Wanderlust-Style NW IPA

clean, piney Pacific Northwest IPA

Makes 20 L

Ingredients

• 5200 g Pale Ale Malt (2-row)
• 450 g Munich Malt
• 200 g Crystal Malt
• 250 g Dextrose
• 30 g Columbus Hops
• 70 g Citra Hops
• 70 g Chinook Hops
• 27000 g Water
• 4 g Gypsum
• 11 g US-05 Ale Yeast
• 110 g Priming Sugar

Method

1. Brew day (~5 h):
2. 1. Sanitize anything that touches the beer after the boil (Star San); before the boil, clean is enough.
3. 2. Heat 27 L water with the gypsum to 70°C; this is full-volume BIAB, no sparge.
4. 3. Kill the heat, fit the mesh bag, and stir in the crushed grains, breaking up clumps; it should settle to ~66°C.
5. 4. Lid on and wrapped in a blanket, hold 64–67°C for 60 min, nudging the heat up if it drops below 64°C.
6. 5. Lift and drain the bag 5–10 min with a gentle squeeze; expect ~24 L of wort.
7. 6. Bring to a rolling boil, watching for foam-over, then add the first Columbus and start a 60 min timer.
8. 7. At 30 min left add the second Columbus; at 5 min left stir in the dextrose, and drop the immersion chiller in to sanitize.
9. Whirlpool: Kill the heat, let the wort fall to 80°C, then add the Citra and Chinook, stir into a gentle whirlpool, cover, and steep 20 min; staying below ~80°C gives the pine and citrus without harsh bitterness. Chill fast to 20°C or below; faster is cleaner. It is sanitize-only from here.
10. Pitch: Transfer to a sanitized fermenter, splashing hard, the one time oxygen helps, and leaving the kettle sludge behind; target ~1.062. Sprinkle the US-05 on top and seal with an airlock.
11. Ferment: Hold 18°C for 7 days. Fermentation self-heats 2–3°C, so ~16–17°C ambient is ideal; bubbling starts within a day or two. Do not open the lid.
12. Dry hop (day 7): Open just long enough to drop in the dry-hop Citra and Chinook, then reseal at once, since oxygen now turns hops dull and cardboardy. Hold 4–5 more days at 18°C.
13. Package (day 11–12): Confirm it is done at ~1.012, with two identical readings a day apart; bottling early makes exploding bottles. Dissolve the priming sugar in a cup of boiled water, add it to a sanitized bottling bucket, and gently siphon the beer on top without splashing, leaving the yeast cake behind. Fill about 38–40 half-liter bottles to ~3 cm below the rim and cap. Condition 2 weeks at ~20°C, then refrigerate. Drink it young: a hoppy IPA peaks at weeks 2–6 and fades after.

Notes

20 L batch. OG 1.062, FG ~1.012, ABV ~6.5%, IBU ~70. Modeled on Breakside Wanderlust. The NW-not-Belgian character comes from four things: US-05 yeast held at 18°C for a neutral ferment, sulfate-forward water (gypsum, ~8:1 sulfate:chloride) for sharp dry hops, genuine US-grown Chinook/Citra/Columbus, and zero oxygen once fermentation starts.