Kiwi IPA - 6%

For each "beer off" night my friends and I run we choose different beer styles, but we always include an IPA because they are so crowd pleasing, and above all else they really demonstrate the different characters that hops can offer. My last few efforts have underwhelmed me a bit, and I have realised that what I need to do is really push the boat out and "over do" the aroma and dry hops. Either this will get me where I want to be straight away, or if I over do it the hops will pull back over time and the flavour will settle down. My reasoning is that its much easier to over do it and correct with time than under do it and try to re-engineer. 

The key thing is to try and avoid adding too much bitterness to the beer at the same time, so to do this I need to
a) use aroma hops at a fairly low temperature (the higher the temp stand, and the longer the more bitterness is added to the wort)
b) use lots of dry hops

I also really wanted to show off the qualities of the "fruit bowl " Kiwi hops. I had 100g of New Zealand Kohatu which is supposed to be beautiful.

Batch Size - aim 10-11 litre (depending on loss from dry hopping) but ended up with 9L

Hop Bill
Mash hops - 21g Kohatu
Bittering hops (60min) - 5g Dr Rudi
Hop stand (72C and dropping for 30 mins) - 30g Kohatu
Dryhops - 43g Kohatu, 10g Calypso

Grain Bill:
3kg Maris Otter

Method - mini BIAB
Mash in at 64C for 90 minutes

60 min boil
Ferment at room temperature in a cooler box
Vermont ale quite slow to start, may have been due to being a bit out of date even with 1/2 sized batch
OG 1058

FG 1010 (calculated gravity at 6% abv) 

Tasting notes

48 hours in the most amazing tropical fruit aroma, yes some sweaty pineapple pants, but also passion fruit and guava.

At bottling, very strong tropical fruit, some sweaty pineapple pants as expected, should round off nicely as it conditions.