Yippie I.P.A.

Yippie I.P.A.
O.G. 1.071
72 IBU

6.9% ABV

This is the third incarnation of the recipe which was the first of my brews that I very proud of. Don't get me wrong, up to that point in 2003 I had made plenty of good beer, but this one was a little better. This recipe is a little different than the first two times, but how different, I do not know. I lost the index card on which the original recipe was written, but I know it had European hops rather than the American varieties in this one (Simcoe, Centennial, and Amarillo).

A Promash page for this recipe can be viewed here.

Notes:
1.18.09 -- (Brewday) I intentionally neglected to add all kinds of blogging notes while I was brewing. Promash is helping with that, especially since its settings provide the same deciphering as the equations I have been using. I pitched 2.25 gallons of yeast once the wort cooled to around 70 degrees. That is about all there is to report other than the fact that I am now using my new 50 watt aquarium heater which seems to be keeping up much better.
1.31.09 -- Measured gravity, and it measured 1.018. I added the dry hops and racked to secondary. Since there was extra beer in the primary, I also filled two 16 oz and two 12 oz bottles and added priming sugar. I added .5 teaspoon of cane sugar to the 12 oz bottles, and .75 to the 16 oz bottles.
2.20.09 -- Drinking the first of the bottle conditioned samples, and it is excellent. The hop profile is both citrusy (but not overly so (cat piss)) and earthy. It will be fun to compare these to the beer that is still in the secondary with the dry hop addition. Table sugar also primes beer very nicely.

3.10.09 -- Kegged.

4.22.09 -- The comparison between the dry hopped and the not dry hopped occured this past weekend, and in my opinion the beer without the late addition was a bit better. The beer with the 2 oz dry hops has a more aggresive (naturally) hop profile, and can be metallic tasting at times. I am pretty sure this is because of the Amarillo addition. Overall, the beer is quite good; the color is nice; the malt stands up to the hops, and it is most drinkable.