Some advice on masking the taste of alcohol in a 7.2% IPA

[barry44]

Hi all,

i recently tried to clone a brewdog hoppy christmas which is a simcoe single hop to 7.2% with maris otter, crystal and carapils.

I used 90/5/5% of each in the grainbill and met all the targets with the brew although there is a very strong taste of alcohol from it, not over powering but it certainly wasnt present in the brewdog beer.

Subsequently, i had one of their IPA is dead brews when i was at the glasgow bar which is to the same strength and possibly abv. Even though it was 7.2%, you could not detect the alcoholic taste that mine has. It had a lot more body than my brew, it was 'thicker' with more caramel which i assume was down to either more crystal or a darker crystal, i used pale in my brew.

Has anyone else had the same issue and found a way around it? I have researched and a lot of people say to not go over 5% crystal in an IPA, so my reckoning is that it was just a darker crystal contributing more to the flavour.

Apologies if a bit long winded.

[Rookie]

What was your yeast and fermentation temp? I doubt that the alcohol taste is from the grain bill.

[barry44]

Yeast was us-05 and the temp was circa 20 degrees.

Which is pretty much my usual set up.

[RobWalker]

How old is it? Hot alcohol will mellow considerably after a couple months. Do bear in mind you're battling a brewery with a sophisticated 30 day ageing process...

Make sure you serve it cold too!

[barry44]

Bottled around the week before Xmas.

It is definitely settling down.

[RobWalker]

Bet it'll be great the end of feb. Next time ferment on the low end of the scale too and it'll avoid any potential fusels (which taste like vodka.) Hops should still be plenty fresh then!

[Hanglow]

Do you have a temperature controled brew fridge?


I'd ferment it a bit lower, 18C beer temp. If you feremented at 20c room temp it could have run away with you temp wise in the fermenter if you don't have a brew fridge

[barry44]

I do have a brew fridge. The last time I fermented at 18 I ended up with diacetyl in a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.

[killer]

Hi Barry,

What was your mash temp, OG and FG ?

I've made a few of these beers now and find that for a beer at 7.2 I would want to finish at 1013 as a minimum.
Equally S05 is a monster and often hits above 80% attenuation. I find it also chews out the sweeter sugars so tend to include a fair amount of munich (not a massive fan of crystal) and some torrified wheat for extra body.

[barry44]

Mash temp was 65.5 to achieve the correct abv from the OG using beersmith.

My OG was 1.067 & my FG was 1.011.

Ive noticed that my yeast has been over attenuating a lot recently getting lower FGs than beersmith suggests.

[killer]

That's 84% attenuation !

If you do a rebrew mash at 67/68. That'll increase your FG, body and sweetness. You could put some Munich in too. It's not really sweet but does add character and depth - aromatic is the word many use.

S05 is a beast for hops but can kill the malt a bit sometimes.

[barry44]

That's 84% attenuation !

I know!

I've started using a refractometer instead of a hydrometer which I calibrated when I got it.

I hope that my readings are OK.

[killer]

I'm sure they are. i've hit 83% with S05 numerous times.

[Padalac]

I do have a brew fridge. The last time I fermented at 18 I ended up with diacetyl in a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.

If you start low for the first few days and then raise the temperature up towards the end you should get the best of both worlds.. The lower initial temp will reduce fusels and the higher temp later on will clean up the diacetyl. That's the theory anyway.

[barry44]

I just put it on at 19.5 from the get go. I dry hop at 9 days in and start crash chilling a couple of days later.