Double Mountain IRA attempt

[2bluewagons]

So I'm thinking of giving the IRA (from Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River, OR=one of the best breweries in the state IMO) a try this weekend and looking for some advice. From their website, the FH Steinbarts (LHBS) grain list, and a few other sources and using Beersmith I have pieced together the following:

OG 1.069
FG 1.018
ABV 6.75
IBU 55-60

Grain:
12 lb Gambrinus 2-row
0.75 lb British Carastan ~37L
0.75 lb British Crystal ~75L

Hops:
Simcoe and Brewers Gold (both whole leaf) For non-metric hops folks, 1 oz = 28.4g
10g Sim, 17g BG @ 60 minutes
15g Sim, 20g BG @ 10 minutes
25g of each @ 1 minute

Maybe some dry hopping too, we'll see.

Yeast: Wyeast 1762 (think I'll go with US-05 for the first one to see how close I am on malt bill and hopping)

This is my first recipe that I don't have some kind of base to go from, and I'm most shaky on the hopping schedule. I would appreciate any feedback from folks better at recipe creation than I, especially some folks around here who know this particular beer. For those that haven't, it's pretty much what it sounds like: a red-colored, fairly crystal malt flavored (but not overly so), and hop-forward (but not as much as their IPA) beer of deliciousness.

Thanks!

 

[beethirtyone]

Hey how did your IRA clone work out? I'm considering doing the same, I live in Hood River but I never get tired of drinking that beautiful IRA.

 

[tim5cents]

I too am trying to clone this and I was curious how the recipe that you posted turned out. Thanks.

 

[Xand]

I made one about a month and a half ago that I think turned out well. It's been a while since I've had the actual beer as I haven't lived in Portland for 4+ months, but it had the drinkability and characteristic balance of smoothness/hoppiness that I remember. I cobbled the recipe together from bits and pieces of info I found around the web and it looked like:

Pilsener malt (I used 9 lbs of LME)
Crystal 120 (1 lb, I think)
Roasted barley (I used .15 lbs but would up it to 1/4)

Hops (55 IBU):
Northern brewer for bittering
Simcoe for late additions and dry hopping. Dry hopped on 2 oz of leaves

Wyeast Belgian Abbey ale II fermented as cool as possible (60-62 degrees) to keep the esters in check. This will produce a smooth beer with subtle fruitiness that really blends well with the Simcoe and makes for an incredibly drinkable beer given the abv and ibus.

This is off the top of my head so you might want to play with it in beersmith. If anyone else makes it I'd be interested to hear how it turns out.

 

[Boy]

My take would be:

Pilsner
8oz C60
6oz c120

FWH B-Gold
FWH 1/2 as much Simcoe
30min B-Gold
1min Simcoe
Dry hop Simcoe

Kolsch yeast.

Here's a link for the IRA I've made twice now. I was going for the Ninkasi Believer 2x Red as inspiration but the Double mountain I think is a little better. My recipe is way more complicated for hops but I'm a hop head.
http://hopville.com/recipe/666699/american-ipa-recipes/crimson-2

 

[Xand]

My take would be:

Pilsner
8oz C60
6oz c120

FWH B-Gold
FWH 1/2 as much Simcoe
30min B-Gold
1min Simcoe
Dry hop Simcoe

Kolsch yeast.

Here's a link for the IRA I've made twice now. I was going for the Ninkasi Believer 2x Red as inspiration but the Double mountain I think is a little better. My recipe is way more complicated for hops but I'm a hop head.
http://hopville.com/recipe/666699/american-ipa-recipes/crimson-2

More or less you've got it, but I think you'll want some roasted barley in there to get that red tinge to it. And this is secondhand, but someone from HR says they verified with the brewer that they use 1762 in the IRA:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=&t=15798

They key, I think, is fermenting that yeast very cool and copious dry hopping with whole leaf Simcoe. It gives it a very prevalent but subtle aroma that blends incredibly well with the light fruitiness of the yeast. Admittedly I don't have the original on hand to compare (sadly it is one of my favorite beers from the PDX area), but from memory I think I got pretty close. Next time I'm going to bump up the roasted barley a bit as it wasn't quite red enough, but other than that I think it was close.

How did your Believer attempt turn out? That's also a great beer, though definitely more of a highly hopped Red than a funky IPA like the IRA.

 

[Boy]

Mine was definitely an IRA. Was very hoppy but incredibly balanced against the malt. Believer comes off a little too sweet for still tasty to me.

When I made mine I used Roasted barley for color and added to the mash with 15 min left. Then I added 2 oz roasted beets to the last 10 min of the boil. Beer came out more towards the brownish-copper than red. However I made a red ale with munich c60 and c120 and it was RED. So now I have modified the next attempt to use the 60 and 120. I also might like at adding the juice from a can of beets instead of pureed beets.

 

[beethirtyone]

I made mine with the 1762, seemed like an unlikely yeast for a hopped up American Ale but it worked really well and rivaled any of the strong IPA's I've made before. I substituted some Willamette and Cascade because it's what I had on hand and it was good, it needed something though...possibly the Simcoe would have made the grade.