Cabernet IPA: An IPA With a Red Wine Kick

The day turned out great and got into the 40s after being below freezing all week. Got to brew in a tee shirt for the first time this year. This beer is loosely based off of Dogfish head 61, their classic IPA brewed with Syrah wine must added. Instead of Syrah grape juice, I soaked .25oz of medium toast french oak chips for a week before brewing. They get added right to primary.

I didn’t have any brewing partners this week, but when you brew outside, you’re never truly alone. A small red squirrel found some spent grain that had lived under a snow bank for a few months and ate. and ate. and ate, while I brewed for 5-6 hours. I’ll need to find an alternate method of getting rid of spent grain as the bears will come out soon.

Cabernet IPA: Aged With Cabernet Sauvignon Oak Chips

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Process

Mash between 151-153 for 1 hour. Sparge and begin boil. I mashed on the stove this time as I was low on propane. At the same time as yeast pitch, add your oak and wine that has been soaking into primary. Bottle after 2 weeks.

Overnight

The yeast started up and is off. I’ll check in again at 2 weeks. It seems to be a very healthy and active ferment. US-05 is a great neutral yeast if you don’t mind the clarity being a touch off.

5 Days

Gravity is at 1.010, we’ll see if it drops anymore in the next week.

17 Days

Bottled it all up. Smelled great, so I can’t wait for some final notes. The US-05 floculated pretty poorly even by it’s standards, it may be time to switch yeast or add whirlfloc in. Bottling was a little late because my wife and I had our baby. Let me tell you, bottling a beer with a newborn in the house doubles the time it normally takes.

24 Days

This IPA is carbed up and ready to drink and ready to drink. It has some sweet tannic notes form the wine and oak, but is definitely back seat to the hops. The aroma is sweet grapefruit but the IBUs could use a little boost. Hop additions above have been corrected.