An IPA is Born

Before the successful completion of our first batch of beer, Jeb, Mike, Brendan, and I decided that we were going to venture into IPAs.

Before starting, I had spoken to a co-worker who is also home-brewing. We had discussed our love for IPAs and decided that we were hop-heads. Ironically, his love for IPA had prevented him from brewing one because he feared that he would ruin his favorite beer...and break his future brewing spirit. It seemed that he was putting the IPA on a pedestal...

Fortunately, I didn't not share his philosophy. If anything, I wanted to get the first one under my belt so that eventually I'd be able to create a fantastic IPA. The first thing I figured I had to consider was what I liked most about IPA.

In my experience with IPAs, IPAs tend to be amongst the hoppiest, most bitter, enamel ripping beers that one could drink. Additionally, IPAs have awesome hints of citrus, floral notes, and a nice sweet malt body. As somebody who drinks his coffee black, tea strong, bourbon neat, and wine dry, an "extreme" beer like an IPA seems to fall right in line with my beer alter-ego.

***Disclaimer, IPA is not for everybody (sorry Mike...your redemption will come later...) Start with a Pale Ale if you want everything an IPA has sans enamel tearing bitterness...***

So as a second batch brewer, how can you capture all of the things that you love about IPA? Step one: walk into your local home brew supply store. Ours has a recipe book with "replicas" of popular beers, and a few that local SpoBrewers had made successfully and had warranted a pass on. Jeb, Mike, and I walked in the day before Brew Day 2 to browse this anthology of local beer nirvana. While browsing, we stumbled across a recipe for a "Ruinator IPA". This was a take on one of my favorite IPAs (Ruination) by my favorite Brewery (Stone Brewing Co). The decision was clear.

While the materials were being gathered and calculated, it was no wonder why IPAs taste the way that they do. This particular batch included 9 pounds of malt (sugar basically), and about a cup of hops (our first batch only included 1 oz of hops...). I was in heaven.

I couldn't wait for Brew Day 2 to come. I spent the whole day watching Lost and cleaning the "beer lab".

After great success brewing I woke up the next morning, went to work, and came home to this...(see video)

The yeast was alive!!!

*Beer Making 101* For those who don't know, or who are in denial, beer first starts out as wort (sugary grain tea/soup made from malt and specialty grains). While the wort is boiling we add hops for bitterness and flavor (you can also add hops during phases in fermentation also known as dry-hopping). After the wort is cooled and placed in a carboy, the yeast is pitched. Yeast is why beer is beer. Yeast is an amazing live culture that feasts on sugar and poops out alcohol and CO2. Yes...beer is yeast poop. The initial CO2 is released during fermentation and allowed to fill up my coat closet...after fermentation is done, we add more sugar (to reactivate the yeast), bottle, and allow the yeast to wake up and eat again...this time, the bottle is capped and the CO2 becomes carbonation in the bottle.

When I showed the above video to my friend and brewing team...it was decided that our first venture into IPA was a success, if only because now we had a yeasty lava lamp to excite our visual senses.