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Recipe: Cloudburst A Memory of a Memory
From Cloudburst founder-brewer Steve Luke, here’s a recipe for a modern interpretation of an old-school, unfiltered Pacific Northwest IPA, leaning into Chinook, Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe.
Image: Courtesy Cloudburst Brewing
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For more on how today’s brewers are deploying old-school hops to punch up modern beers, see Brewing 21st Century IPA with 20th Century Hops.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.060 (14.8°P)
FG: 1.009 (2.4°P)
IBUs: 49-ish
ABV: 7%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
9.9 lb (4.5 kg) Rahr Standard 2-Row
4 oz (113 g) Simpsons Crystal T50
3.5 oz (99 g) Weyermann Carafoam
1.5 oz (43 g) Weyermann Acidulated
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.15 oz (4 g) Centennial at 75 minutes [5 IBUs]
8 oz (227 g) sugar at 30 minutes
0.15 oz (4 g) Chinook at 20 minutes [5 IBUs]
1 tablet Whirlfloc at 20 minutes
0.5 oz (14 g) each Chinook and Centennial at 2 minutes [18 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Chinook, 1 oz (28 g) Centennial, and 0.75 oz (21 g) Simcoe at whirlpool [21 IBUs]
3 oz (85 g) Chinook, 3 oz (85 g) Cascade, 2 oz (57 g) Simcoe, and 2 oz (57 g) Simcoe Cryo at dry hop
YEAST
Imperial Corporate A30 (our house strain), or any American or British ale strain
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 153°F (67°C) for 45 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops, sugar, and finings according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex; when the wort has cooled to about 195°F (91°C), add whirlpool hops and allow 15 minutes to steep. Chill to about 65°F (18°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 67°F (19°C) until gravity has dropped to about 1.013 (or about 1°P left to terminal), around Day 7, and add dry hops. After 5 days, drop or remove hops (or rack to secondary) dropping or removing additional trub as needed every 2 or 3 days. Be mindful of hop creep, testing for VDK if possible (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com) or giving the beer enough time to reabsorb the precursors. Then crash, package, and carbonate to about 2.70 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Hops: Using the freshest, brightest C-hops you can get is imperative. With the dry hops, we’re in unitanks all the way through—so we dump hops 5 days after dry hop and then every 2–3 days after that until we crash.
Water and pH: We add the equivalent of 2 g gypsum to the mash and 2 g calcium chloride at the start of the boil. Optionally, you can add lactic acid after the boil to get the knockout wort pH down to 5.05–5.15.
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For more on how today’s brewers are deploying old-school hops to punch up modern beers, see Brewing 21st Century IPA with 20th Century Hops.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.060 (14.8°P)
FG: 1.009 (2.4°P)
IBUs: 49-ish
ABV: 7%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
9.9 lb (4.5 kg) Rahr Standard 2-Row
4 oz (113 g) Simpsons Crystal T50
3.5 oz (99 g) Weyermann Carafoam
1.5 oz (43 g) Weyermann Acidulated
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.15 oz (4 g) Centennial at 75 minutes [5 IBUs]
8 oz (227 g) sugar at 30 minutes
0.15 oz (4 g) Chinook at 20 minutes [5 IBUs]
1 tablet Whirlfloc at 20 minutes
0.5 oz (14 g) each Chinook and Centennial at 2 minutes [18 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Chinook, 1 oz (28 g) Centennial, and 0.75 oz (21 g) Simcoe at whirlpool [21 IBUs]
3 oz (85 g) Chinook, 3 oz (85 g) Cascade, 2 oz (57 g) Simcoe, and 2 oz (57 g) Simcoe Cryo at dry hop
YEAST
Imperial Corporate A30 (our house strain), or any American or British ale strain
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 153°F (67°C) for 45 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops, sugar, and finings according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex; when the wort has cooled to about 195°F (91°C), add whirlpool hops and allow 15 minutes to steep. Chill to about 65°F (18°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 67°F (19°C) until gravity has dropped to about 1.013 (or about 1°P left to terminal), around Day 7, and add dry hops. After 5 days, drop or remove hops (or rack to secondary) dropping or removing additional trub as needed every 2 or 3 days. Be mindful of hop creep, testing for VDK if possible (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com) or giving the beer enough time to reabsorb the precursors. Then crash, package, and carbonate to about 2.70 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Hops: Using the freshest, brightest C-hops you can get is imperative. With the dry hops, we’re in unitanks all the way through—so we dump hops 5 days after dry hop and then every 2–3 days after that until we crash.
Water and pH: We add the equivalent of 2 g gypsum to the mash and 2 g calcium chloride at the start of the boil. Optionally, you can add lactic acid after the boil to get the knockout wort pH down to 5.05–5.15.
