Happiness is a Cold Homebrew

So that Citra IPA I was all set to brew won’t be getting made after all. Imagine my surprise when I got to the local homebrew store this afternoon and found that he had all of ONE ounce of Citra Hops left. As my recipe calls for a full 5 ounces I was, as they say, SOL. However, I’ve always wanted to brew a Belgian Imperial IPA, so I set out on a quest to gather some ingredients for the beer, which I kinda-sorta improvised with help from the library of books at the front of the store. Low and behold, an hour or so (and $50) later I had all the necessary grain, hops, yeast and candi sugar for what I’m hoping is a delicious beer. I’ll post the recipe later on this week as I get ready to brew. For now, I’m going to need a large yeast starter, somewhere around 3 quarts, as the current calculations have this beer somewhere near 10.5% ABV. Yikes!! Gonna need a lot of really healthy yeast to convert all that sugar in a reasonable amount of time.

Here’s a little tease for the beer though: I’ve got 5 different kinds of hops going into this beer (including that one precious ounce of Citra!) with the goal being a nice, crisp citrus flavor and lots of great hop/Belgian spicy yeast aroma on the nose. Think I may have something here, but we’ll see how the process goes.

Wish me luck, and as always, if there are any suggestions/comments please feel free to hit the ‘Ask’ button, and hopefully the ‘Follow’ button, too! Happy Brewing!!