Shipwreck IPA – Homebrew myLHBS Style

Derek Terrell of myLHBS brings us another fine beer to beat the last days of summer and take us into cooler times. If you got started now, the beer would be ready to drink by the time September comes to an end, just in time to usher in cooler autumn evenings and a sense of relief, having survived another sweltering summer.

What? You don’t homebrew? All the cool kids are doing it! Derek can hook you up with all the equipment you need, from fermenters to carboys to bottles.

Go see Derek or one of his courteous, helpful staff. He’s the guy to talk to if you want quality ingredients for good prices and great advice to boot!

Shipwreck IPA (2007)
Shipwreck IPA was written in the mid-90s and became a best-seller for Brew America & now myLHBS. This ’07 version uses hop varieties and specialty malts unavailable back then. For added fun, consider the even more robust “Ship-rocked”!

Ingredients

8 lb. Alexander’s Pale liquid malt extract
1 lb. Briess Golden Light dry malt extract
1 lb. Gambrinus Honey + 8 oz. Briess 20L crystal malt (crushed)
2 oz. Yakima Magnum + 1 oz. Summit pellet hops (bittering)
1 oz. Simcoe pellet hops (1st flavor)
1 oz. Amarillo pellet hops (2nd flavor)
1 oz. Summit* pellet hops (aroma)
1 oz. Summit* whole hops (dry-hop: optional but highly recommended)
1 package Safale US-05 dry yeast
3/4 cup priming sugar * Summit comes in 2 oz. packages

And don’t forget…
Irish Moss (recommended), grain bag(s), hop bag(s), bottle caps and sanitizer as needed.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Directions

  1. Place crushed malt(s) loosely in a grain bag and tie it off at the top. Steep grain in 2 gallons of ~160F water for 15 minutes. Remove the spent grain bag & squeeze gently (hot, so use tongs) before discarding.
  2. Add dry malt extract and bittering hops to crushed grain malt “tea” and boil for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add 1st flavor hops & boil for an additional 15 minutes. After 30 minutes total, remove brewpot from heat & dissolve liquid malt extract thoroughly before returning to boil (watch for a boil-over!)
  3. Once boil resumes, add 2nd flavor hops and Irish Moss & boil for an additional 15 minutes. After 45 minutes total, turn off heat, stir in aroma hops and cool wort to below 100F as quickly as possible (if you don’t have a wort chiller use ice: put the pot in a sink with a bag of ice and water & stir until cool).
    Optional dry-hopping: Place whole hops loosely in a sanitized hop bag and tie off at the top. At the very end of the boil, stir into wort along with aroma hops immediately before cooling. Make sure to transfer bagged hops to fermentor – along with wort – at step 4, where they will remain during fermentation.

  4. Pour the cooled wort into your fermentor and add sufficient pre-chilled water to make 5 gallons of beer.
    Tip: Refrigerate 3 gallons of water the night before to help cool the wort to pitching temperature quickly.

  5. Stir vigorously to mix ingredients and introduce as much air as possible. Add yeast only once wort is below 75F (and stir vigorously again). Ferment as close to 70F as possible for 7 – 10 days or until done.
  6. Once final gravity has been reached and beer is clear, bulk prime & bottle. Beer is ready in 6 weeks.

OG: 1.072 FG: 1.018 ABV: 6.9% IBU: 69

Ship-rocked IPA (variation)
Additional Ingredients
1 lb. Corn sugar
3rd oz. Yakima Magnum pellet hops (bittering)
2nd oz. Summit whole hops (dry-hop: optional but highly recommended)
2nd package Safale US-05 dry yeast. Due to higher gravity I strongly recommend Foam Control.
Additional Directions
At step 2 above: Add corn sugar and 3rd oz. Yakima Magnum bittering hops (as well as everything else).
At optional dry-hopping step above: Add 2nd oz. Summit whole hops (easiest if you have two hop bags).
Note: Ferments for 10 – 14 days. Ready to drink in 6 weeks but beer benefits from 8 weeks of bottle-aging.

OG: 1.079 FG: 1.016 ABV: 8.1% IBU: 71

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Carl Weaver is a writer and brewer for RealHomebrew.com and has been making beer and wine for more than 20 years. He is also an avid photographer and writer and just finished his first book, about a trip he took to Thailand to live in Buddhist monasteries. He considers himself the last of the Renaissance men and the luckiest darned guy in the world. Follow him on Twitter.

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