FatCat's 11 Iron Single Hopped IPAs

Background

I mentioned a while back that I was going to venture into the realm of single hopped IPAs.  Inspired by the Sam Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed, I made the commitment to single hop my homebrewed IPAs.  My game plan was to make 8 gallons of IPA, 4 gallons of Horizon IPA and 4 gallons of Citra IPA.  The recipe as far as the grain was concerned was the exact same recipe for each batch of IPA.  At the end I would take roughly half of each batch and make a mixed batch.   This would give me a blended version and two single hop versions for a total of 3 different beers.  With that the FatCat's 11 Iron IPA is born.  I actually brewed these beers about a month ago and forgot to post it to the site but better late than never right?

The Problem

Everything went through fairly well with the brewing except my calculations were off.  I figured this as one 8 gallon batch instead of  two 4 gallon batch.  What is the significance of that you may ask?  Well the evaporation while boiling two 4 gallon batches is much higher than boiling a single 8 gallon batch.  The outcome was I have 4 gallons of Horizon IPA and 2.5 gallons of Citra Imperial IPA.  Due to the Citra batch being smaller than I had anticipated, the sugars were more concentrated.  The sugar is what the yeast eats to make alcohol and thus the Citra IPA will be closer to 11% ABV than my goal of 7% ABV.  Oh well.  Let me tell you the smell of that Citra hop is phenomenal.

11 Iron Horizon IPA

 1.074 O.G.
1.020 F.G.
1.071 ABV
70 IBU

This has been fermenting for about 4 weeks in the primary.  I pulled it out this morning and transferred to the keg.  I am going to dry hop with some Horizon pellets before this brew will be complete.  Straight out of the primary fermenter this brew has a very different aroma than I am used to.  It's kind of earthy with a hint of dull lemon.  It's a very good aroma but is not the typical grapefruit or bright lemons you will find in most commercial IPAs.  The taste is very refreshing with a decent malt backbone to support the bitterness.  The bitterness is very crisp with a very clean finish.  The taste is hard for me to place as I've never really experienced a hop like this.  I would describe it as a hybrid between light earth notes with some mild citrus mixed in with it.  I like this hop a lot because of it's complexity and the fact this is unlike anything I've tried commercially.

11 Iron Citra IPA

All of my calculations have been thrown off due to my volume discrepancy but I had 1.115 O.G.  This will correlate to roughly 11% ABV.  I ran out of room in my kegs so this one will remain in the primary fermenter for a few more days.  I will update you as soon as it comes out of primary.

I'm posting this under the Homebrew Stuff  at the top of the page so check it out.