I know enjoying IPAs is the “in” thing right now but I seriously love IPAs. They’re by far my favourite style and, while I still enjoy other types of beer, there is just something about the hoppy goodness of an IPA that keeps calling me back. My previous experience homebrewing an IPA, the OBK West Coast IPA, was a pretty big success and while I did really enjoy the taste of it, it still wasn’t hoppy enough to quench my… hop thirst? Anyway for round two (pun completely intended) I decided to seek out a clone recipe for one of the commercial IPAs I enjoy, Goose Island IPA.

The original recipe can be found here but I made some slight… err on-the-fly tweaks to the Goose I brewed. Yes, we’re two paragraphs in and this post has just as many bad puns… it’s one of those days!

The first change I made was to put in a full ounce of Cascade hops at 30 min, instead of the recipe’s called for 0.5 oz at 30min and another 0.5 oz at 1 minute. To be perfectly honest this change was far less by design and far more by accident. But hey it did boost that lovely IBU value up somewhat!

The only other change I made was to top up my volume so that I ended up with 6 gallons / 22.7 litres instead of the recipe’s 5.5 gallons / 20.8 litres. My main reason for doing this was to make up for some more than expected boil loss and to ensure that the ABV remained somewhat in check.

Recipe Source: Brewer’s Friend

Beer Specifications

Grain Bill/Fermentables

Hops

Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

Directions

After fermentation was complete I took my final specific gravity measurement which gave me an actual OG of 1.062 and FG of 1.008 for an ABV of 7.09%. I aimed to prime with 2.4 volumes of CO2 but forgot to compensate for the half gallon that didn’t make it into my bottling bucket so I ended up with 2.6 volumes… ah well. RDWHAHB amirite? The bottles sat at room temperature for about 2 weeks to carbonate. Finally the long wait was over and the beer was ready to drink!

The first thing I noticed about this beer, even back on bottling day, was the awesome hoppy aroma. It smells like an IPA but not to the extent that it burns out your nostrils, just something that really makes your mouth water in anticipation. The taste is well balanced, yet somewhat complex with ever so slightly different up front, ending and lingering tastes. It’s very drinkable and actually quite refreshing which is a dangerous combination with the higher than average alcohol content. I foreseen some unintended hangovers in my future with this brew 😛

I’m actually quite pleased with how this turned out! It definitely has more of that that earthy hop flavour than the previous West Coast IPA I made did and, even though it came in at ~50 IBU, I wouldn’t say it has that ‘punch you in the face’ bitterness that some people either love or hate. Based on my first impression I would recommend giving this one a shot if it sounds at all interesting to you.

P.S. – we called this brew “Dog Day Afternoon”