Homebrew review: Borrans hoppy hophead IPA
My IPA homebrew I wrote about earlier is now ready for a taste. I made it just over a month ago and it has been 2 weeks in a bottle now.
As soon as I opened the bottle I realised the smell was really good, very citrussy! I believe the reason is that I dryhopped it a lot! As you can see the color is kind of normal for an IPA but it's a bit hazy right now. One of the reasons is that my beer is bottle conditioned, but give it a month or so and it will be a lot clearer! You can use different kind of fining agents if you want to get the beer clearer right away, but I don't use them.
I am also pleased with the taste, it's very bitter and hoppy just as I like it. The IBU (bitterness) is about 90 so you have to be a "hophead" to like it! As I wrote in my earlier blog about my IPA homebrew, I only used one malt type for this beer. Sahtimallas, I have used it many times before and I like it. The malt type gives you just enough sweetness to get a decent body for the beer!
I haven't done any labels for this beer, but it's a fun thing to do. Here is one label I made for a Porter a couple of years a go! :)
Name: Borrans hoppy hophead IPA!
Style: American IPA
Grains: Sahtimallas
Hops: Magnum, Amarillo, Centennial
Yeast: Safale US-05
Alcohol: ~ 5.8%
IBU: ~90
Not to brag or anything but I think this was my best homebrew IPA so far!
Thanks for reading! Cheers!
nice brew @borran! I also brewed my ipa last month for a homebrew competition.
nice to meet a home brew steemian here!!
Thanks! Okay, can you tell me more details about your IPA? When will you know how the competition went? Yes it's really nice to meet people here who have the same interests!
If you had to compare the taste to something on the market, what would you compare it to. Does it taste as bitter as Guinness?
I would say that Guinness isn't a bitter beer. You could compare my beer with an American IPA beer.
This looks really good! And quite quick...about 6 weeks if I understood correctly. Have you ever had Kona brewery’s Castaway IPA? That’s my favorite IPA, most people think it’s too sweet though...Another one I really like is Jopen Mooie Nel IPA from the Netherlands.
2 and a half weeks in the "fermentation tank" and 2 weeks in the bottle. So in total 4 and a half weeks!
No I haven't, but I have had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale. I can't remember if I liked it or not. Jopen Mooie Nel IPA has really good ratings on ratebeer.com, if I find it somewhere I will definitely check it out!
Founders Centennial IPA is one of my favorite IPAs. Have you tried it?
No haven’t tried it...but will look for it online. Let you know know what I think of it once I try it. 4.5 weeks is so quick...I imagined it would take much, much longer to brew something drinkable...
If you make a wheat beer, it's even quicker. ~ 3 weeks and it's ready to drink!
I’ve been wanting to start brewing myself for a while now...but according to most of the recipes I found online it was much longer than that...are there any websites with recipes and basic info you would recommend?
My recipe is short because the malt that I use is already mixed with different malts. I recommend that you start with simpler recipes.
https://byo.com/stories/recipeindex
http://beersmith.com/beer-recipes/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/
https://beerrecipes.org/
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew-recipes/
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes?page=1&sort=rank
Thanks for the links! I’ll probably end up buying a kit and starting with that...just to get some experience.