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This turned out exactly as I had hoped, so I thought it might be worth sharing. IBUs are not as high as a lot of IPAs, it seems about half way between an IPA and an APA. Gravity at pitching was 1.061 and kegging 0.008(!). Nice hop-forward brew with great balance. Beautiful aroma from the Falconer's Flight and Amarillo. Settled out clear as clear can be. Spent four weeks in the secondary at 12°C, dry hopped for the last two. It was my second time using FF, the Amarillo definitely makes a nice compliment. I use Dartmouth water modified as shown in the recipe.

Alfama IPA

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.55 gal
Boil Size: 6.20 gal
Boil Time: 70 min
End of Boil Vol: 5.62 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.55 gal
Fermentation: La Brasserie à Stef
Date: 11 Mar 2014
Brewer: La Brasserie à Stef
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: La Brasserie à Stef
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Taste Rating: 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.55 gal La Brasserie à Stef Water 1 -
0.50 tsp Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
0.50 tsp Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
0.25 tsp Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 4 -
0.25 tsp Chalk (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 5 -
5.10 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC) Grain 6 86.4 %
0.50 kg Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 7 8.5 %
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (59.1 EBC) Grain 8 5.1 %
25.00 g Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend [9.90 %] - Boil 70.0 min Hop 9 29.5 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
20.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 3.9 IBUs
20.00 g Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend [9.90 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 4.6 IBUs
25.00 g Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend [9.90 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 13 2.4 IBUs
25.00 g Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend [9.90 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 min Hop 14 4.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124.21 ml] Yeast 15 -
40.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.40 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
10.00 g Falconer's Flight 7C's Blend [9.90 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %
Bitterness: 44.7 IBUs
Est Color: 13.9 EBC
Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Mash Profile
Mash Name: La Brasserie à Stef
Sparge Water: 3.70 gal
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE
Total Grain Weight: 5.90 kg
Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 15.39 l of water at 73.1 C 66.7 C 60 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 3.70 gal water at 75.6 C
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

Right on. Gotta love the FF, and Amarillo goes great with it since it's just as awesome. My last IPA had a bunch of FF and used the rest of my Amarillo, plus some Citra. My next one will probably be FF & Citra unless I cave in and brew it before the group buy comes in.

I'm not sure what your water additions equate to in grams but I'd drop the chalk for an IPA with our water, probably the baking soda too. Personally I prefer a mix of some epsom, gypsom, and a wee bit of CaCl. You gotta love Dartmouth water for brewing though. Have you ever made a Pilsner?

Not a fan of Pilsners to be perfectly honest...of course I've never tried brewing one myself so I'm sure that might have something to do with it.

I've always been too lazy to get deep into water analysis, so I definitely appreciate the info. I used to put gypsum in my water, but after reading (scanning really) online about water additions and playing with the water calculator in Beersmith, I arrived at the above additions, which have served me well. I'll take your advice tho, make some more adjustments for my next batch, and see if I can detect a difference. My problem is I'm trying new things every batch so have never really established a baseline for comparison.

Yeah stuff like that is a moving target, dialing it in bit by bit. I'm pretty happy with my IPA water profile so it doesn't change much now. John Palmer's book has some good info. I have the "water" book as well but haven't gotten around to reading it cover to cover yet.

It would be cool to brew a bunch of IPAs back to back and taste them side by side but then we'd be shitfaced all the time.