American-Style India Pale Ale (extract)

An old IPA recipe of Marshall's would be the kick-off batch of Happy Head Brewing's home-brewery! The transformation of the simple, earthy ingredients into a complex, vibrant batch of living ale is a captivating process, the results of which we are excited to share with our friends and family.

Marshall oversees the stewing beginnings of the wort. The heating process was eventually moved indoors after an exhilarating experience wherein a loose flame began to burn along the line! We had brief visions of the side of Marshall's house being decimated by a propane take explosion.

The hour-long boil of the sweet wort was done inside, where multiple mesh bags filled with hop pellets would provide the hop aroma and bitterness qualities. Near the end of the boil, we added some Irish moss to help the beer clarify.

Once the boil was over, we needed to cool it down to pitch our yeast. It took some time to cool to the proper temperature., between 62 and 65 degrees. 

Once we pitched the yeast, we capped the fermenter, sealed it with an airlock so the carbon dioxide by-product of the fermentation could escape, and began to wait patiently. Brew day was over, but there much left to be done.

Once fermentation was over (we waited a couple weeks in the fermenter and a couple more in the secondary), it was tine to bottle. Here Marshall is demonstrating the "suck start."

Dextrose solution was heated until clear and would be used to bottle condition.

The reward after bottling was the excess beer which we could sample to begin getting a feeling for how it came out. We thought the color was a wonderful amber.

With all the bottles capped and carbonating, we sent out invitations for the tasting event. We couldn't wait to share the results of our first batch with the willing! At the party, we sadly found that we hadn't waited nearly long enough for the carbonation to happen, so we ended up serving a bunch up with barely any fizz at all. Oh well! 

With a couple more weeks in the bottles, the carbonation finally got to where it needed to be, and a nice rich head developed out of each pour. The results were interesting: the hop bitterness seemed to take over, but the malts were equally powerful, making this beer "big" all around. This beer turned out pretty high in the ABV department as well (we estimated upwards of 8%), and it was quite noticeable in the mouthfeel. Between that and the highly malty finish, this beer was not one we would have a few of in one sitting, but it was still an enjoyable treat, because it was ours.