Lewybrewing: 4 C's Double IPA

Rye has always scared me, I have thoughts of rye bread as a child always brings back bad memories of biting into a great look piece of bread and getting a tart, somewhat spicy flavor. This chain of events somehow always ends in my tossing out a otherwise great sandwich. Now, I have grown, a little over the years but for the most part anything with rye makes me look for the alternative.

Then one day at Obrien's Pub in San Diego I had a Rye IPA from Alpine Brewing Company called Nelson. This was brewed with Nelson hops. These hops are grown in New Zeland, and by all accounts one of the most unique hops I personally have ever tried.

I have no other way to describe the taste of the Nelson other than mind blowing. This beer was clean, crisp and spicy. The combination of the Nelson and the Rye was a match made in heaven. This started my journey onto the idea of Rye brewing. Now keep in mind, if you love Rye, this is not a new brewing idea at all. Just from my perspective the thought of brewing with something that I traditionally hated was not something that I ever conceived before. Would other things work? Mustard for example? Probably not, but now I know that thinking outside the box in brewing could change things for the better.

Getting back on track, my passion for homebrewing was started by the IPA. Russian River, Alesmith, Alpine and other San Diego breweries make the best IPA's in the country. The blending of hops, malt and residual sugar is amazing. My other personal favorite is Mermaid Red by Coronado Brewing Co. I've had other red's but they always lack the crispness of the Coronado's. Somehow the idea of blending all of the above started to grow in my head. The thoughts of a hop layered, sunshine red, malt bomb just seams so satisfying to me. So I started working on this recipe a couple of months back. The idea was simple, a malty, hop ridden shot of sunshine. With the current backlog of session beers in the fermentor I wanted something a little stronger, maybe in the 8% range. The end result is below. The 4 C's comes from the 4 hops in the beer. Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Cenntennial.

**Entered into NHC 2012**

4 C's Double IPA

Specialty Beer

Type: All Grain

Date: 12/17/2011

Batch Size: 6.00 gal

Brewer: Chris Lewis

Boil Size: 6.87 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
9 lbs	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	61.22 %
3 lbs	Rye Malt (4.7 SRM)	Grain	20.41 %
11.2 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)	Grain	4.76 %
8.0 oz	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain	3.40 %
8.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	3.40 %
0.50 oz	Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	16.8 IBU
0.50 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	12.9 IBU
1.00 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)	Hops	-
0.80 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	17.5 IBU
0.50 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	7.8 IBU
0.50 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min)	Hops	2.6 IBU
1.00 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (10 min)	Hops	13.1 IBU
1.00 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (Whirlpool 0 min)	Hops	-
1 lbs	Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	6.80 %
1 Pkgs	Pacific Ale (White Labs #WLP041) [Starter 35 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.070 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.064 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.022 SG

Measured Final Gravity: TBA SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.35 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: TBA %

Bitterness: 70.8 IBU

Calories: 251 cal/pint

Est Color: 13.5 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: My Mash

Total Grain Weight: 13.70 lb

Sparge Water: 8.51 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**My Mash**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
60 min	Step	Heat to 151.0 F over 0 min	151.0 F
40 min	Step	Heat to 168.0 F over 2 min	168.0 F

Mash Notes:

Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)

Volumes of CO2: 2.4

Pressure/Weight: 21.6 PSI

Carbonation Used: -

Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F

Age for: 15 days

Storage Temperature: 36 F

Notes

The color on this beer from the mash was insane. Great aroma from the boil kettle. Overall a great brew day.

Created with BeerSmith

Update #1

Today, 12-31-11 I added the beer into a Keg. I just need to carb it. I am going to Reno next weekend and I hope to have it on draft when I get back. I chose not to gelatin this beer due to the rye and the 2 weeks in the keg cold crashing.

Update #2

Well, just like that the beer is gone. This ended up as one of my favorite beers that I have brewed. The Rye and the malty finish of this beer was great. I am planning to brew this again the weekend after the superbowl. The only change is a higher mash temp @155 and adding 2 oz more of Columbus Whole hops on day 3.

Update #3

This beer kills me, 1st it is a pain in the ass to watch fermenting away. The pacific ale yeast is the slowest yeast on the planet. I average about 15 days in primary with active fermentation on this bad boy. The beer is good, really good but really slow. Since this original post I have brewed this beer 3 times and the 4th time will be this Saturday. Over time the recipe has changed a bit but the basic recipe is the same.

4 C's Double IPA #3

American Wheat or Rye Beer