Review- Big Ass IPA

Sometimes beers turn out better than expected.
Like most of you, I am obsessed with beer and homebrewing. I read articles, blogs, and books about brewing. I've grown over the years in my knowledge of ingredients, flavor profiles and techniques. While still not as technical as some, I have tried to better myself in that arena. But despite all that, there are times that you just plain fuck up...and sometimes that doesn't even matter. The more I brew and learn, the more apparent it becomes that save for an infection, it is fairly hard to screw up the brewing process.
Big Ass IPA was the final beer on a string of increasingly hoppier beers I brewed starting last June. As my taste and appreciation of hoppy beers grew, so did my desire to better myself at brewing bigger and hoppier IPAs. I had success with my Steelhead Slammer, a big IPA brewed with a lot of Centennial hops. I have struggled with my brew house efficiency and attenuation (despite a starter) with big beers in the past. Not sure if it is temperature issues, or what. But knowing that the chances of getting an IPA into the 9-10% range was going to be challenging, I opted to call this beer what it was...a big ass IPA. Hoppy and high in IBUs, but not big enough in ABV to truly be an imperial.
Brew day didn't go as well as I would have wanted, for some reason I was distracted as I brewed, ended up missing my timing on a late addition of malt extract ( put it in the last 5 minutes), and completely missed adding a pound of sugar that I was hoping would boost my abv. Not huge mistakes by any means, but annoying nonetheless.
What I was really going for in the Big Ass IPA wasn't the abv or even a chewy body of a DIPA. I was aiming for bitterness. I felt that I had nailed down aspects of IPAs in the past, but never could get the bitterness to where I wanted. As it turned out, despite the misteps, I felt that Big Ass turned out great. The hops turned out bright and vibrant, and a nice bitterness rounded it out. As my buddy Jesse wrote me: The citrus/pine is there... but there is almost a bursting, somewhat sweet sensation midway through the mouth that is borderline bubblegummy... now I'm not saying it tastes like bubble gum, but rather that flavor burst of bubble gum is there.... so i'm talking logistics not flavor... and yet the flavor is an orangish/grapefruity/piney that is more sweet citrus than fruity citrus like most...

I'll leave my review at this: Pours dark gold with a white finger of head. Aromas of orange, tangerines, and pine. Sweet and hoppy at first, bright, but followed by some nice bitterness. Bitterness lingers throughout,some hints of caramel and malty sweetness. Finishes sweet and citrusy with lingering bitterness.

Here's the recipe: 6 lbs Organic Pale LME @ 5
3 lbs Amber DME @ 60
Steep: .50 lbs Org Crystal 60, .50 lbs Org Vienna, .50 lbs Org. Carapils
Hops: 1.4 0z Org Pacific Gem (13% AAU)
1 oz Simcoe @ 15
.5 oz Amarillo @ 10
.5 oz Centennial @ 5
.5 oz Amarillo @ 3
.5 oz Cent @ 2
Dry Hop: 1 oz Cent. leaf hops, 1 oz Amarillo leaf hops
Wyeast American Ale II (w/ starter)

More to come on my thoughts on Surly's Abrasive Ale and the Ichi Agave Wheat Ale I just brewed.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer