Fear and Love – West Coast IPA

John Lennon once said “There are two basic motivating forces, fear and love.” Well, one of Ian’s daily fears finally came true. He made the same mistake made so often by helpers in the brewery, one that he loves to shame others for, but rarely occurs by his own hands. He milled too much malt into our WC IPA recipe. There was no way to dilute it and reverse the mistake. As he began calculating the damage, every recipe specification would have to be changed. The love of brewing would have to be rekindled for a new balance to be achieved. So he cranked up the IBUs to about 90 (vs. 60-70 in our usual recipe), created a new sulfate heavy water profile to increase perceived dryness, and included a big CTZ dry hop for its muscular gnarliness alongside every IPA hop he found in our freezer. The result is a somewhat richer variant of our house WCs. Citra, CTZ, Krush, Waimea, Idaho #7, and Simcoe.