Skip to main content

The New IPA: Ch. 4

 Chapter 4 is all about mouthfeel. Water profiles, brewing salts, panel tastings, dextrins, polyphenols, and other subgenres are succinctly covered here by Janish. Following is what stood out most to me.


Sulfate-to-Chloride Ratio

  • Remove Chloride and Chloramine from your water. These chemicals produce a medicinal flavor (chlorophenols) in your finished beer.
    • Catalytic activated carbon and surface activated carbon can remove chloride and chloramine.
  • The amounts of sulfates and chlorides matter. 300:100 is much different than 30:10. Janish recommends staying under 200 PPM to avoid minerality.
    • Though in a crisp pilsner, minerality can be a driving force for good. Perhaps above 200 PPM can be a benefit.
    • Sulfates give a dry, sharp edge to beer.
      • Avoid too many sulfates in an IPA or any style that requires a soft mouthfeel. Too many sulfates can also negatively impact hop perception.
      • If you want bitterness to be prominent, emphasize sulfates. Maybe an Old School Westie or an English Bitter could benefit from this slant.
    • Chlorides produce mellow, full, round, soft beers.
      • Altbier, mild ale, IPA, session porter.
      • Janish says as CaCl-to-Gypsum increases, so does perceived softness.
    Malt's Impact on Minerals
    • Malted grains contribute lots of chlorides! Brewing water that favors sulfates 3:1 will result in an evenly split beer after the grains are spent.
      • If you use flaked oats or flaked wheat, you'll pick up less chlorides. Increase mineral additions in this case. A 2:3 sulfate-to-chloride ratio is a good place to start for Hazy IPAs that want full mouthfeel and fresh hop character.
    Dextrins
    • Dextrins are an unfermentable extract that remains in wort from starch that is not broken down to the main fermentable sugars by amylases during the mashing process. Dextrins typically contribute to mouthfeel without contributing to flavor. 
      • Amylases is an enzyme that converts starch to sugar.
    • For a detectable increase in mouthfeel, 50g/L of dextrins needs to be added.
    • Janish uses a finishing gravity of 1.020 on Hazy IPAs to balance between sweetness, body, exuding a polished finish.
    Odds and Ends
    • Oats are rich in beta-glucans. Beta-glucans, alcohol, glycerol, and dextrins all contribute to mouthfeel.
      • Beta-glucans are a soluble fiber that may lower heart disease. 
    • Diastatic power indicates how much starch-converting enzymes a specific malt may have, which break down starches and dextrins into fermentable sugars. 
    • Only limit dextrinase can break down dextrins into fermentable sugars. Of course, the more limit dextrinase in the wort, the less dextrins in the finished beer (which would take away from a full mouthfeel).
      • Limit dextrinase activity has been strongly correlated to the grains' extract protein content.
      • If you increase the mash temperature above 135 degrees, you deactivate the limit dextrinase.
        • If you did a protein rest between 113-138 degrees, limit dextrinase activity would increase. If you do not, and mash around 158, dextrins will survive to the finished beer.
    • When making low-ABV hoppy beers, place a large charge into the whirlpool. Polyphenols will be produced, creating a substantial mouthfeel. To avoid lots of bitterness while doing this, lower the whirlpool temperature and length of whirlpool.


    Comments

    Popular posts from this blog

    Paradoxical Logic Pale Ale

     Let's kolsch a saison grist and hop the fuck out of it. Boat Beer by Carton? Es posible...  Here's the recipe: Recipe Grain 2 lbs. Rye Malt - Deer Creek 2 lbs. Pale Wheat Malt - Deer Creek 1.5 lbs. Colonial Pilsner - Deer Creek 0.5 lbs. Pale Corn Malt - Deer Creek 1 lbs. of Brown Sugar @ 5 minutes in the boil Water 6.5 gallons of water: 4 spring, 2.5 Buffalo filtered water 132 ppm Calcium, 22 ppm Na, 115 ppm sulfates, 115 ppm chlorides, 52 ppm bicarbonates Mash 153 degrees for 40 minutes pH: 5.5 Boil (90 minutes) 1 mL of Cascade CO2 Hop Extract @ 90 0.5 oz. Chinook @ 20  1 oz. each of Hallertau Blanc, Chinook, Nelson Sauvin @ flameout 1 gram of Aromazyme @ yeast pitch 1 oz. each of Chinook Cryo and Hallertau Blanc @ yeast pitch 2 oz. Chinook Cryo @ secondary for 2 days 1 oz. NYS Ahhhroma @ secondary for 2 days Fermentation Cooled in a cold bath 1 packet of Fermentis Kolsch at ~68 degrees Fermented to absolute dryness in 7 days Lagered for 7 weeks Force carbonated to tast...

    The Smoking Moon Under Water

    Alaskan Smoked Porter + Stephen Kirby talking about the cask program at Hogshead ... that's what did me in.  I've never tried the Alaskan product but hearing such high praise as "timeless" and "quintessential" drove me into recipe development. Luckily, I caught a podcast by Stephen, in which his London porter was being consumed all-too-quickly. He was kind enough to share recipe tidbits, which I mostly incorporated here. Ideal... what is my ideal porter? Chocolate, comforting, soft, chuggable. Add a touch of smoke, because I'm tired of paying $18 for Schlenkerla 4 packs.  The Moon Under Water is George Orwell's conception of an ideal pub. The Smoking Moon Under Water is my conception of an ideal smoked porter. Here's the recipe: Recipe Grain 4.25 lbs. Colonial Pilsner - Deer Creek 2.5 lbs. Pecan Smoked Pilsner Malt - Sugar Creek 2 lbs. Barke Munich - Weyermann 3/4 lbs. Flaked Oats 1/2 lbs. British Chocolate malt (450L) 1/2 lbs. Dehusked Carafa I ...

    The New IPA: Ch. 15

    Last but not least, Chapter 15. We've made it guys! This chapter features practices by Haze producers such as Other Half, Bissell Brothers, and others. I'm going to break things down by ingredient to give a general overview: Water Other Half: neutral, low in mineral ... OH favors calcium chloride additions Prison City: chloride-heavy  Reuben's Brews: n/a Breakside: gypsum-heavy trending toward a Burton profile, looking for a snappy finish (10:1, 8:1, 4:1, then most recently 3:1) sulfate-chloride ratio Bissell Brothers: neutral water that undergoes carbon filtering, then they add gypsum and calcium chloride for a 1:2 sulfate-chloride ratio, finishing around 100 ppm of chloride and 50-75 ppm of sulfate Great Notion: soft, neutral water, then they add a 1:2 sulfate-chloride mixture as well as sodium Sapwood Cellars: carbon filtered water, then add 1.5:1 chloride-sulfate ratio Mash: pH, Temperature, Grist Other Half: low ABV beers mash around 160 for enhanced mouthfeel and feat...