Exodus 2.0 Red IPA Recipe

Back in 2010 I designed an Irish red ale called Exodus. It was my second recipe I designed and sort of a miss. It was more of a brown ale but it wasn't a terrible beer. Just not so interesting that I wanted to rebrew it. My wife has gotten into the whole west coast red ale/red IPA style so I decided to repurpose the name for a new version of the recipe transformed into a more extreme red ale style.

But of course I had to take it in an unusual direction.

Many of the red IPAs I have tried (which admittedly isn't all that numerous) have focused on the typical citrusy hop character that readily identifies west coast hop bombs. I decided instead to take a different direction with the hop profile in favor of a mix of citrus, herbal and pine with the citrus character taking a backseat. It isn't quite dank but it also isn't bright citrus either. Somewhere in between. Part of the reason I chose this path was to explore a different hop profile than the typical citrus/dank/tropical profiles that dominate most hoppy commercial beers.

Another reason is that I thought it would be interesting to do a faux barrel aged version with a faux cocktail barrel. I have a manhattan that has been aging with Hungarian oak cubes for a few months and I plan to add some of the manhattan plus the oak to part of this batch to create something close to a cocktail barrel aged IPA. I usually oppose the idea of barrel aging hoppy beers because it means letting the hop character fade away but cocktail barrels are freshly dumped before use in beer (in the rare chance you find such a beer) and it does not take long for a beer to absorb the cocktail and oak character so long aging is unnecessary. So for that reason I plan to leave the oak in contact with the beer for no more than two weeks. The herbal character of the vermouth and bitters should interact nicely with the herbal and woodsy notes of the hops to create more complexity. Or it could just be a huge mess.

Exodus 2.0 Red IPA Recipe

Batch size: 2 gallons
Est. OG: 1.057
Est. FG: 1.014
Est. ABV: 5.7%
Est. IBU: 70.9
Est. SRM: 14

Grain Bill

72% 3 lb. 8 oz. Two row (2 SRM)
10.3% 8 oz. Vienna malt (3.5 SRM)
7.8% 6 oz. Crystal 60 (60 SRM)
5.1% 4 oz. Unmalted wheat (1.7 SRM)
3.7% 3 oz. Crystal 120 (120 SRM)
1% 0.1 oz Black malt (500 SRM)

Mash Profile

Single infusion 75 minute mash at 152F
Mash water volume 6 qt. infusion at 169F
Sparge water volume 2.92 gal. at 180F
RO Water adjusted to pale ale profile in Bru'n Water

Water Profile

Calcium: 160
Magnesium: 18
Sodium: 26
Chloride: 55
Sulfate: 308
Bicarbonate: 162
PH: 5.4

Mash Water Additions

Gypsum: 2.4g
Epsom salt: 1.1g
Canning salt: 0.4g
Calcium chloride: 0.2g
Chalk: 0.8g

Sparge Water Additions

Gypsum: 4.8g
Epsom salt: 2.1g
Canning salt: 0.8g
Calcium chloride: 0.4g

Boil Profile

60 minute boil

FWH 0.2oz. Triple Perle [8.9%] 13 IBU

60 min. 0.2oz. Nugget [13%] 25.8 IBU
20 min. 0.2oz. Nugget [13%] 10.4 IBU
20 min. 0.25oz. Cascade [5.5%] 5.5 IBU
20 min. 0.25 oz. Triple Perle [8.9%] 10.7 IBU
10 min. 0.3 tsp Irish moss
Whirlpool 0.6 oz. Cascade [5.5%] 0 IBU
Whirlpool 0.75oz. Triple Perle [8.9%] 0 IBU
Whirlpool 0.25oz. Nugget [13%] 0 IBU

Fermentation Profile

Pitch 42ml US-05 slurry and ferment at 66F.

After fermentation ends transfer one gallon to oak/manhattan for cocktail barrel aged version.

Bottle all at 2.3 vol. with 0.84 oz. table sugar per gallon.

Brewday & Fermentation Notes

Brewed 5/16/15

Realized after sparging that I had overcalculated sparge volume by a gallon. Added extra hour of boil time before taking pre-boil gravity reading to correct for extra volume. Started hop schedule after first hour.

First runnings gravity: 1.081
Pre-boil volume: 2.9g
Pre-boil gravity: 1.043

Post-boil gravity: 2.25g
Post-boil volume: 1.056

Mash efficiency: 68%
Brewhouse efficiency: 75.3%

Final gravity 5/26: 1.010
Apparent attenuation: 82%
ABV: 5.99%