Ranger IPA A/B

Nate (coworker and fellow brewer) was kind enough to provide me with two bottles of his Ranger IPA that he brewed roughly at the same time I brewed mine. To be fair, he actually suggested the clone, although we used slightly different recipes.

I finally got around to opening one of his bottles to compare with what I have on tap. It's a rough task, I know, but I make these kind of sacrifices so you don't have to.

From here on out I'll be refering to mine as Ranger A, and Nate's as Ranger B.

To the comparison...

After the pour both produce a moderate head, very similar, and both leave nice lacing on the glass after drinking. Head retention seems to be the same, not quite disappearing but leaving a nice coating on the surface.

Ranger B on the left, Ranger A on the right. Head is very similar.

On the nose, Ranger B has a more pronounced fragrance of subtle fruitiness than Ranger A. One of the ways ours recipes differed was in the dry hop stage, I think the aroma comes down to this.

As to flavor, there is very little difference between the two, with just a bit more of a 'greener' hoppiness to Ranger B, once again I attribute it to the difference in dry hopping stage.

The major difference between the two is in clarity. This is most likely completely down to the fact that Ranger A is on tap, and has been able to settle in the keg while chilled for a good month now while Ranger B is bottled so has not had the same chance to clarify.

Ranger B on the left, Ranger A on the right. You can see the print on the piece of paper through Ranger A at this point. Ranger B has a bit of chill haze right out of the bottle, but it cleared up quite a bit once it warmed up a little. Once again, this is most likely all due to the fact that Ranger A was able to settle in the keg for a month while Ranger B did not have that conditioning.

All in all, I'm quite happy that both Rangers were so close. It was my first All Grain brew while Nate has been doing BIAB for quite a while now. I took Ranger A down to the LHBC meeting at the end of January and everyone there was favorably disposed towards the clone. I was still being asked for samples after I had already ran out of the samples that I brought down.

Blue Moon Belgian White Clone

Here is the recipe that I've put together for the next brew, a Blue Moon Belgian White clone:

6 lbs - American 2 row
4 lbs - White Wheat
1 lb  - Flaked Oats

I'm planning to mash on the warm side for a sweeter conversion, target will be 156F.

Boil for 90 minutes:

1.5oz Mt Hood @ 90
1.5tsps crushed Coriander @ 10
.5tsps crushed sweet orange peel @ 5

Will use WLP001 - California Ale yeast as the information I've read says to use.

The particulars:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 25.2
Color: 4.0 SRM

Not sure when I will get around to actually brewing this, probably sometime in February.

Taste Testing

Blackened is the IPA has been on CO2 at 10lbs now for 8 days. Pulled off a pint of it tonight, and I pronounce it good.

The recipe that came with the kit called for it to be dry hopped, but I altered it and put all the hops in during the boil. Most dry hopped IPA's tend to be a bit 'green' to my tastes.

Carb level still isn't quite up to full snuff, another week and it will be perfect. But, as of now, it is good to go as it still retains CO2 in the beer after the head subsides.

The gravity bottomed out at 1.024 on a projected 1.021. Earlier I thought it was a bit sweet to taste, but now it seems to have equalized out and has a nice balance.

Hops, what can't they do?

Sapporo has released a study showing that Humulone, a compound in hops, has anti-viral properties.

http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&id=9802&view=article

Of course, you'd need to have about 30 or so Sapporos a day to receive the effect. The study doesn't say anything about IPA's though!