April 26, 2018 3 min read 5 Comments

 

So what is a dank ale anyway?  I've been hearing about it more these days, 'dank' hops or in reference to beer.  If you smoke weed, you know exactly what it means, don't you?!  With marijuana, people often refer to the buds as 'dank' and that can be best referenced as having a pungent, odoriferous smell, which is a good thing.  These connoisseur's of bud are transferring the lingo to hops now and referring to the hop characteristics in beer as 'dank'.  I think there's a bit of interpretation to the 'dankness' in beer and I'll give you my take on what makes a dank beer, and follow it up with a few recipes below.  While some may say a west coast style double IPA can be dank, I'm more leaning to the east coast style of IPA, and some of my favourite hops to make this with are Galaxy, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra.  These smells to me bring out tropical flavours for me of mango and papaya, and a bit of a piney smell, which, well, reminds me of bud.

This first recipe is 'dank' lite.  It's a pale ale, and touches on a bit of dankness in your brew.  The hop additions are light, and you can always double up the whirlpool and dry hop additions if you're looking for more oomph.  I love how the aroma comes before the taste, and like it just how it is myself.

I find the oats really help in creating that smooth juiciness in the east coast style and we've added them in both recipes.

One quick note about whirl pooling, it's something you want to do when you've chilled the wort to around 160º F.  I personally have been whirlpooling a bit longer at between 120º-130º just to get more aroma into the beer, but that's another blog post.  Experiment, that's what it's all about!

I need to thank Chris from Dan's Homebrewing in Vancouver, BC.  He's the one who helped me craft these recipes, and I trust his instincts when it comes to creating really good beer!

Hazy Tropical Pale Ale 

Estimated OG of around 1.049

10lbs Pale Malt (2 row)

1lbs Oats, Malted

8oz Crystal Malt 20l

1oz Simcoe Hops - boil

2oz Amarillo Hops - whirlpool

1oz Galaxy Hops Dry Hop 5 days

1 package of Safale 05 yeast

 

This next recipe kicks it up a notch, and is more of an east coast IPA in style.  I love the dry hop additions and feel that it's heavy, and aromatic, but has more of an approachable character due to the tropical hops.  It's become my new favourite.  While it ranks at nearly 84 IBU's, I find this number misleading, as there's very little boil hop additions, and it's mostly back loaded in whirlpool and dry hops, which don't carry the same bitterness. 

SuperDank IPA

Estimated OG of 1.069

13lbs Pale Malt (2 row)

1lbs Oats, Flaked

1lbs Oats, Malted

8oz Crystal Malt 20l

2oz Amarillo Hops - Boil 10 min

6oz Amarillo Hops - whirlpool

4oz Galaxy Hops - dry hop 5 days

1pkg East Coast Ale (white Labs #WLP008)

 

 I hope you enjoy these recipes and feel free to leave your comments below. Brau on! 🤟🏼

5 Responses

Steven
Steven

July 19, 2018

I take precautions with hop matter and try and ‘stack’ the hops by giving them a good stir first. You definitely don’t want large matter going through, but with a bit of care it’s no problem using our plate chiller.

Vincent
Vincent

May 09, 2018

Thanks Steven!

No worries about hop matter going through the chiller? Just want to make sure I don’t create a disaster in my kitchen haha

Steven
Steven

April 27, 2018

Thanks Bob!
Vincent, I’d like to write another article about utilization and filters, but I’d say don’t use the filter. Chill the boil using the included plate chiller, returning the wort into the kettle. I set the controller to my ideal whirlpool temperature, and keep the pump running. This means during the whole whirlpool I’m using the heater if I need it to maintain my temperature. Throw in the hops and give them a good stir. Keep using the pump, without chill water from the plate chiller. When you get to the point of pumping the wort into your fermenter, I shut the pump off, and get a good whirlpool to ‘stack’ the hops. Then I pump again with chill water running through the plate chiller, into the fermenter. Our water is cold enough I’m usually getting it to around 70º F into the fermenter.

Bob Fawbush
Bob Fawbush

April 27, 2018

Excellent articles

Vincent
Vincent

April 27, 2018

Solid recipes! Maybe I can pick your brain a bit Steven. If I were to aim to whirlpool with a large bundle of pellets like this, how would you suggest I tackle that on a system like the V3, considering the hop-basket and plate chiller?

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.