Saturday, February 23, 2008

Amnesia Amnesia

Hi there. Today -- Feb. 23 2008 -- Jimmy and I bottled up our Pale Amnesia. To recap, Pale Amnesia is a golden colored IPA. 1.068, 92 IBUs. When we moved the beer into secondary, 5 gallons went in as is, and the other 4 gallons got themselves dry hopped on an ounce of Centennial. The un-dry hopped version is called Pale Amnesia and the dry hopped version is called (surprise!) Dry Amnesia.

The recipe -- or at least the hop profile -- was based off of Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin IPA, long one of my favorite beers (Though I should point out that the extensive use of crystal malt is also inspired by AV). We tried both versions of the Amnesia side by side with the Ottin. The Anderson Valley beer was better attenuated, but had far more fruity esters. Whereas both of our homebrews showed more malt, especially the Pale Amnesia which tasted like biscuits.

Hops... The dry hopped version (obviously) had more going on in terms of hop flavor. Grapefruit, tangerine and pineapple were all present. Both of our beers displayed more hop flavor than the AV, though it had a much more pronounced, ragged bitterness. Now, I'm a huge fan of boot-to-the-tongue bitterness, so I was a bit disappointed, though I think carbonation will help. Jimmy preferred our beers' finish, as it was longer lasting and more fruity than grassy. Then we mixed the Pale with the Dry. Bingo!

After bottling up a case of each beer individually, we blended 2/3 Pale with 1/3 Dry to create Amnesia Amnesia. We were going to call it Double Amnesia, but beer names are already confusing enough and this is not a DIPA. Here's the recipe:

11 Gallons
90 minute boil
Anticipated OG: 1.065
Actual OG: 1.068
FG: 1.015
ABV: 7%

12 lbs American Pale Malt
12 lbs Marris Otter
.5 lbs Crystal 10L
.5 lbs Belgian 22L
.5 lbs Crystal 40L
.25 lbs. Crystal 120L
.25 lbs Biscuit

2 oz Warrior @90 min
1 oz Simcoe @30 min
1 oz Centennial @30 min
1 oz Palisade @0 min
1 oz Centennial @0 min

Dry hop with 1 ounce of Centennial

Pitched on 1056 and 1272

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