SIPA: SIMCOE – BREWER’S NOTES

CASTLE ROCK’S “SIPA: SIMCOE” HAS LANDED. VIEW OUR BREWER’S NOTES HERE AND FIND OUR MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS BEHIND THE PINT.

SIPA: SIMCOE

4.3% ABV
IBU- 30
Dry Hop Rate- 10g/l
Malt -Extra Pale, Oats, Torrefied Wheat
Hops – Simcoe
Yeast – London Ale iii

Notes from the brewer:

This is the second of our single hop session IPA beers that we brewed with our friends at Attic. The beer brewed at Attic will be available in can and keg and we have also brewed a cask version of the beer on our Pilot Kit (coming soon!). This has given us the opportunity to explore how a recipe is translated between different breweries and how the beer compares in dispense methods.

We have kept the recipe for this beer very similar to the SIPA: Mosaic intending the beer to be a sessionable showcase for a single hop variety, in this case: Simcoe. It’s always interesting to be able to compare and contrast the character of single hops and keeping the other variables the same helps us do this.

YEAST:

We used a London Ale iii yeast strain to ferment this beer, with a top temperature of 22°C to provide some great stone fruit esters to the beer.  The yeast strain has low flocculation properties, which means the yeast gives the beer a pleasant consistent haze.

It also has low attenuation characteristics, which leaves a lot of sugars unfermented in the beer at the end of fermentation, which gives the beer a really ‘chewy’ and full mouthfeel and makes for a really satisfying flavour profile.

HOPS:

Simcoe is a hop with a lot of bold flavours, but also has nuance.  It’s one of our favourites, and can give off fruity notes of passionfruit, lime and grapefruit as well as spikier piney and resinous characteristics.

We have dry hopped this beer at 10g per litre (which is a fairly moderate addition by today’s standards). We dry hopped at 15 °C for 3 days, with a blanket of CO2 on top of the beer to prevent aroma escaping and recirculating the batch each day to maximise extraction of the hop oils. Because of this the beer punches far above its weight in terms of aroma.

The beer has an IBU level of 30, just enough bitterness to let you know it’s a beer, but low enough to let all the flavour and nuance from the Simcoe to come through.

MALT:

We used extra pale ale malt for the base of the grist in this beer, giving us all the extract needed for fermentation without adding too much colour or flavour to the beer. We also used oats and wheat in the grist to add body to the beer, giving it a smooth and silky mouthfeel.

A mash bed temperature of 68°C leaves plenty of residual sugar in the beer after fermentation, as these higher mash temperatures break the barley’s starch into less easily fermentable sugars.

WATER CHEMISTRY:

The brewing liquor was treated with a 1:2 sulfate:chloride ratio, which softens the perception of bitterness and helps to create a fuller mouthfeel.

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SIPA: Simcoe will be available to buy online from 9AM, Saturday 1st May here.
This beer will also be available from our Pop-Up Markets (see here for all confirmed dates so far), selected bottle shops and on draught in our pubs and beyond while stocks last.

More of our brewer’s notes are available to read at your pleasure. For the process behind SIPA: Mosaic, see here.