21B Specialty IPA: Red IPA
Mean Doses RIPA (clone)
ABV7.2% OG1.069 FG1.013 IBU85Grain bill
| Gladfield Ale Malt | 4.56 kg | 67.9% |
| Gladfield Vienna Malt | 0.94 kg | 14% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 0.47 kg | 7% |
| Gladfield RedBack Malt | 0.47 kg | 7% |
| Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt | 0.27 kg | 4% |
Adjuncts
| Yeast Nutrient | 2 g @ 15 min |
| Whirlfloc | 1 g @ 15 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 15 min | 5 min | WP 85°C | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Jade | 12g | · | · | · | · |
| Mosaic | · | 15g | 40g | 15g | 60g |
| Simcoe | · | · | 20g | 15g | 60g |
| Nelson Sauvin | · | · | · | 15g | 60g |
Yeast
| Safale S-04 | 2 packets |
Fermentation profile
Gravity
Temperature
About This Beer
A clone of a Red IPA recipe provided by Dean at Mean Doses for the Beat the Brewer Challenge 2025, a competition where homebrewers attempt to replicate a commercial brewery’s beer using its actual recipe. James W. won that judging and went on to brew a commercial batch with Dean, which became Mean WCIPA.
A classic Red IPA build: a substantial Ale Malt base, Vienna for sweetness and body, then Aurora, RedBack and Shepherds Delight layered in for the red colour and bready, dried fruit and caramel depth. Vienna anchors the malt character; Shepherds Delight brings the deeper toffee.
Pacific Jade for clean firm bittering, Mosaic through mid and late boil, Simcoe for resinous support, then all three plus Nelson Sauvin through whirlpool and dry hop.
SafAle S-04, an English strain with good flocculation and a clean, slightly fruity profile.
Brew day
Friday evening brew. Seventy-five minute boil, whirlpool at 85°C for 20 minutes. The boil was not topped up afterwards, so slightly less wort reached the fermenter and it started stronger than planned.
Fermentation
Quick. By day 2.5 gravity had already dropped to 1.018. Day 5 around 1.016, then only a single point of change over the following 48 hours.
Dry hopped day 5, temperature raised to 20°C, and the spunding valve closed to capture carbonation. Pressure reached 10 psi overnight.
Notes
Malt flavours and hop aroma were both very good, but there was disappointingly what seemed to be diacetyl. That detection could have been confused with the toffee and caramel notes, but the more likely cause is the treatment of the S-04: pressure was applied the same way it would be with Pomona or BRY-97, which does not suit this strain.
It had time to clean up, but perhaps not as much as it needed, and the increasing pressure probably suppressed the yeast activity further.