West Coast IPA (All-Grain)

Method

1. Mill and mash. Crush all grains to a consistent grist. Heat 4.5 gallons of strike water to 164°F — when you add the grain, the mash should settle at 152°F. This single-infusion mash converts starches to fermentable sugars via enzymatic action (beta-amylase favors 148–152°F for a dry, fermentable wort). Hold for 60 minutes, stirring gently every 15 minutes. Perform an iodine test: a drop of wort on a white plate should not turn black, confirming full conversion.

2. Vorlauf and lauter. Recirculate the first quart of runnings back through the grain bed until the wort runs clear — this is the vorlauf, and it sets the grain bed as a filter. Then slowly drain the wort into your kettle. Batch sparge with 4 gallons of 170°F water to rinse remaining sugars. Collect approximately 6.5 gallons of wort. Your pre-boil gravity should be around 1.058.

3. Boil and hop schedule. Bring to a rolling boil and add Columbus at 60 minutes (this provides the backbone bitterness, roughly 45 IBUs from this addition alone). Add Centennial at 30 minutes. Add Simcoe and Irish moss at 15 minutes. At flameout, add Citra and whirlpool at 170°F for 15 minutes — this extracts maximum aroma without isomerizing more bitterness. Total IBU target: 60–70.

4. Cool and pitch. Use a wort chiller to bring the temperature to 66°F as fast as possible. Transfer to a sanitized fermenter, aerate well, and pitch yeast. Target OG: 1.065–1.070.

5. Primary fermentation and dry hop. Ferment at 66°F for the first 3 days, then allow the temperature to rise to 70°F to help the yeast clean up diacetyl and acetaldehyde. On day 5, add 2 oz of Citra hops directly into the fermenter (dry hopping). This adds intense tropical and citrus aroma without bitterness. Leave the dry hops in contact for 5–7 days.

6. Check gravity and cold crash. After 12–14 days total, confirm FG has stabilized around 1.010–1.014 over two consecutive days. Cold crash the fermenter to 34°F for 48 hours — this drops yeast and hop particulate out of suspension for a clearer beer.

7. Package. Bottle with 5 oz priming sugar or keg at 2.4 volumes CO2. If bottling, condition at room temperature for 2 weeks. If kegging, force-carbonate at 12 PSI for 7 days at 38°F.

Equipment Required

• Mash tun (10 gallon cooler with false bottom or brew bag)
• Brew kettle (10+ gallon)
• Hot liquor tank or second pot for sparge water
• Fermenting vessel (6.5 gallon carboy or bucket) with airlock
• Sanitizer (Star San)
• Auto-siphon and tubing
• Hydrometer and thermometer Recommended: ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2
• Bottling or kegging equipment
• Grain mill (or have your homebrew shop mill the grain)

Chef Notes

• The most important thing: Water chemistry matters — add gypsum to enhance hop bitterness if your water is soft.
• Mash at 152°F for medium body. Lower for drier, higher for sweeter.
• Add hops at multiple stages: 60 min (bitterness), 15 min (flavor), 0 min (aroma), dry hop 3-5 days.
• All-grain brewing takes 5-6 hours. Have everything prepped before you start.

Common Substitutions

Ingredient	Substitution	Notes
Ale yeast	Lager yeast (ferment at 50-55°F)	Completely different flavor profile — lager is cleaner
Corn sugar (priming)	Table sugar or honey	All work for carbonation — honey adds subtle flavor
Specialty grains	Liquid malt extract	Extract brewing is simpler — skip the mash step entirely
Glass carboy	Food-grade plastic bucket	Plastic is lighter and won't shatter — glass is easier to sanitize

What You're Practicing

All-grain brewing is the full expression of the brewer's craft. You are performing enzymatic mashing — controlling temperature to activate alpha- and beta-amylase, which determines the fermentability and body of your beer. The vorlauf teaches you about grain bed filtration. The aggressive hop schedule demonstrates how hop utilization changes with boil time: early additions isomerize alpha acids into iso-alpha acids (bitterness), while late and post-boil additions preserve myrcene, linalool, and geraniol (aroma compounds). Dry hopping is a biotransformation technique — yeast enzymes convert hop glycosides into free aromatic compounds. Cold crashing leverages flocculation — yeast and proteins settle under cold temperatures. Understanding OG/FG lets you calculate ABV (expect 7.0–7.5%) and attenuation (target 78–82%). See Fermentation Science for more on yeast metabolism.