ipa Archives - Five Blades Brewing

Ain’t No Hallertauer Girl – IPA

December 15, 2015 by Derek Springer 5 Comments

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.

It has been a little while since I have done a proper beer review, opting instead to do previews of the beers I am going to make. I was also in a bit of a rut this summer: heat, extensive travel, and brewing do not make an optimal mix for brews and reviews. Mostly, I was not super pleased with how my last few batches turned out–I will happily blame that on the goofball restrictions for the BrewUnited Challenge 🙂

Well, I am back on track! A new nano brewery/homebrew supply named Bear Roots Brewing Co has opened nearby and is issuing its first homebrew competition, focused solely on IPAs the prize is “bragging rights as the first local home brew recipe on our community tap and will also get their own customized pint glass that will sit above our bar.” As someone who 1) wants to support new and local businesses and 2) loves the idea of having my own customized pint glass above a bar I figure it is worth a shot! Entering more competitions is also the only way I can achieve my ubergoal of winning a best in show ribbon.

Read on and check out my German inspired American IPA: Ain’t No Hallertauer Girl.
(It is B-A-N-A-N-A-S)
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Neomexicanus Wild Hop IPA Review

December 28, 2014 by Derek Springer 6 Comments

Part of my series on neomexicanus hops.

In my last post about neomexicanus hops I noted that Sierra Nevada recently released an IPA made solely from (almost the entire worldwide crop of) neomexicanus titled Harvest Wild Hop IPA: Neomexicanus Varietal as the final release in this year’s Harvest series. Since publishing that post have made it my personal goal to search every bottle shop in San Diego until I found some to try; it took me nearly three weeks, but I finally found my white whale. This blog is usually not a place where I review commercial beers, but since this beer is the closest many folks will come to trying this new variety I am making an exception.

Details

Style: IPA
Description: A few years back, we caught wind of rogue hop heads in the Southwest who began collecting some of the wild hops they found while scrambling down hillsides near their home in New Mexico. These bizarre, multi-headed, native U.S. cones have a flavor like nothing we’ve tasted, and for the first time, we’re showcasing their unusual melon, apricot and citrus aromas and flavors in our beer. Neomexicanus is the literal wild card in our five-bottle Harvest series which features single hop, fresh hop, wet hop, and wild hop beers.
Neomexicanus Variety: While not explicitly stated, the “multi-headed” variety they are referring to is likely Medusa.
Malt: 2-row Pale, Caramel [60?]
IBUs: 55
ABV: 6.5%
Availability: Nationwide in December/January.
Reviews: RateBeer | BeerAdvocate | Untappd

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De Kleine – Belgian Session IPA

September 28, 2014 by Derek Springer Leave a Comment

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.

I’ll be the first to admit: I’m not typically an enthusiast of non-sour Belgian beers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the spirit of experimentation and the “anything goes” attitude that Belgian styles showcase, but I find most Belgians I try are have too much ABV/spice/pretension/etc for me to fall in love with them. I’d wager I’d really love to dig into a nice Belgian Pale Ale, but folks aren’t really clamoring for sessionable Belgians around here and imported examples usually arrive ravaged by light and heat.

To continue my trend of “being the beer I wish to see” (apologies to Gandhi) I set out to make my own sessionable Belgian ale. My goals for this recipe were twofold: 1) create an easy-drinking Belgian and 2) create something that would help me place well in my homebrew club’s first competition, the grand prize of which is getting the beer brewed by Rip Current Brewing. The styles of the competition were picked specifically because they’re outside the wheelhouse of Rip Current’s current offerings (they want a diverse set of offerings to sell, after all), but I’m no dummy: Rip Current is renowned for their hop-bombs and by brewing something that’s both diverse and halfway in their wheelhouse I’m hoping will increase my chances of being selected as the winner.

With an eye on what a brewery would need to sell of I won, I harnessed the beer trends of the past few years and came up with “De Kleine,” Dutch for “small,” a sessionable Belgian IPA. Drawing inspiration from Stone’s Cali-Belgique (Stone IPA brewed with a Belgian yeast), I decided to experiment with how much Belgian character I could extract from a session strength recipe while doubling down on citrusy American hops. Otherwise, the rest of the recipe is Belgian to the core: the malt bill is pure Belgian malts and the yeast is a classic strain from Rochefort.

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Happy IPA Day!

August 7, 2014 by Derek Springer Leave a Comment

As foretold by the prophets, August 7th is IPA Day. And hey, did you know that folks are bonkers about IPAs!? I like to joke that here in San Diego it’s impossible to throw a stone without hitting a brewery that’s pumping out two or three world-class IPAs (indeed, I can almost literally hit Stone with a stone from my house). While my tastes of late have shifted away from hop explosions, I do still enjoy a good IPA now and again; rest assured I’ll be kicking back tonight with a nice lupulin-laced liquor.