks to wait for this to carb is really going to suck. This one had more hop aroma and more hop flavor at bottling than any other IPA I've made. The bitterness seems just right too. I don't want to jinx myself on this one, but this has the possibility of being my best IPA yet.

BlackDuck wrote:Just finished bottling this up. As a refresher, I did a number of new things on this one. 40 minute steep. Crashed before I transferred to a secondary. Dry hopped (a lot of hops, the posted recipe shows 1.5 ounces of three different hops, I actually did 2.25 ounces of each instead) in the secondary. These, and a few other processes and details, were on the top 10 ways to make a better IPA by Russian River. I can't remember who posted that, but hats off to you. Thanks!

I might have posted that link as it seems familiar but then again, maybe not.

I don't want to jinx myself on this one, but this has the possibility of being my best IPA yet

I think you should let me be the judge of that.

BlackDuck wrote:this has the possibility of being my best IPA yet.

Enough said.....

BlackDuck wrote:Dry hopped (a lot of hops, the posted recipe shows 1.5 ounces of three different hops, I actually did 2.25 ounces of each instead) in the secondary.

Wow.

I hope this turns out well Chris. Your excitement for this batch is certainly coming though. Is this you? --->>

Yes it is...We love the dancing banana in my house!!!

This past Saturday was the two week mark since this has been in the bottle, so I put one bottle in the fridge on Saturday morning, and opened it up while I watched the Jacksonville Jaguars get the first win of their season over the Browns.

I split it with my IPA loving neighbor too. Yea...he's a Browns fan too so we were both mad!!!

Holy Hop Flavor Batman. Wow, this has more hop flavor than I've ever had in any of my IPA's. And the aroma was awesome too. My neighbor took a drink and just grinned from ear to ear. This is a good one. I'll give them another week or so then drop a whole bunch of them in the fridge....I'll post a pic when I pour the next one out. These won't last long!!!

I don't think I ever came across this thread when it was originally posted. The mixing of the grains before sparging definitely sounds like a great idea, to help get the sugars out from between the grains. I might try that next time, and then vorlauf as per usual.

You just know that with those hop choices, you had something good. They are a great combo of hops for the quintessential West Coast IPA.
Good on ya!