Recipe: Blind Pig Inaugural Ale

A few years before he would become the brewmaster at Russian River, longtime homebrewer Vinnie Cilurzo started the Blind Pig brewpub in Temecula, California. He brewed his first batch of commercial beer there on June 23, 1994. That batch also is believed to be the first commercially brewed double IPA.

This recipe, shared with Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® by Cilurzo, is based on that recipe he brewed that day. [PAYWALL] Compared to a modern-day IPAs, this might appear to be a little pedestrian—but keep in mind that 1994 was a much different time in the brewing industry. IPAs were not yet popular, and the two featured hop varieties here—Centennial and Columbus—were newly available. Also notable is the relatively high volume of bittering hops—a far cry from how most brewers bitter IPAs today. But it might be a welcome change of pace from today’s generally softer IPAs.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.012
IBUs: 80+ (see Brewer’s Notes, below)
ABV: 7.25%

MALT/GRAIN BILL
10.77 lb (4.9 kg) pale two-row
15.5 oz (439 g) Carapils
9.3 oz (264 g) crystal 15L
9.3 oz (264 g) white wheat malt

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
3.5 oz (99 g) Chinook at 75 minutes [136 IBUs]
1.5 oz (43 g) Cascade at 45 minutes [27 IBUs]
1.25 oz (35 g) Centennial at 30 minutes [32 IBUs]
2 oz (57 g) Cascade at flameout/whirlpool
1 tsp yeast nutrient
0.5 oz (14 g) oak chips at first dry hop
2 oz (57 g) whole-cone Cascade at first dry hop
1 oz (28 g) Centennial at first dry hop
0.75 oz (21 g) Columbus at second dry hop
1.5 oz (43 g) Cascade at second dry hop
0.75 oz (21 g) Centennial at second dry hop

YEAST
White Labs WLP001 California Ale or other Chico strain

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 156°F (69°C) for 30 minutes (or as long it takes to pass the iodine test). Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge the grains with 168°F (76°C) water and top up as necessary to get about 6.6 gallons (25 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 75 minutes, following the schedule for the boil hops.

After the boil, chill the wort to about 64–66°F (18–19°C). Aerate well, add the yeast nutrient, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 68°F (20°C) until it reaches final gravity, then give it 2 more days to clear diacetyl. Chill to 42°F (6°C) if possible (if not, proceed at 68°F (20°C), but reduce the oak chips by half). Prepare and sanitize a secondary fermentor and place the oak chips and whole-cone hops in a weighted hop bag. Purge the secondary fermentor with CO2 before racking beer into it and adding the first round of dry hops. If possible (i.e., using a conical), dump the cone after the first 3 days, then add the second round of dry hops. After 3 more days (if possible), dump the hops again. Allow up to 2 weeks to clear diacetyl (see below), then crash, package, and carbonate.

BREWER’S NOTES
Very important: On the day of the first dry hop, take a gravity reading of the beer and note this in your brew log. This exercise will be particularly helpful as it relates to hop creep. Three days after the second dry hop, take a gravity reading and note it. Do the same the following day. Once you go 2 days in a row where your gravity has not dropped from the secondary fermentation from hop creep, you can proceed with bottling or kegging. Depending on your conditions, you might have to wait up to 2 weeks to clear the diacetyl from hop creep. (For more about hop creep and testing for diacetyl, see Brewing with Hops: Don’t Get Creeped Out and Hunting for Diacetyl.)

About those bittering hops: There is a limit to how much alpha acid can be isomerized in beer and also to how much can be perceived. While the calculated IBUs for this recipe might be about 195, a spectrometer reading measured them closer to 80. (The yeast also take up a large portion of isomerized alpha acids, which is why the yeast from an IPA fermentation tastes so bitter.)