Homebrewing: Make a Hop Statement

Trying to keep up with the ever-popular double, triple and imperial IPAs is no easy task. It seems like every time you turn around some brewery is adding a new face-melting IPA to their line-up or collecting accolades for an exceptional year-rounder. So how do these breweries impart those incredible hop flavors and aromas in their beer and what can I do to make a better homebrewed IPA? In this weeks’ homebrew column, Homebrewing: Make a Hop Statement I’m going to share some of my favorite hopping techniques and the reasons behind using them.
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Alltech’s Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. – Kentucky IPA

Alltech’s Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. – Kentucky IPA

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 70 (I couldn’t actually find a reliable source for this, so I ball parked.)

Alltech is responsible for quite a bit of growth in Central Kentucky, not to mention the first contributor to the advent of the Lexington, Kentucky craft beer spring. For years, there were very few local craft brews available in Central Kentucky. Alltech seized this opportunity and in 1999 released what is now a staple across the state: Kentucky Ale. Soon the brewery released yet another delicious creation: Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. This beer combined the signature Kentucky Ale with the flavor of Kentucky Bourbon (by aging for 6 weeks in bourbon barrels), yielding a delicious, slightly sweet, and highly potent brew (about 9% abv).

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Homebrew: Growing Your Own Hops

If you’re already brewing your own beer, you’re probably like me. You care about quality products and aren’t afraid to try doing it on your own and dabbling in new things. I love to cook extravagant meals and have dabbled in building furniture (including boss kegerators), growing a vegetable garden and growing my own hops.

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Homebrew: Developing Your Recipe

While following clone recipes and recipes produced by others is a great way to get started and master your specific equipment, developing your own recipes is where the beauty of brewing really begins. The process of creating  a beautiful masterpiece and sharing something that is solely your own with friends and family is incredibly exciting. Other than ‘saving money’ which, lets be honest is not true at all, we want to make something that we’re proud to call our own. That is the joy of homebrewing. This weekend I will be brewing an IPA and want to share my methodology in hopes that it will help in developing your recipe. Read More

Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada – Rhizing Bines

Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada Rhizing Bines

ABV: 8%

IBUs: 70

Rhizing Bines is the delightful product of a mind meld between the kings of innovative hopping processes: Delaware’s Dogfish Head and California’s Sierra Nevada. What happens when two craft brew heavyweights from each coast combine their powers for good? Well, pretty fantastic beer, of course. This Imperial IPA is the second installation in these breweries collaborations, the first of which – the dark, maple brewed “Life & Limb” – debuted in 2009. Though I feel that more diehard hops fans will be left wanting for a bigger punch of bitterness, this is a beer that will please even those on the fence about IPAs. Read More

Three Floyds Brewing Co. | Zombie Dust

ABV: 6.4 | IBU: 60

3 Floyds Brewing Co.’s Zombie Dust has become the only beer I MUST track down any time I’m back home in Kentucky, or fortuitously find myself jamming out to Sufjan Stevens on the streets of Chicago. … Read More

12 Beers of Christmas | Day 11: Boulevard Nutcracker

This beer pours a deep, dark brown almost black, Smells of roasted malt, coffee, and light herbaceous hops. The label says it’s a fresh hopped Winter Warmer, but the only hops I get are on the nose and it is … Read More

Hoppy IPA Day

Hoppy International IPA Day!  We, here at PorchDrinking, love us some myrcene & lupulin, so we would like to list some IPAs for every level of drinking. IPAs have become one of my … Read More

Hop into Summer with Zommerhop

Zommerhop –  Brouwerij de Molen from the Netherlands

Style: American IPA

ABV:6.2%

IBU:42

Hops: Permiant and Sazz for bittering. Columbus and Cascade for aroma and flavor.

Background: Summer has hit and the temperature is rising. You are looking for a beer … Read More