My wife was out of town the week of July 4, and I worked my usual work hours, 9-6, but took the 4th off for some me time because it was America Day, I hadn't played disc golf since January, and hadn't brewed since May. I woke up and drove out to
Sims Park in Euclid, OH to play a solo game of disc golf. I almost got into a fight with some local idiot who thought it was fine to park his grill exactly in front of the 10 basket. When I alerted him to this fact and suggested he move 30 feet to the right he responded with an obscenity and threatened my health. I let him be after reminding him that not only was I ruining his holiday, but he was ruining mine. My day was overshadowed by this, but I let it go and finished my game. When I got home I began brewing preparations while I made and ate brunch and finished watching
Fight Club from the night before. Then it was time to brew. I played
The Magnificent Seven on my laptop in the dining room while I brewed, and when that finished I put on
The Bridge on the River Kwai; favorite western and war movies to enjoy on America Day while my wife was out of town because she doesn't care for those genres.
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| American-grown grain and hops, English ale yeast. |
So what did I brew on America Day? An American Pale Ale? A crappy, rice and corn mashed pilsner? A bourbon barrel stout? None of the above, but a single-hop double IPA using a proprietary Hopunion hop; an American craft beer-style super-hopped IPA, bigger and bolder like everything else in the US. I found the original recipe
here, where Hopunion implies that they give a new recipe every month, but this has been up since February 2013. As I brew in gallon batches I adjusted the original recipe to my needs, and then when I purchased the grains I increased the base 2-Row Pale Malt grains from 2.4 lbs to 3.0 lbs because I wanted to make a stronger beer. I prepared my recipe the night before so when I went to brew I was ready. However, I remembered the suggestions from the Beer Craft 1-gallon homebrewing book for turning a pale ale into an IPA, then into a double IPA, so while I mashed the grains I modified my recipe on the fly, increasing the sparge amount and boil time, as well as the hop amounts.
