I got 3rd place!
No, I did not place 3rd in a running race… what the heck do you think I placed third in?
MyAmerican IPA (India Pale Ale) placed third in its category at the first Rapid City Bierborse Homebrew Competition this weekend. I am especially proud because it is my own recipe (I must admit that I used a pale ale recipe to start with and then I upped the hop and malt to make it an IPA). Indeed, this IPA was the very first all-grain beer I ever brewed.
IPAs are a very popular style of beer- so even placing in such a category is something to be proud of.
I won’t go through at describe in detail every step I took in brewing this batch, but my ingredients list was as follows:
- 10 lbs Pale 2-row malt
- 1/2 lb Crystal malt
- 1/2 lb Cara-pils
- 1 lb light dry malt extract (OK I lied this was a mostly but not a 100% all-grain recipe, I did end up adding some malt extract to increase the gravity ie to increase the alcohol)
- 1/2 lb corn sugar (I had some extra lying around I wasn’t using for carbonating- so I threw it in for good measure too. What the heck: more sugar = more alcohol).
- 0.75 oz Columbus bittering hop (60 min)
- 1 oz Amarillo bittering hop (20 min)
- 1 oz Amarillo aroma hop (2 min)
- 1 oz Amarillo dry hop (7 days)
I used Amarillo hops (pronounced Am-uh-ree-yoh- as in the Spanish word for yellow- not like the city in Texas) to provide the distinct citrus-grapefruit-rind aroma and bitterness that IPAs are known for.
The original gravity was 1.072. The final was 1.020. The ABV was 6.8% . ABV stand for ”alcohol-by-volume” for you non-brewers reading this.
When I heard my name called, I was standing at the back of the crowd talking with friends. I was so surprised I had to push myself to get through the crowd to go up on the stage and pick up my ribbon. It was my very first all-grain (well, almost but not quite all-grain) that I ever brewed.
After 20 years of on-again, off-again homebrewing, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised. Friends have told me for years I should enter my beers into a competition to see how I would do.
I never did, because, well competition doesn’t interest me much. I enjoy creating and tweaking recipes, brewing beer and tasting the end result- and my friends enjoy helping me out in consuming it.
Isn’t that all that matters?
Nevertheless, I admit it was really fun to win a ribbon. It was actually third place from first in the categroyr. When I run, I consider myself to be doing really well when finishing third from dead last!
I wish you could taste and smell this- it is delicious!
