IPA
intro
Bright, citrusy, hoppy India Pale Ale (IPA) with a crisp malt backbone, brewed in classic West Coast style for cold, refreshing sipping.
Ingredients
Steps
Sanitize all brewing equipment first: Mix 1 tablespoon of no-rinse food-grade brewer’s sanitizer with 2 liters of cool tap water in a clean 3-liter food-grade bucket. Submerge your 2-liter glass fermenter, airlock, rubber stopper, siphon tubing, stirring spoon, and thermometer for 2 full minutes, then set items on a clean paper towel to air dry completely before use.
Pour 1 liter of filtered, dechlorinated water into a 4-liter stainless steel stockpot, and bring to a gentle rolling boil over medium-high heat (1500W stovetop setting). Slowly stir in 450 grams of light liquid malt extract, stirring constantly until fully dissolved to prevent scorching on the pot bottom. Maintain a steady, gentle boil (not a violent, bubbling-over boil) for 60 minutes total.
Add hops at precise timed intervals during the 60-minute boil: When the wort first reaches a steady boil, add 7 grams of Cascade hop pellets (bittering addition) and set a timer for 45 minutes. When the timer goes off, add another 7 grams of Cascade hop pellets (flavor addition) and reset the timer for the final 15 minutes of boiling. When the full 60 minutes of boil time ends, turn off the heat, add the remaining 4 grams of Cascade hop pellets (aroma addition), and cover the pot tightly with a lid.
Cool the hot wort rapidly to avoid contamination: Move the covered stockpot to a kitchen sink filled with a mix of ice cubes and cold tap water, so the water level reaches the same height as the wort inside the pot. Gently stir the wort every 5 minutes to speed cooling, until a thermometer reads 21°C (70°F), which takes roughly 15 minutes for this small batch. Keep the lid on except when stirring to keep out wild bacteria.
Transfer the cooled wort to your sanitized 2-liter glass fermenter, topping up with extra cool filtered water to reach a total volume of 1.5 liters if needed. Sprinkle 5 grams of US-05 American ale yeast evenly across the surface of the wort, then seal the fermenter with the sanitized rubber stopper and airlock, filling the airlock halfway with leftover sanitizer solution. Store the fermenter in a dark, temperature-controlled space held at a steady 18-20°C (65-68°F) for 7 days to allow primary fermentation.
After 7 days, when airlock bubbling slows to 1 bubble every 60 seconds, prepare priming sugar for carbonation: Boil 28 grams (2 tablespoons) of corn sugar in 60ml (1/4 cup) of water over medium heat for 5 minutes, then cool to 21°C (70°F). Pour the cooled sugar solution into a sanitized 2-liter bottling bucket, then siphon the fermented beer from the fermenter into the bucket, stirring gently to evenly mix the sugar. Siphon the beer into four sanitized 375ml (12.7oz) amber glass beer bottles, and seal tightly with sanitized metal bottle caps.
Store the capped, sealed bottles in the same dark, 18-20°C space for 7 full days to allow natural carbonation to build. After conditioning, move the bottles to a refrigerator to chill for a minimum of 24 hours to reach 4°C (40°F) before opening and serving.
Tips
2.Avoid boiling wort at too high a temperature or adding bittering hops too early, as this creates harsh, astringent bitterness instead of the bright, citrusy hop flavor IPA is known for.
3.Keep fermenting and conditioning beer away from direct sunlight, as UV light reacts with hop compounds to create a strong, skunky off-flavor that cannot be fixed.
Just bottled my first batch of this last weekend and cracked one open early to test last night — OMG that classic pine and citrus punch is exactly what I’ve been chasing in a WC IPA! Way easier to nail than I thought for a medium difficulty recipe, didn’t even mess up the dry hop timing. Brought a couple to my neighborhood cookout and everyone was asking for the link. SO good.
Third time making this recipe and it’s still my go-to for potlucks and game nights. I swap a little Cascade for Mosaic sometimes for extra berry notes, but the base recipe is rock solid. No weird off flavors, perfect balance of bitter and bright, even my roommate who swears she hates IPAs drank two last Sunday.
Wait, total newbie here — is the 90 minute active time all boil time? I don’t have a wort chiller yet, will that mess things up if I just do an ice bath in my sink? Nervous to mess up my first ever homebrew batch!
Game changer. I’ve been buying overpriced 6 packs of WC IPA for years and this tastes exactly like the stuff I drop $18 on at the local bottle shop, for a fraction of the cost. The 14 day wait was torture but so worth it. My only note is I’d recommend keeping fermentation temps steady around 68F, I let mine creep to 72 the first time and got a little fruity ester taste that wasn’t quite right.
Brought a growler of this to our annual block party last weekend and it was gone in 45 minutes flat. People were going back for thirds, I can’t believe how well it turned out. The piney finish is chef’s kiss, goes so good with grilled burgers and brats. Will be making this on repeat all summer.
Wait, did anyone else get a really strong grassy taste on their first batch? I followed the hop schedule exactly, used fresh hops I got from my local homebrew shop, but it tastes a little like lawn clippings? Wondering what I messed up.
My roommates and I made this in our dorm closet (don’t tell the RA) and it turned out INSANE. We didn’t have all the fancy equipment, just used a big stock pot and some food grade buckets, and it still came out better than the cheap beer we usually buy for pre-games. 10/10, will be making another batch as soon as this one runs out.
I’m not usually a huge super bitter IPA fan, would cutting the bittering hops by 25% ruin this recipe? I want that citrus and pine taste without the super harsh bite that makes my face pucker, ya know?
Took this batch up on our camping trip last weekend and it was the perfect post-hike drink. Crisp, cold, hoppy, beat the hell out of the generic store bought beer everyone else brought. We sat around the campfire passing growlers until they were empty, already got three friends asking to brew this with me next month. 10/10 no notes.
Full transparency, I cracked my first bottle at day 10 instead of waiting the full 14, and it was still really good! A little carbonation was off but the flavor was already there. Don’t be like me though, wait the full two weeks because the ones I had at day 14 were perfectly carbed and so much smoother. Worth the wait, trust me.
Has anyone tried using US-05 yeast instead of the California Ale yeast the recipe calls for? I have a whole pack of US-05 in my fridge I don’t want to waste, wondering if it’ll make a big difference in the final taste.
Made this for my husband’s birthday party and he said it’s better than the IPA we get at our favorite local brewery. The whole crew was raving, we even had people taking leftover bottles home to share with their roommates. The citrus zing is so bright, that little grapefruit note from the Centennial hops is *chef’s kiss*. Will definitely be a regular in our brew rotation.
I do a big brew day once a month for drink prep for the month and this recipe is now a permanent add to the rotation. It holds up great in the fridge for a month, doesn’t get skunky if you use brown bottles, and it’s so nice to have a stock of good beer ready to go for last minute hangs instead of running to the liquor store every time someone texts they’re coming over. 10/10, zero complaints.
Help! I bottled my batch 10 days ago and all the bottles are totally flat. I added the priming sugar exactly like the recipe said, what did I do wrong? Did I kill the yeast somehow? So sad, I was so excited for this batch.
I doubled the dry hop amount because I’m a total hop fiend, and oh my god this is the juiciest, dankest WC IPA I’ve ever made. It’s so aromatic you can smell the pine and grapefruit when you crack the bottle from across the room. My friends keep asking when I’m going to open a nanobrewery, which is hilarious because I’ve only been homebrewing for 6 months. This recipe makes me look like a pro.
Brewed a double batch of this for our college football tailgate this past weekend and it was the star of the parking lot. We had people from the tailgates next to us coming over to ask for cups after they smelled how good it was. The crisp bitter finish cuts through all the cheesy dips and brats so perfectly. Already planning to brew another double batch for the homecoming game next month.
Wait, I forgot to add the Irish moss at 15 minutes left in the boil, is my whole batch ruined? I’m so mad at myself, I had all my timers set and I got a work call and totally missed it.