Dear Mr. Replicator-
I got really spoiled last summer when I stayed at my brother's house in Seattle and had easy access to Bottleworks and their incredible selection of beers. I could spend hours just looking at all the different world class beers properly chilled but what I miss most, now that I live in Tacoma, is being able to always count on picking up a bottle or two of Bottleworks IPA brewed by Dicks in Centralia. The one place that carries it in town always sells out really quickly. I would love to brew a clone. Can you help me? Paul Zmolek Tacoma, WA
Paul,
Bottleworks is one of the Seattle area’s premier “beer by the bottle” shops, selling all kinds of bottled beer from the Northwest, and around the world. Bottleworks and Dicks Brewing Company worked out a deal for Dick’s to contract brew the Bottleworks IPA for them to sell as their own private label IPA. Bottleworks loved Dick’s original IPA, and wanted a huge beer with the IPA like flavor profile, and thus Bottleworks IPA was born!
Dick’s has been brewing Bottleworks IPA since 2001. Head brewer Ezra Cox loves to talk about beer, and was excited to give me the details of this incredible beer. Ezra says Bottleworks IPA is all about the hops, with a nice balance from a bit of residual sugar from the crystal malts used.
Ezra calls Bottleworks IPA an “Industrial IPA” or “Imperial IPA”, with both terms meaning that basically you take the regular IPA style, and increase everything that goes into the beer! More hop bitterness, more hop aroma, more malt flavor, and more alcohol. You get the idea. What’s not to love here for a beer drinker?
Since this is a big beer, Dick’s takes it’s time producing Bottleworks IPA. It takes a total of 6 weeks to ferment, clear in the bright tank, mellow, and then Dick’s bottle conditions the beer for another 2 week. Ezra said that he used a full 5 ounces of Columbus as the bittering hop. Well, that calculates out to over 300 IBU! Can it be true? For this recipe I toned it down a bit to just over 2 ounces, but that still calculates to over 100 IBU ! Typically you cannot taste any difference in IBU levels when it gets above around 100, and many brewers say that you cannot extract more than about 100 IBU’s into a beer. This sounds like a grand hop experiment to me! For more information you can visit the Dicks Brewing Company web site at: http://www.dicksbeer.com/ by calling (360 ) 736-1603.
Dicks Brewing Company “Bottleworks IPA” 5 Gallons (Extract with Grain)
OG=1.080
FG=1.018
IBU’S = Over 100!!
SRM= 11.3
Alcohol 8.5% by volume
Ingredients:
9.9 Lbs. (4.5 kg) Briess Light Unhopped malt extract syrup
8.0 oz. (226 g.) 120L Crystal Malt
1.0 oz. (28 g. ) Chocolate Malt
1 teaspoon (5ml.) Irish moss (boil 60 min.)
33.7 AAU Columbus hops (bittering hop, boil 60 min.) (2.25 Oz. (64 g) of 15.0% Alpha acid)
15.0 AAU Columbus hops (flavoring hop, boil 20 min.) (1.0 Oz. (28 g) of 15.0% Alpha acid)
15.0 AAU Columbus hops (aroma hop, boil 5 min.) (1.0 Oz. (28 g) of 15.0% Alpha acid)
White Labs WLP001 California ale or Wyeast 1056 American ale yeast
O.75 cup (180 ml) of corn sugar for priming.
Step by step instructions Steep the crushed malts in 3 gallons (13.5 L) of water at 155º (68 ° C.) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add the malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add the Columbus bittering hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the second addition of Columbus hops for the last 20 minutes of the boil. Add the remaining Columbus hops at the end of the boil and let them steep for 5 minutes. Now add the wort to 2 gallons (9 L) of cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. (20 L) Cool the wort to 75º (24 ° C.), aerate the beer heavily and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 ° (20 ° C.), and hold at this temperature until the beer has finished fermenting. Dicks conditions this beer for about a total of 6 weeks, then bottle or keg your beer and enjoy!! All grain option: This is a single step infusion mash. Replace the malt syrup with 16.0 lbs. (7.25 KG) of 2-Row Pale. Mash the 3 grains together at 155º (68 C.) for 60 minutes. Collect approximately 7 gallons wort (32 L) to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (25 L). Lower the amount of the Columbus hops in the first addition of the boil to 2.0 ounces (57 g) to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract recipe.