Happiness is a Cold Homebrew

So a few days ago I posted about my misadventures at the local homebrew store, and the crushing defeat of not being able to grab the require amount of my beloved Citra hops. Well out of that misfortune has come what I hope will be an equally delicious beer. Still going to be making the Citra IPA later on down the road, when the Citra supply has been replenished, but into then I present my own humble creation: The Belgian Imperial IPA.

GRIST (mash at 148 for 60 min)
- 12lbs Pilsner malt, 2L
- 4lbs Belgian Pale malt, 3L
- 1lb Aromatic malt, 20L
- 0.5lb Biscuit malt, 25L
- 0.5lb Wheat malt, 2L

HOPS
- 0.5oz Cascade, 7.5% AAU (60 min)
- 0.5oz Citra, 11% AAU (60 min)
- 1oz Amarillo, 10.4% AAU (60 min)
- 0.5oz Citra, 11% AAU (15 min)
- 1oz Cascade, 7.5% AAU (15 min) 
- 0.5oz Sorachi Ace, 3.4% AAU (0 min)
- 0.5oz Cascade, 7.5% AAU (0 min)
- 0.5oz Amarillo, 10.4% AAU (dry hop)
- 0.5oz Sorachi Ace, 3.4% AAU (dry hop)
- 0.5oz Cascade, 7.5% AAU (dry hop)

ADDITIONS
- 1lb Belgian candy sugar (15 min)
- Yeast energizer (15 min)
- Whirlfloc (15 min)

YEAST
- WLP550, Belgian Ale, pitched in a 2-quart starter

SPECS
- Est. pre-boil gravity=1.077 (actual 1.071)
- Est. OG=1.096 (actual 1.083)
- Est. FG=1.018 (actual ?) 
- 90-minute boil, 6.75 gallons for a 5 gallon yield 

As you can see, it’s a pretty hop-forward beer, and the projections of my brewing software put it around 61 IBUs for the beer. The hops should provide a nice citrus flavor without any sort of crushing bitterness, and I want lots of that character on the nose as well. I’ve never brewed with Sorachi Ace before, and I was surprised that the hops I got in the store were so low in AAU, as I had heard that Sorachi were supposed to be a relatively bitter hop variety. However, I loved the lemon and herbal notes of the hops, and it’s my hope that they’ll add lots of great character to the beer.

Also, you’ll notice that I didn’t come anywhere close to hitting my pre-boil gravity or my projected OG. I believe this is because I meant to mash at a much lower temperature (somewhere around 150-148) in order to increase fermentability and keep the beer nice and dry. As it was, my mash tun did a much better job holding the heat in than usual, likely helped along by the insane amount of grain and water in the tun. Most of my mashes lose around 3-4 degrees, but this one stayed right at 152-153, and in some spots even hit as high as 156(!). If I brew this beer again, I’ll definately aim for a lower mash temp. I still think the beer will turn out lovely, but I was a little worried about missing my OG by such a wide margin. We’ll see how it ferments out.

So that’s the recipe for now. Any suggestions, comments or questions are, as always, welcome. Also, if anyone knows why I may have missed my target gravity, or if the brew would have been better served by a longer mash, please drop me a line. Any input is always helpful!