The One IPA’d Bandit was a recipe of mine conceived initially primarily by my desire to finally brew an actual IPA. Though meant to be an IPA, it ended up more like an India amber ale. I just don’t know how to stick to a style, and the more you might get to know me, the more you notice I tend to try and fuze things. A great example of this of course was my India black ale recipe, and my Raptured Abby trappist ale, which was said to be a combination of a Belgian dubbel and trippel (or as the boys called it, a dippel). As I continue to brew beer and post recipes, you’ll probably see how following the rules isn’t my style (most of the time)… 
Part of what went into the making of this recipe started with my love of Gambrinus Honey Malt. I have used it in many different beers, and one of the most noticeable contributions was in my pale ale. As a matter of fact, the concept of this recipe stemmed almost exactly from what I did in my pale ale, but I took some lessons from my use of Weyermann’s CharaMunich III malt in a caramel pilsner, and included it in this recipe. It did leave a beautiful caramel like flavour. Almost candy like. I figured that candy like carmel flavour when combined with wildflower honey, and one of the ultimate in northwestern hops would probably lead to something amazing.
The methodology of hopping I used isn’t something new. The concept was essentially pioneered by Sam Calagione , using continuous hopping during the boil. Though I didn’t really have a device to do it, I just worked it out to 0.2 ounces of hops every 5 minutes from 60 minutes to 0. Then of course later dry hopping. The hop variety I used in the boil is Falconer’s Flight, a fairly new pellet hop that combines a number of northwestern hop varieties into a single pellet. Some say that it includes hops like Amarillo, Cascade and Simcoe. Dry hopping was later done with Citra.
The goal was to make a very west coast style IPA, but play with things a little bit on the malt side of the equation. The Honey Malt and CaraMunich III malt do make a huge impact on the recipe, but as usual, my base malt of choice for almost everything is Canada Malting Company’s Superior Pale Ale malt.
Brew Stats
Original Gravity: 1.063
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV: 6.6%
SRM: 14 (estimated)
IBUs: 68 (calculated)
Volume: 5 US Gallons (19 Litres)
Recipe
Quantities based on 68% efficiency. Percentages based on amount of sugars contributed.
7 lbs (61%) – Canada Malting Superior Pale Ale
1.5 lbs (12.2%) – Gambrinus Honey Malt
1 lbs (8.2%) – Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt I
0.75 lbs (6.1%) – Weyermann CaraMunich III
2 lbs (16.3%) – Honey
2.8 oz – Falconer’s Flight hops (10.5% A/A) (continuously hopped)
1 oz – Citra hops (13.4% A/A) (Dry hopped 7 days)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale or White Labs 001 California Ale or Safale US-05 yeast
214.3 billion yeast cells estimated minimum requirement
Mashing
Grains should be mashed in a single infusion mash at 152ºF. Feel free to experiment with lower temps to make a slightly drier beer, but 152ºF is ideal for most beers in a single infusion mash. Let mash for about 60 minutes. Sparge according to your equipment setup.
Boiling
Bring wort to a boil. Begin adding Falconer’s Flight hops in 0.2 ounce increments every 5 minutes in the boil. At flame-out, or immediately prior to chilling, add honey if it is solid honey. Add honey to the fermenter with wort if it is in liquid form. My honey was in solid form so I added it at flame out, which was also immediately prior to immersion chilling.
Fermentation and Finishing
Pitch your yeast or yeast starter, then aerate or oxygenate your wort. Room temperature is ideal for fermentation. I was around 65ºF to 72ºF for fermentation. It may finish fermenting for a few days, but let it sit for about 2 weeks. Week 3, begin the dry hopping. The method I used was to put 1 ounce of Citra leaf hops into a hop sock and chuck it into a keg. I racked the beer from the carboy into the keg, put the lid on, purged the oxygen with CO2, lightly shook the keg then let it sit at room temperature for a week.
After dry hopping, bottle or keg, carbonate, and drink up!
