Mt Rainier IPA

DESCRIPTION: A classic IPA with a single type of hops: Mt Rainier. I stumbled across this hops when Northernbrewer was out of Cascade and sent me this one instead with many apologies. Turns out this new strain which has been derived from Cascade really has something to it. Powerful resin aromas and strong citrus notes make this hop a perfect choice for a West Coast IPA. I also added 2lbs of dark wheat malt to get some more fruity tones in there along with a somewhat darker color.

BREW DATE: 05/26/2014

BOTTLING DATE: 06/14/2014

GRAIN BILL:

- 9lbs Briess 2-row Brewers Malt

- 2lbs Weyermann Dark Wheat

-1lb Briess Golden Light Malt Extract

MASH-IN: 

- 60 min at 157F

- Fly/batch sparge w/ 175F water

- 1.0403 OG => 5.3% Alcohol 

HOPS SCHEDULE:

- 1oz Mt Rainier 60min
- 1oz Mt Rainier 30min
- 1oz Mt Rainier 10min
- 1oz Mt Rainier dry hopping 2 weeks after brewing. 

YEAST: 

- Wyeast Northwest Ale 1332

TASTE NOTES: This one came out more like a Pale Ale, missing some of the typical floral characters of an IPA. Still pretty good though, very drinkable after 2 weeks on the bottle. Strong bitter flavor, very malty. Color didn't come out as dark as I expected, probably could use some more brown malt. Using only Mt Rainier hops was a nice experiment, but there is a reason to have different types of hops for base bittering and as aroma addition. Mt Rainier probably works best as aroma late addition. The Northwest Ale yeast settles and flocculates nicely and you hardly get any trub in your glass.