German IPA?

I have considered making a German IPA, but haven’t got around to it yet. Why not go all in and use German hops (and malt)? I think something with Mandarina Bavaria, Hull Melon, and/ or Hallertau Blanc, and fermented with a Kolsch yeast would be pretty fantastic.

 

Dieter is a pretty great yeast! I've used it in a Kolsch, but also in a whirlpool hops heavy ale, and it was good. Its very clean, I wouldn't be able to immediately distinguish it from any other clean fermenting ale strain I don't think. IRRC I fermented mid range around 65F.

WY1007 would also be a good candidate for both of those beers I recon

 

I used the Dieter in a Schwarzbier recipe and I was really happy with the results. It's high on the list to brew again.
|I have a sample of the Dieter in my yeast bank - hoping it'll thaw and come back alive.

 

1007 would be interesting. Supposedly it can do some interesting things to hops. A lot of commercial breweries use it because it produces little to no diacetyl. You can crash it as soon as it hits terminal. It’s also really hearty and can take a beating and still work fine. I believe it’s what Odell’s uses as well as Pinthouse. It doesn’t flocc at all though so you might need to fine it.

German hops aren’t really all that great when it comes to packing a punch string enough for an “IPA” in my opinion although there are a lot of newer varieties that interesting. Ariana might be the one with the most punch. Pairing some German varieties with something like Citra might help boost the impact a bit.

 

I have used 1007 and Imperial Kaiser for Altbier. I think they’d be reasonable for IPA. I don’t recall specifics on attenuation but they probably rated in the low to moderate range. Still, those were intended as malty beers. It’s possible depending on preference that you would want to play with water chem or dry out more by subbing table sugar for some of the malt. For Kolsch my favorite is the Wyeast Kolsch, which gives a note of white wine or other fruit that I like. There may be ways to control that so you don’t get it in an ipa or it may be awesome in the right ipa. YMMV. I think any of those would be fine in a Berliner.

 

Tony (@boddhitree) has brewed with some interesting German hops. Hopefully he will chime in with his thoughts here.

Prost!

 

Years ago, I did a hoppy blonde with it that used 3:1 Nelson:Citra at FO (2oz total). I recall it being really good.

 

i don’t have personal experience with Nelson but this is along the lines of what I was thinking of in terms of complementing the Kolsch yeast

 

One of my favorite "German IPAs" and one of the originals of the German craft beer movement are both Backbone Splitter by Hanscraft & Co, and Drunken Sailor by Crew Republic.

What makes a German IPA? For me, it's using German malts with typical American West Coast hops.


If you look at Hanscraft's website, they use Magnum, Amarillo, Summit, Simcoe hops, but instead of the usual (and to me rather boring) 2-row & crystal malts, they use Pilsener, Müchner, Wiener (Vienna), CaraAmber® malts.

Drunken Sailor site also states that they use typical American IPA hops: Herkules, Citra, Cascade, Simcoe. They also use German malts: Pilsener, Münchner, Crystal.

Notice a trend? Yep. IMO, the use of these German malts gives their IPAs a much more balanced flavor. The caramel of Munich (Münchner), Pilsner and the other malts give a much needed malt balance to the fruity hops. I'm a fan of West Coast IPAs, but I find them a little one-sided. To counter this, I feel these German malts really add a wonderful symmetry that they're missing. I really prefer drinking these to any West Coast IPAs.

Another favorite of mine that takes this idea of using German malts with American IPA hops is Paxbräu, who uses not only Münchner and Pilsner malts, but also 7 - 10% Rauch (smoked) malt. The Cissy IPA is one of my favorites because this is what an IPA would taste like if you had had American C-hops and went back in time by 100 years from the Franken part of Bavaria.

In my opinion, a light smack in the face of smoked malts, the sweet caramel flavors all pair fantastically with typical IPA hops.

After drinking one of the above 3, I never want to go back to a non-balanced IPA.

Finally, yet another way to make a German IPA is, as mentioned before, use of German hops, such as Hüll Melon, Opal, Smaragd, and many other new hops on the market, but these hops are not that pronounced in fruitiness as the regular IPA hops from the USA, so they just don't really cut it for me.

 

A brewery in Portland makes a pretty decent one called Hopfenbombe. Not quite sure what they use, but the description says:

"Hop-forward, spicy, herbal and citrus aromas from the German hops meld with the clean backbone of German malts and yeast."