Home Brewing A Hazy IPA

A few years ago, I picked up the hobby of home brewing. Initially, I started doing it with a friend who quickly lost interest and mine started picking up.

Now, I enjoy brewing and being the one to decide what I make and what process is done. This batch, I made a hazy IPA which has been a new style I really, really like. I got into craft beer through the traditional IPAs, and until recently, I've been kind of over them...then came the hazy's.

For everyone not familiar with them, hazy IPA's are basically the same, except really juicy, fresh, and sweet. Essentially, they are almost like hoppy orange juice. It looks like that too.

IPA's are a bit tougher to do as a home brewer, since so much of the beer lies in the hop profile. Home brewers get kind of the bottom of the barrel for brewing stuff, and hops are typically never as totally fresh as say a commercial brewery gets. As such, it makes a big difference.

Now, that's not to say you can't make a kick-ass brew! This batch (batch #2) actually came out very decent. Still, there's some changes I have written down for the next batch.

When I initially got my start, I started doing brewing with malt extract. This is typically the way most beginners start in order to understand the brewing process. From there, I upgraded to all grain and have been enjoying it night and day.

It's more steps and a longer process, but the beer comes out better IMO and you have a lot more options on how to control the beer. Essentially, all grain brewing is just like making a tea with the grains. They soak in warm water to extract the sugars, then you strain the water and separate the two.

One of the things I enjoy about hazy IPA's is the addition of flaked oats and white wheat to impart more cloudiness from dissolved proteins.

After brewing and fermenting, it was time to bottle. Typically, at every stage of the way, I sample the product. So far so good and it's time to bottle.

I bottle all of my beers. Admitedly, this beer would be better in a keg on draft, but I still live in a condo and don't have the room for that equipment at this time. Most of my beers are ones that I age anyway, so bottles suit me perfectly. In this instance, it's nice to bottle to have convenient to take ready for social events.

Total yield from 5.5 gallons was approximately 27 22oz bottles. Cost for this beer was about $30. This cost is due to an increased hop load, new yeast every batch, and elevated grain count. Working out to a little over $1 for a 22oz bottle for a decent beer is still a killer deal. Most of my other beers are around the 60-75 cent range. Price this compared to $7-10 in the store.

Start to finish on the whole process is about a month. It probably looks quick in this post, but keep in mind that most clean standard beers are about a month. I currently have two beers conditioning now that are taking way longer. I'll do posts on those here later.

The final product is looking a little bit more brown than I originally was hoping. However, this is due to hop sediment and yeast sediment which impact color. I'm still very happy with it, and overall came out great. Lots of my friends said they really like it and find it comparable to commercial brewery beers. I have plenty of notes as mentioned before, so looking forward to keeping improving.