The cool part about beers I haven't brewed yet is that I can change them. That Imperial IPA recipe has seen three variations. There's the one below, which I thought sounded maybe too crystally after listen to this big mp3 file. Whether these guys know what they're talking about, I don't know. I'm a bit sceptical of anyone that thinks you should pretty much ignore malt in a Double IPA, as I think the secret to IPA (imperial, american, english) is devising a malt basis that goes with a desired hop profile. It's easy to hop the fucking balls off a wort, the trick is having a foundation for all that hops. Don't get me wrong: the style is about hops; the artistry is their compliment.

So, I'm obsessed with the malt of this beer. (The hops are simple. Cascade: 2 oz. FWH, 1 oz. 15 min, 2 oz. 1 min, 1 oz. dry. Chinook: .5 oz. 60 minutes. Magnum: 1 oz. 60 minutes.) First I play around with lots of crystal in blends 20 and 40L. Then I consider some victory of toasty flavor. The base malts should blend american with vienna. Then, no, the base malt should be american and maris otter with a little munich, but abandon the victory and only 20L crystal. That's where I am now. Maybe I should say screw the british pale malt; 11.5# american 2-row, 1.5 # vienna, 1.5 # munich! "Ah hah!," he thinks, "now we have a malt bill that will emphasize base malt character--no need for these honey, caramel and toast flavors from specialty malts. Just a little 20L crystal to round it out, and wah-lah" Heh. give it twenty minutes and "wah-lah" will be "nah". Heh.