My Homebrew Journey - Third Brew: Imperial IPA

Today I will be talking about the third brew I ever made; an Imperial IPA. Back when I brewed this, is wasn't even a fan of IPA's, and most of the time, I still am not. But they're growing on me. I actually took on brewing an Imperial IPA because a friend of mine likes them, and I wanted to see if I could brew something that he would like.

Ingrediënts weren't really complex:

• Golden Promise Pale Malt
• Cara/Crystal Malt (20EBC)
• Chocolate Malt
• Chinook Hops
• Simcoe Hops
• Willamette Hops
• Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Yes, I added chocolate malt in there, I honestly don't remember why, it's a really small amount obviously, so I may have used it just a bit to give it a bit more color. Also, it does have a nice sweetness to it that I kind of like, so there's that as well.

I made a small mistake with this beer, I may have put in a little bit too much of priming sugar, I had some bottles that turned out to be gushers because of it, and it's a bit too carbonated which makes it a bit too foamy. No major problems however.

With this style, it's important to talk about how it tasted when it was fresh, and how it tastes now, since hop flavour does diminish after a while. When it was fresh, it was really a hop bomb, and it had a very agressive bitterness, which wasn't apparent immediately, but you'd feel it coming up once the beer was down for a couple of seconds. I loved the hop flavors, the bitterness wasn't really my thing, but the flavor was good, very hoppy, very floral, bit of citrusy, fruity tones.

I opened a bottle today, about 1.5 year later and it actually still tastes pretty darn good.Most of the bitterness is actually gone, and it's become quite mellow in that regard, but to my surprise, the hop flavour is still very much present. Sure, it's not as hoppy as it used to be, but there's still the citrusy, fruity tones from the hops. It's just a tad sweeter now, since all that bitterness is gone and I actually like it more now than back when it was fresh.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this beer, I don't think I would brew it again, because it wasn't completely my thing when it was fresh, but I don't regret brewing it.