Old Vicki Special Export IPA

Source: Brian Connors
Recipe added: 05/08/99
Email: connorbd@yahoo.com

This is my own interpretation of an IPA from sometime in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It is a very striking shade of dark copper, not quite in brown ale territory but maybe a little much for a pale ale. It uses some interesting hops for an English IPA, and the sugar makes it somewhat different from Terry Foster's Original IPA recipe in Pale Ale, 2d Ed. (Brewers Publications, 1999), but it's an exceptional beer nevertheless. It's not a session beer at all, though; it tested out at 8.5% alcohol, and drunk young (I did this in April '99; I'm saving some for my birthday in November) it has a spectacular alcoholic burn that demands slow sipping. It demands long aging, so if you like it young try to restrain yourself so you have some around for next year. The recipe reflects a few changes I made after the fact, including increased bittering hops (my original used only 2 oz of Northern Brewer) and the addition of an aroma hop addition as well as the dry hopping.

Specifics

Recipe type: Extract
Batch Size: 5 gal
Starting Gravity: 1076
Finishing Gravity:
Time in Boil: 60 min
Primary Fermentation: 1 week
Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks

Ingredients:

10 lb pale malt extract syrup
1 lb dark brown sugar
3 oz Northern Brewer hops (bittering)
1 oz Willamette hops (flavor)
.5 oz Willamette hops (aroma)
1 oz Kent Goldings or Styrian Goldings (dry hop)
1 tsp gypsum
.5 tsp MgSO4
.5 tsp Irish Moss (rehydrated)
Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast
2/3 c glucose for priming

Procedure:

If you can, do this as a full wort boil; I started with 2.5 gal of water, but it came out a bit darker than I'd have liked. You'll also need a big starter; I pitched a bit under a half a gallon. Bring the treated water to a boil and add the syrup, sugar, and bittering hops. Add the flavor hops at 45 minutes and the aroma hops with the Irish moss at 55. Pitch with the yeast starter into an oversized carboy (or a Burton union, if you're crazy enough to have tried to build one) and let it ferment. When it's done, rack to a secondary and dry-hop with the Kent or Styrian Goldings (I used Styrian); let it sit for about two weeks (ymmv) and then bottle with the priming sugar. Let it mature as long as possible.

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