Friday, June 27, 2008

Hopshot IPA

I was reading the Northern Brewer forum one day and came across an offer to try out an experimental hop product made by NB. If you sent your email address you could potentially be picked to receive this product. They were vague about what it was, simply saying that it was 50 IBUs and they wanted it to be used as a bittering agent. I signed up and got an email confirming that I would receive this product. It ended up being a 5ml vial with a golden liquid in it. I've been into IPAs lately and have never made one, so thought it would be a good use for 50 IBUs, so I set out to make an IPA. While picking up a kit for my dad at Midwest Supplies, I came across their Hopscare IPA kit, which contained 6lbs Gold extract, 2 lbs Light extract, 1 oz Yakima Magnum hops, 1 oz Amarillo hops, and 2 ounces of Cascade hops. Due to the hopshortage/increased prices, this ended up being a good deal. I decided to buy the kit, and make an extract version of an IPA since it would save me money on some hops and time, especially if for some reason the "Hopshot" turned out to not work. So what I did was take out the Yakmia Magnum and 1 ounce of the Cascade hops, opting to simply use all 50 IBUs of the "Hopshot" at 60 minutes, 1/2 of Amarillo at 30, rest of the Amarillo at 15 and Cascade at 5. I poured it on top of a slurry of Cali 2112 yeast I had from a Cali Common I made last week. Within hours the Hopshot IPA was bubbling away. I'm curious about how this turns out. I've never used Amarillo before, and I'm also excited to have an ounce of cascade and yakima magnum to put towards another beer, possibly La Libertad.

Also coming up, I'll be posting my thoughts on a few beers including UNO- my orange honey wheat and some commercials I've had recently.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

3 comments:

chad said...

I "won" a vial of the Hopshot, too. Decided to a brew 2 5 gallons of the same IPA, substituting the 60 minute addition(Simcoe) with the Hopshot in one of 'em, and then using Simcoe and Cascade as late additions.

I'm brewing tomorrow or Sunday, so it will be interesting to see just how different this thing acts in the same beer.

The Bearded Brewer said...

I think it would very interesting to brew two of the same and compare it. I'll be intrigued by your results.

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