Designing a New SheppyBrew IPA

So ... for various reasons, I want to brew an American IPA soon.

Atypical to most homebrewers, I don't actually brew very many IPA's. I like them (a lot). But, they are a little higher in alcohol than I generally like to have gallons and gallons of at home.

And ... every brewery I know brews several IPA's. If I want an IPA, I can find them commercially at any one of hundreds within bike riding distance. Not to mention grocery stores and liquor stores now have great craft beer selections.

But, every once and awhile I like to brew an IPA.

Unless I'm forgetting any (which is possible, but not likely I think) I've brewed 5 beers that could be called traditional American IPA's: 

2020 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

And ... believe it or not ... the 2nd quarter of 2020 is done. Finished. Complete.

Update on Foothills IPA vs Odell IPA

Well ... my Foothills India Pale Ale is almost gone.

It didn't last very long. It is so delicious, and Shelter-in-Place means I am drinking beer.

Well ... I drank beer before Shelter-in-Place so I probably can't blame SIP.

But, anyhoo ....

As I'm sure you remember, Foothills IPA is designed to be similar to Odell Brewing Company's IPA, and I used the AHA Odell IPA Clone recipe as the base.

Thus, it makes sense that I would compare Foothills IPA to the Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

A couple of weeks ago, I did the comparison ... see Foothills IPA vs Odell IPA.

Foothills IPA vs Odell IPA

So ... about a month ago ... I brewed Foothills India Pale Ale, the second beer in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

The recipe's base comes from the AHA's Zymurgy Clone recipe of Odell Brewing Company's IPA and was designed as a homebrew tribute to Odell's beer.

I kegged on the 8th of May, and added gelatin to help clarify the beer. On the 14th, I felt I was ready to give Foothills India Pale Ale a side-by-side comparison with Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

Of the Homebrew Colorado 6 pack, Odell IPA is one of the few that is available commercially year-round, so I had to take advantage of that.

May 14th ... hazy

Visually, the beer had not cleared up as much as I thought it would, but the color was actually pretty close if I took the haze into account.

Foothills India Pale Ale

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I decided to brew one beer to represent each of the beers I had in my Colorado 6 pack years ago.

See Homebrew Colorado 6 pack if you need a little reminder.

The first of these beers was Stone Soup IDA, which was very similar to the Hop Strike Black IPA that Tommyknocker brew pub used to make.

Second up on the list was Odell Brewing Company's IPA.

I've never really brewed a beer based on it, but the AHA has an Odell IPA Clone that I was able to borrow for pointers.

So, I went ahead and made a recipe using the Odell IPA Clone as the base.

Foothills India Pale Ale