Harvest Imperial IPA: brewing with wet hops

A homebrewing friend of mind has two Centennial  and two Cascade plants. All four plants are in a row and did so well this summer that a portion of the Centennial and Cascade plant grew into each other. Even though the Cascade hop cone is very distinguished, we decided to play it safe and brew a wet hopped Imperial IPA with the hops from the ambiguous area, on the bine.

I haven't brewed an Imperial IPA for awhile, since I don't usual feel that I finish a five gallon keg of it before the hops start to diminish. But since I will be splitting this batch up, it seemed like a perfect excuse to brew a big, carelessly hoppy beer. Leading up to this batch, I did a fair amount of research and decided to get rid of all crystal malt and see what affect it would have on the overall beer. I split the grist with 50% US 2-row, 50% Maris Otter, and added some corn sugar for an alcohol boost. I bittered with Bravo hops and added generous amount of Centennial and Columbus with :10 minutes left in the boil. Finished off the brew day with a massive 24 oz wet hop, hop steep for :60 minutes. Chilled and fermented with a health pitch of WLP090, san diego super yeast.

White Pale Ale: brewing with wet hops

I finally picked up a copy of Mitch Steele's book IPA. The book is centered around the historic, evolution of the modern IPA, but it does go into some variations of the style as well. There is a brief section on White IPAs, citing Deschutes Brewery's Chainbreaker White IPA as a commercial example. Here in Michigan, New Holland Brewery produces White Hatter, and is the only Michigan commercial example I can find. I have never brewer a White IPA, but have had a few commercial examples in the past. One memorable White IPA was when I lived in Chicago and Goose Island Brewery (before Anheuser-Busch) had  one on tap. I don't remember what it was called only that I bought a growler to go, went back a week later for a refill, and it had been replaced.

In summary, a White IPA is a combination of a Belgian Wit and American IPA. Wheat malt, flaked wheat, and flaked oats can all be used in the grain bill and the beer is hopped with pungent, pacific northwest hop varieties somewhere between an American Pale Ale and American IPA. Coriander and orange peel can be added in the boil, as well. Finally, a Belgian Wit yeast strain is used during fermentation with some dry hops. To me the merging of the two styles makes sense and doesn't seem too radical at all. Orange peel and coriander gives off a citrus, pine character, which are similar to the variety of hops used. The grain bill doesn't have a lot of carmel malt, or specialty malts which is perfect for hoppy styles. Belgian Wit yeast attenuates fairly well and gives the beer a unique character of its own.