Beer Forum

This is my first ever batch from a MoreBeer Columbus IPA extract kit. After 14day fermentation in primary then 1wk bottle conditioning I threw it in the fridge for 3 days. Everything was spot on with only 2 items that seemed out of sort.

1. There was a heavy malt feel. Not sweet just heavy. I like my my IPA with a good malt backbone yet crisp to allow for the hops to come through.
2. There was a good amount of haze.

How do I get a crisper malt characteristic as well as clear up the look of the beer?

Here is the recipe:

Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
UK Crystal Wheat Malt 1.50 lb 14.3 % 15.3 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Liquid Malt Extract 9.00 lb 85.7 % 5.8 End Of Boil

Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
US Columbus(Tomahawk) 15.5 % 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
US Columbus(Tomahawk) 15.5 % 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops 5 Min From End
US Columbus(Tomahawk) 15.5 % 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops 1 Min From End
US Columbus(Tomahawk) 15.5 % 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops Dry-Hop 3 Days
US Citra 11.4% 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops Dry-Hop 3 Days

Yeast
DCL US-05 (formerly US-56) SafAle

OG 1.062
FG 1.013

A lb and a half of crystal malt is on the heavy side in an IPA, IMO.
I'd lower that to about 1 lb.

BDawg wrote:A lb and a half of crystal malt is on the heavy side in an IPA, IMO.
I'd lower that to about 1 lb.

Drop the 1lb of malt all together or replace with extract?

hella_brewing wrote:

BDawg wrote:A lb and a half of crystal malt is on the heavy side in an IPA, IMO.
I'd lower that to about 1 lb.

Drop the 1lb of malt all together or replace with extract?

Just leave out 0.5lb of the crystal.

As for clearing up your beer, did you use any clarifier such as irish moss or whirlfloc? When using a lot of hops (in the kettle and dryhops) you can also get some considerable hop haze in your beer as well. If you have the ability, you could place your whole fermenter (after primary has fully completed including your dry hopping time, at least two weeks) into a fridge and allow it to cold crash for 48 hours or so. All the hops and haze will drop out to the bottom of the fermenter, and then you can rack the cleared beer above the trub for bottling or kegging. Works like a charm.

If you don't have the ability to cold crash, then keeping your bottles in the fridge (once carbonated properly of course) is your best bet to reduce any haze you might have. Longer times in the fridge will result in a clearer beer.

brewinhard wrote:As for clearing up your beer, did you use any clarifier such as irish moss or whirlfloc?

Yes, I did use whirlfloc. Thx for the suggestion. I will def give cold crashing my brew a try.

hella_brewing wrote:
1. There was a heavy malt feel. Not sweet just heavy. I like my my IPA with a good malt backbone yet crisp to allow for the hops to come through.

Fermentables
UK Crystal Wheat Malt 1.50 lb 14.3 % 15.3 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Liquid Malt Extract 9.00 lb 85.7 % 5.8 End Of Boil

Yeast
DCL US-05 (formerly US-56) SafAle

OG 1.062
FG 1.013

After plugging this grainbill into Beersmith your beer finished with an appropriate amount of attenuation for US-05. Here are a few things that I can thing of to dry the beer out.

1. Instead of 9# of LME, use 8# of LME/DME and use .5# of Table Sugar. This will give you roughly the same amount of ABV and it will bring the gravity from 1.013 to 1.011. Once your primary fermentation hits high krausen, dissolve the sugar in water and pour it into the fermentor.

2. Instead of Crystal Wheat Malt 15%, use a split of Crystal 60 and maybe some Munich Malt for a subtle and sweet malt character. Like everyone else has mentioned 15% crystal malt is a lot. I would think the Crystal Wheat would have more proteins than your typical crystal malt and would give you a little bit more of a thicker mouthfeel.

3. Not sure if you are doing this already but make sure your aeration techniques are making things easier for the yeast to attenuate the wort. Aerate before pitching and around the 12-18 hour mark aerate a little more to replenish the oxygen the yeast already used up.

4. If your next beer ends at 1.013 and tastes "heavy", pitch a healthy and active yeast starter of lager yeast into your fermentor and it will metabolise the Maltotriose that the ale yeast didn't. I can't tell you how much further it will go down but it should trim off a few points.

5. Use more hops

Thanks for the great info. I'll definitely take a look at modifying the grain bill.

I'll be brewing a Red Chair NWPA clone this weekend and look forward to utilize these aeration techniques.