This week we’ve caught up with Mark Smith at Perth’s Freestyle Brewing to let us in on a style he loves the most. For all the other recipes in our continuing weekly series, head here.
Mark said: “Like all beers, a hazy IPA is about balance. The goal is to make the beer seem bigger than it really is by using a low attenuating yeast, leaving the beer with a high final gravity and creating lots of body and mouthfeel from protein malts and unfermentable dextrins. This also creates some residual sweetness that helps to balance the low bitterness. A chloride-forward water profile also works best for the style.
“As a rule of thumb, the higher the ABV the easier it is to get the right balance. An ABV around 6.7 to 6.9% is a sweet spot for me.
“A key to get a good haze is lots of protein malts, lots of late whirlpool hop additions and lots of dry hops. There’s also no need to add any hops during the boil so you can also play around with your boil times. Hops with high amounts of oils and resins add to the mouthfeel and juiciness, keeping the malt profile simple. Using base malts only will also put the hops at the forefront and bring out their character.
“It is also important to source quality hops from the current season for maximum impact. If you want to experiment, try adding some of the dry hops in the fermenter during active fermentation to see if you can get some biotransformation happening.”
Freestyle Hazy
All grain (expected figures)
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.018
IBU: 57
ABV: 6.8%
Volume: 30 litres
Ingredients
8kg Pale Malt
400g Carapils
800g Pale Wheat
300g Rolled Wheat
600g Rolled Oats
300g Pale Oats
100g Idaho 7
200g Citra
200g Mosaic
Yeast options: Wyeast 1318 – London Ale III, White Labs WLP066 London Fog or Lallemand Verdant IPA
Method
- Pre heat water to 78°C, adjust pH to 5.6.
- Mill grains then mash with rolled oats/wheat at 68°C, adjust mash pH to 5.2 – 5.3 using Calcium Chloride/Calcium Sulphate.
- Transfer to kettle and boil wort until target gravity is reached.
- Add 100g Citra and 100g Mosaic at end of boil and steep/whirlpool for 20 minutes.
- Cool wort to 20°C and transfer to fermenter.
- Pitch yeast into aerated wort and ferment at 18°C, for best results prepare a yeast starter but do not over pitch.
- Dry hop with 100g Citra, 100g Mosaic and 100g Idaho 7 for two days.
- Crash cool, bottle or keg as usual.
Extract with specialty grains (expected figures)
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.018
IBU: 57
ABV: 6.8%
Volume: 30 litres
Ingredients
6.4kg Pale Malt extract
400g Carapils
800g Pale Wheat
300g Rolled Wheat
600g Rolled Oats
300g Pale Oats
100g Idaho 7
200g Citra
200g Mosaic
Yeast options: Wyeast 1318 – London Ale III, White Labs WLP066 London Fog or Lallemand Verdant IPA
Method
- Heat 6 litres of water in a large pot, and mash specialty malts at 68°C for 30 minutes in a malt bag or large hop bag.
- Remove bag from liquid and allow to drain, then bring to the boil.
- Once boiling, boil for 30 minutes.
- At 30 minutes, flameout and add 100g Citra and 100g Mosiac, and steep for 20 minutes.
- Transfer pot to ice bath or cool water to cool wort, then tip into fermenter.
- Add fresh cool water and stir in extract to reach 27 litres, checking temperature.
- Add warm or cool water to hit 30 litres at 18 to 20°C.
- Oxygenate or aerate and inoculate with yeast.
- Dry hop with 100g Citra, 100g Mosiac, and 100g Idaho 7 hops for two days
- When FG stabilises, crash cool then keg or bottle as usual.
This recipe appeared in a previous issue of Beer & Brewer. To access multiple recipes every issue, from pros and homebrewers alike, subscribe to our magazine here.
