New Zealand IPA - All Grain Recipe

 

We got out hands on a fairly sizeable amount of New Zealand hops which we haven't ever used before, so we figured what better way to showcase them and their flavour profile than with a heavily hopped IPA.

Style Overview

We've had multiple attempts at making an American IPA - usually a West Coast IPA and we've always seemed to fall a little short of our own expectations. We suspect the hops used in previous batches may have contributed to the sub-par results, so we're happy to be changing it up a little with some hop varieties that we've never used before.

A big thanks to Gavin from The Homebrew Network on Youtube who kindly offered these hops to all of his viewers in a giveaway last year (we just had to pay for postage). We ended up with a 1kg each of Motueka and Rakau hops, and that's exactly what we'll be using in this recipe.

Although New Zealand IPA isn't an officially recognised beer style in the Beer Judging Certification Program (BJCP), this example is essentially a West Coast IPA featuring New Zealand hops. Expect plenty of alcohol, moderate bitterness, a dry finish and loads of hop flavour to balance it all out.

Recipe Rationale

As we just mentioned, we've essentially got a West Coast IPA on our hands here. Let's break down all the sections of the recipe to explain what we're using and why.

Grain Bill

A West Coast IPA is all about the hops, so we're going with a simple grain bill of mostly ale/2-row malt with a little bit of Munich malt thrown in as well, mainly to add a bit of colour but also to add a tiny bit of depth of flavour/complexity as well.

Hops

We're using Motueka and Rakau hops, as well as Warrior as the first bittering hop addition since the Alpha Acid %'s on the NZ hops are relatively low, and we'd rather save them for later on in the boil (and the dry hop).

We're going for a typical 60 minute boil with hop additions at 60 minutes, 10 minutes and a 20 minute whirlpool/hopstand at 90°C.

Of course there's a hefty dry hop as well which we'll be doing on Day 5 at the tail end of fermentation. Our theory here is that dry hopping while there is still some yeast activity helps to utilise and extract flavours from the hops more effectively than dry hopping after fermentation is complete.

Yeast

By far the most popular yeast choice for a West Coast IPA like this is US-05. Clean fermenting and highly attenuating it's the perfect yeast for the job. Given the relatively high starting gravity of 1.060, we'll be using 2 packets.

Water Profile

To help accentuate the dry finish in this beer, we'll be using a water profile with a high sulfate to chloride ratio. We're looking at 150ppm of sulphate and 50ppm of chloride.

All Grain Homebrew Recipe

Vitals

• Boil Time: 60 minutes
• Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
• Original Gravity: 1.058
• Final Gravity: 1.011
• IBU (Tinseth): 53
• BU/GU: 0.91
• Colour: 10.4 EBC
• Expected ABV: 6.2%

Mash

• Mash In: 65°C - 60 minutes
• Mash Out: 75°C - 10 minutes

Fermentables

• 5.7kg - Barrett Burston Ale Malt - 2-Row (95%)
• 0.3kg - Munich Malt (5%)

Hops

Boil Hops

• 60 mins - Warrior 13.4% - 17 IBU
• 10 mins - Motueka 4.9% - 7 IBU
  
• 10 mins - Rakau 9.4% - 8 IBU

Whirlpool - 20 minutes @ 90°C

• Motueka 4.9% - 7 IBU
• Rakau 9.4% - 14 IBU

Dry Hops

• 125g Motueka (5.43g/L) - Day 5
• 125g Rakau (5.43g/L) - Day 5

Yeast

• Fermentis W-34/70 (1 packet - dry)

Fermentation

• 18°C 

Carbonation

• 2.4 CO2-vol

Water Profile 

• Ca2+ (Calcium): 75
• Mg2+ (Magnesium): 4
• Na+ (Sodium): 23
• Cl- (Chloride): 51
• SO42- (Sulfate): 143
• HCO3- (Bicarbonate): 36

Brew Day

Want to see how it turned out? Check out the link to our brew day rundown and tasting results/review post below.

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