21C Hazy IPA
Fusion Haze
ABV6.3% OG1.058 FG1.010 IBU18Grain bill
| Gladfield Ale Malt | 4.4 kg | 60.3% |
| Gladfield Wheat Malt | 1.1 kg | 15.1% |
| Gladfield Big O Malted Oats | 0.9 kg | 12.3% |
| Flaked Oats | 0.6 kg | 8.2% |
| Carahell | 0.3 kg | 4.1% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | 1 tablet @ 10 min |
| Yeast Nutrient | 5 g @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | WP 75°C | DIP | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus | 12g | · | · | · |
| Tropical Fusion | · | 70g | · | · |
| Krush | · | 40g | 10g | · |
| Simcoe | · | 35g | · | · |
| Mosaic Cryo | · | · | · | 30g |
| Nectaron | · | · | · | 50g |
| Citra | · | · | · | 50g |
Yeast
| LalBrew Pomona | 2 packets (22 g), dry pitched |
Water additions
| Calcium Chloride (CaCl2·2H2O) | 9 g |
| Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4·2H2O) | 4.5 g |
| Lactic acid (88%) | — |
About This Beer
Robin’s fourth batch and his first hazy. Brewed 3 August 2026, bottled on the 14th. Grain bill and yeast straight from Quantum Haze; the hop bill is entirely its own.
Built on Freestyle Tropical Fusion, an in-field blend of Riwaka, Southern Cross and Motueka grown and picked together as a single lot, so its components are not separable on the bag. Riwaka is a documented pairing for Pomona, Motueka adds lime and lemon zest, Southern Cross carries the alpha. Leads the whirlpool, with Krush bridging into it and Simcoe supplying resin underneath.
Three changes from the parent recipe. Mash down a degree and a half, since more than a third of this grist is oats and wheat and the wort is dextrinous before the mash temperature is even chosen. Dip hop became a simple fermenter charge, steeping hops in pulled wort being a new technique to bring to a first hazy. And Whirlfloc goes in where the parent leaves it out, a real trade rather than a free improvement, since carrageenan drops the protein an oat-and-wheat grist is partly there to produce.
Brew Day
Ran to plan. The efficiency is worth carrying forward: a grist this heavy in oats and wheat lauters differently to the ordinary malt bills Robin’s earlier figure came off, and brewing this again at the recipe’s gravity wants about half a kilo more grain. Pre-boil gravity reading skipped, which is the checkpoint that would have caught it on the day.
Fermentation
Both packets of Pomona in dry at 18°C, where Robin’s climate-controlled house sits by default, so every ferment gets a known starting point. Also the floor of Pomona’s range, so the plan for the week was to move the fermenter somewhere warmer once fermentation was visibly running. Where it settled was not recorded. The one number missing from this batch.
Dry hop day 2, into active fermentation rather than at terminal as planned. For a bottle-conditioned beer that is an improvement, since the sugar the hop enzymes release gets consumed in the fermenter rather than in sealed glass. Sat nine days on the hops, well past the window where grassy extraction usually gets warned about, though none showed in the sample.
Two gravity readings 48 hours apart not taken, so that is an inference rather than a measurement. Open a 330 at a week and another at two and see whether the carbonation is holding or climbing.
Packaging
Bottled into three formats, and they will not carbonate the same.
| Format | Bottles | Closure | Volume | Drops each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 330 ml | 24 | Crown cap | 7.9 L | 1 |
| 750 ml | 18 | Flip top | 13.5 L | 2 |
| 1000 ml | 1 | Flip top | 1.0 L | 2 |
Carbonation drops are dosed on a nominal one per 375 ml, so two in a 750 is what they are designed for. Against that the 330s carry more sugar per litre and the single litre bottle less. Landed the favourable way round, since the over-primed format is the crown-capped 330s, the strongest vessel here.
Tasting
Sampled flat and green out of the fermenter at bottling, so a snapshot rather than a verdict, but a good one. Great aroma and flavour, Tropical Fusion strongly present, and the Riwaka identifiable on its own off a whirlpool addition alone with none in the dry hop.
Proper notes after two or three weeks in the bottle.