IPA/DIPA Advice (AG)

Water is hard when it has high levels of Calcium and Magnesium, and these ions are not bad for all grain brewing, they are good within limits. Water softeners use salt (usually) to exchange ions, so the Ca and Mg levels drop, and the Na levels go up, and if the water is really hard then your Na level can be too high for brewing. Softeners do not remove Chloride, Sulfate or bicarbonate from the water. Bicarbonate is primarily responsible for the Alkalinity in water, and high alkalinity is not a good thing if brewing all grain. Most of the Midwest has high alkalinity, and my guess is that your well water in Ohio has high alkalinity.

What is a home brewer to do? Distilled or RO water is one source of no or low ion water to start with. One can then add mineral salts that will get the levels of each ion to where you want it. You can use different programs or spreadsheets to calculate those additions (Brewer's Friend or Bru'nwater are popular, investigate Vikeman's spreadsheet). Read this for some water Knowledge.

A pH meter is a good thing to have, to check mash pH. A TDS meter is a good thing to have to see the TDS ppm in the water that you buy.

The strategy is to get the pH right by adjusting the Ca, Mg and Alkalinity so that your grain bill will end in the correct pH range. Acids and bases can also help adjust pH up or down. Then pay attention to the "flavor" ions, NA, Cl, SO4. Certain styles will benefit from appropriate levels of these.

Water chemistry is a little intimidating for most, but is really is the last part of the puzzle to make great beer.

 

I am done hitting my head against the wall adjusting my bittering hop addition in IPAs to reduce the bitterness in my brews. Just got a water report from my tap and the Mg levels are around 70 ppm. This to me is the reason I cannot reduce bitterness in my IPAs. I will now be cutting my tap (which I run through a filter) with 2/3 distilled water, and then adding some salts to bring back into range.

 

Those Mg are problematic, as the levels Palmer gives for brewing is 10-30 ppm, and would be in the sour-bitter range. For some beers you might want to reduce the Mg even more with Distilled water.

 

When I got the report, it was shocking. This is the next step in my brewing, water profile experimentation and the purchase of a pH meter. I've brewed some nice IPAs, nothing earth shattering, with my water but there was always the "something". I'm excited to taste my beer with the new water chemistry.

 

great suggestions on this thread...I'll tag along to @Scope4Beer suggestion that your yeast choice may play a big role as well. 1968 is for malt forward beers, which I think partly has to do with his high flocc'ing ability which can drag hop particles from the solution. So choosing a more appropriate, hop-centered yeast for your American IPA may help your cause as well.
White Labs has performed a lot of experiments on yeast strains and their effects on hop acids (& maybe oils). Maybe somebody can link some info to this thread if they can find it.

 

Dave (@telejunkie), thanks for the tip about: “White Labs has performed a lot of experiments on yeast strains and their effects on hop acids…”

I found this online discussion: http://beerandwinejournal.com/yeast-strains-ibus/

I took note of:

“Hoppy Strains

It should come as no shock that among the strains that scored 1 or above were the strains frequently used in American-style IPAs. White Labs WLP001 (California Ale), White Labs most popular strain, scored around 1, as did WLP550 (Belgian Ale) yeast. Strains that were slightly above 1 include WLP005 (British Ale), WLP810 (San Francisco Lager), WLP830 (German Lager), WLP860 (Munich Helles), WLP039 (East Midlands Ale) and WLP862 (Cry Havoc).”

It sounds like White Labs intends to publish their results upon further testing:

“White plans to release the numbers when he and his lab has tested the yeast strains all again to see if the results are repeatable. Once these numbers become available, they can simply be incorporated into recipe calculation spreadsheets and help brewers better formulate their beers.”

Cheers!

 

There are more than a few breweries making hoppy beers with wy1968.

 

"Other strains that scored under 1 include WLP002 (English Ale) and WLP041 (Pacific Ale) yeast. Interestingly, these were already described as leaving a malty profile."

Since WLP002 & 1968 are pretty well known to be Fuller's strain...would say we're talking about similar dynamics at play.

A good carpenter can build a great house with less than the best material as well...but it takes extra skill. The OP I don't think is quite there yet...no offense Petey4

 

Any thoughts on London Ale III (Boddington Strain) from Wyeast. I know that is the favorite rumor yeast to be used by Hill Farmstead. It's a high flocc English strain. Its supposed to be very good for mouthfeel with an increased chloride level. I just tried it in my latest IPA. Not done yet but high hopes.

 

I actually did a Boddington's vs. Nottingham split fermentation on an Abner clone and thought both performed pretty admirably...Boddington's strain finished with a slightly higher gravity (1015 vs 1013) but had a nice body and profile. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again for an IPA...but also really like London Ale as well. I'm heading up to HF this week...so was hoping to compare, but unfortunately Shaun won't have Abner available. Hoping Society & Solitude will be an okay sub for comparison's sake....
fwiw I added some CaCl & gypsum though didn't record exactly how much.

 

http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-american-ipa-with-london-ale.html
I don't know if you caught the blog post I linked to but its worth a read if not. He has an interesting take on use of the London Ale III yeast plus increasing your Chloride. He does a 10 gm CaCl and 3 g Gypsum addition to the mash which is pretty much the reverse of what I typically do. Just wondering if anyone else has any anecdotal evidence of trying this with an IPA and seeing any noticeable improvements.
Please report back on your comparison with S&S if you get any. I like to use Notty too in my IPA's and seem to gravitate toward using the British strains (S-04, Notty, London Ale II) for my hoppy beers more than any others.

 

Amen.

 

I was just thinking to myself, how great would it be if this same question was asked for (insert ANY beer style) and it got this kind of response?