Imperial India Pails of Ale
(West Coast Pale Ale: Pyramid, Grant's, Anchor)

One of the most impressive pale ales to come out of the Pacific Northwest in recent years is Rogue Ale's I2PA (Imperial India Pale Ale). Deep golden, with a fine maltiness, I2PA is a delicious beer. Drinking it is like getting ones head trapped in a hop conveyor. Layers and layers of hop bitterness, raging hop flavour, and enveloping hop aroma overwhelm the senses, leaving one breathless and ready for another pint. Unfortunately, most people will not have had the chance to sample this beer because it's not yet bottled for general release. We at the Brew House know about I2PA because we live close to the best beer bar in the known universe and have had the opportunity to drink it several times. Whee!

What's a lupomaniac to do? So much time, so little hops . . . .

 

Ingredients for 11.5 litres:
1 Brew House Pale Ale kit
500 grams Ireks light caramel malt (or other caramel malt of less than 50°L)
56 grams Cascade hops
56 grams Saaz hops
112 grams East Kent Goldings hops
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

 

TIP: Be sure to prepare your liquid yeast culture well ahead of time. While the smack-pack pouches alone may be enough to ferment your beer, a culture of at least 2 litres will ensure a professional pitching rate and a clean, thorough finish.
  1. Crack your grain and place it in a grain bag.
  2. Put 8 litres of wort from the Brew House kit in a 12 litre (or larger) pot. Add grain bag and place over medium heat. Bring temperature to 75°C (170°F) and hold for 20 minutes, stirring the grain bag occasionally.
  3. Remove and discard grain, add the Cascade hops, and boil for 10 minutes. Add Saaz hops and boil for a further 10 minutes (20 minutes in all).
  4. Remove pot from heat, cool, and use the liquid to make up the 11.5 litre volume. Do not forget to add the pH adjustment package. NOTE: Don't worry about the hop sludge. Dump it in the primary (all of it). It will settle out before the first racking.
  5. Pitch your yeast culture and ferment at 15–18°C (60–70°F).
  6. From this point, follow the Brew House instructions but rack to an 11.5 litre carboy on day 3–5. On day 20, when the beer would normally be ready to bottle, rack into a clean carboy and add the East Kent Goldings as a dry hop. (Dry hops expand quite a bit, and you're using a lot of them. Make sure you leave enough space in the carboy). Wait for a month for the full flavour of the hops to come out, and then rack off, prime and bottle as usual.
Two months in the bottle would be almost enough time for this amazing beer to mature. The 1056 yeast is very clean and aggressively attenuative, much like Rogue's pacman yeast, and will strip away any off flavours to reveal a beer with smooth maltiness and insane bitterness. More hops!
 

Variations on a theme:
Changing the crystal malt comes to mind, with brumalt (Gambrinus honey malt) topping the list of possibilities. More hops could be added, but only by those pushing the ludicrous button pretty hard. The addition of kettle sugars (such as brown sugar) to boost the gravity might be nice. Experiment, but above all remember: there's no such thing as too much hops!