Brewing India Pale Ale (IPAs) with Mitch Steele – BeerSmith Podcast #49

by Brad Smith on November 13, 2012 · 8 comments

This week my guest is Mitch Steele from Stone Brewery. Mitch is the author of a new book called IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale. Mitch tells us how to brew the perfect India Pale Ale.

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[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-49-IPA-Steele.mp3]

Topics in This Week’s Episode (43:26)

  • Mitch Steele is my guest this week. Mitch is the author of the new book IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale (Amazon affilliate link). He’s also the brewmaster at Stone Brewing Company and has a degree in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis.
  • Mitch starts by talking about the history of India Pale Ales in the 1700s
  • We talk about how the style has evolved with the Burton IPA style in the 1800’s and also how it has enjoyed a huge resurgence through microbreweries here in the US over the last 30 years
  • Mitch talks about the popular IPA substyles and variations
  • We discuss the grain bill for a modern English IPA
  • Mitch explains the hop varieties and hop schedules he prefers for brewing an IPA including dry hopping
  • We talk about brewing water and its role in creating a classic IPA
  • Mitch recommends some yeasts to use for IPA
  • We talk about fermenting, mashing and finishing an IPA
  • We spend a few minutes talking about what is needed to brew popular variations like the Double IPA, Imperial IPA and dark IPA
  • Mitch talks about his new IPA book and what it includes

Thanks to Mitch Steele for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

mors November 13, 2012 at 2:42 pm

Do you know what Scottish Brewers book Mitch was talking about near the end of the interview?

Maurice Green December 11, 2012 at 3:41 pm

Fascinating article on IPA! Thanks. I’m from Burton upon Trent and brewing is in my family but I learned a lot from listening to this. I’d always assumed IPA originated in Burton… Didn’t pale ale displace porter everywhere in the British Isles except Ireland…?
I’ve heard there are some excellent American beers nowadays (I mean commercial products). I’ll look forward to trying Stone’s sometime.
Thanks again!
and cheers!
Maurice
ps I used to prefer Fuggles to Goldings for most purposes. This blog has rekindled my interest in brewing…

Maurice Green December 11, 2012 at 4:06 pm

Scottish beers?
Bellhave exported an 80/- ale:
http://www.belhaven.co.uk/row/belhaven/eightyshilling.php
The ’80 shillings’ suggests the malt cost £4 per brew. Not cheap in the 19th C.
This would have had the strength for the long voyage to India.

tony delci January 9, 2016 at 11:56 am

I want to brew an IPA for my first brew, do you have a recipe for an extract brew? The recipes I’m finding for a really good IPA are all grain and I’m not ready for that , yet! I could also choose a simple English Ale brew but I’m seeing the same, all grain only! Got any ideas for a first time brewer? One last item , I do want to add some dry hop at the end of the fermentation, any ideas? thank you, tony d

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