I recently brewed an IPA to take to an upcoming a beer festival. It’s a recipe I’ve used before, but I thought I’d switch things up a bit by making a change to both the water chemistry and the hop schedule, based on results people are claiming for the New England IPA style. Now, a bit of a disclaimer. I’ve had only one beer claiming to be a New England IPA, which was a Citralush from Epic Brewing in Utah (how much more New England could you get than that?) If you’re unfamiliar with the style, it’s a very hazy IPA, not all that bitter, but with a lot of “juicy” hop flavor. Supposedly the haze is from the yeast choice and proteins in the beer, and the “juiciness” is due to a lower sulfate/chloride ratio.
The California IPAs tend to want a very sharp bitterness and dry finish. The higher the ratio of sulfates to chlorides, the more of this character will come out. On the other hand, the lower ratio of the New England IPAs is supposed to make the hop flavor and aroma “softer”, or without the bite.
New England IPAs have few bittering hops, and add most of the hops very late, at flameout or whirlpool. Dry hops are then added at high krausen, which is supposed to result in “biotransformation” of the hop oils and give a different character to the beer.
The gang at Brulosophy have done an experiment which shows that while this technique may make a difference on appearance, it casts doubt on whether flavor is impacted.
Contrasting this, Jamil Zainascheff on a recent Brew Strong podcast stated that he had done side by side comparisons of dry hopping at high krausen and once fermentation was complete, and he thought it made a flavor difference – in a bad way. He thought the hop flavor for the dry hopping at high krausen came across as a “biting” bitterness and was unpleasant.
I’ve linked a few articles at the end of this post that discuss the making of New England IPAs.
My original brew of this beer (which turned out quite well) used a very high sulfate to chloride ratio (210 ppm Sulfate to 67 ppm chloride, for a 3.13-1 sulfate/chloride ratio). I included bittering hops for 60 minutes with an estimated 20 IBUs, and added four more ounces of hops at 5 minutes to go for another 20 IBUs. I then added 6 ounces of dry hops after five days of fermentation, and left the beer on the hops for 3 days.
For this batch , I decided to lower the sulfate/chloride ratio to 1.5 (144 ppm sulfate to 99 ppm chloride), leave the bittering hop charge the same, and added half the amount of aroma hops at 5 minutes. I then finished boiling, chilled the wort to below 180, added the other half of the aroma hops, and whirlpooled for 20 minutes. I then finished chilling and moved the wort to the fermenters.
After two days of fermentation, I added half of my dry hop charge, attempting to hit “high krausen” ala the New England IPA. Three days later, I added the rest of the dry hops. I will pull this out of the fermenter this Sunday, and see if it made a difference.
Here are some resources discussing brewing a New England IPA:
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For a New England IPA, this article suggests a 1.5 to 1 ratio – http://scottjanish.com/chasing-mouthfeel-softness/
Drinkers can tell a difference between different sulfate to chloride ratios –http://brulosophy.com/2016/10/03/water-chemistry-pt-6-sulfate-to-chloride-ratio-exbeeriment-results/
Use a high ratio of chloride to sulfate – https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/tips-brewing-new-england-ipa/
Don’t go overboard on sulfates – http://beerandwinejournal.com/chloride-and-sulfate/
New England IPA SO4/Cl ratios should shoot for 1.5:1 or 1:1 https://gotbeer.com/hop-chatter/the-rise-of-the-new-england-ipa
Use a sulfate/chloride ratio of 1:1 or 0.5/1 for New England IPA – Master Brewer’s Association presentation
Adding Calcium Chloride can give beer a “wet” character – https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3550-neipa-style-profile
For a New England IPA, use high chloride water – http://inboundsbrewing.com/crafting-a-new-england-ipa-recipe-part-1-why-so-hazy/
Brewing a NE IPA – 1:1 ratio – http://brouwerij-chugach.com/?beer_style=imperial-ipa