Year of The Horse IPA

Logo for the IPA

The Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays, mainly because it gives me an excuse to eat great Chinese food with my lovely wife!  I felt inspired to create a majestic beer with flavors resembling the day.  Hopefully this ale mimics the beauty and strength of the horse and the culinary gifts from the Far East. 

Citrus is often gifted during the New Year to bring wealth, luck and prosperity.  Keeping that in mind, my hophead went straight to IPA.  Also, due to the season I wanted something strong and decided to imperialize this citrus bomb.  I think this beer will bring luck to anyone who gets to drink this.  All kidding aside, I am very excited about this one.  

I added citrus zest from a Pamelo and an Orange.  I added ginger, because I love the way it compliments citrus and is also used in many Chinese dishes.  Double IPA's often use dextrose to reduce the malt presence, which helps to bring forth the hop flavors.  The sugar also dries out the beer and gives it a light body, which also promotes the hop profile (some people are afraid to use sugar in their beer because it can cause a green apple off flavors, however this usually only happens when the amount of sugar is 10% or more of the malt bill).   I decided not to use corn sugar, but instead I used rice syrup solids to stick with the flavors I associate with New Year.  This will do the same as corn sugar and probably will not add flavor, but I must stick with the theme. 

SOME DETAILS

Malt bill

                15 lbs. of 2 Row

                1 lb of Rice Syrup Solids

                3/4 lb of Crystal 40L

                1/2 lb of Cara Pils

Hop bill

               Horizon 14.5%AA

               Meridian 14.5% AA

               Citra  14.5% AA

               Mosaic 11.5% AA

               Nelson Sauvin 11.4%AA

Yeast

              Safale US 05 (x2)

Mash

              90 mins. @ 150 degrees f

Boil 

              90 mins.

I want to give a shout out to Steven Childs for his help.  Can't wait to share this beer with you lucky folks.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry.  

新年好!