Juicy Not Hazy IPA

In my previous Chat GPT post regarding creating a juicy IPA using Pomona yeast that doesn't come across as a Hazy IPA, there were several methods I decided to employ:

1. Ferment Cooler

The cooler fermentation suppresses excessive peach and stone fruit esters and allows hops to be the star.

2. Skip Early Dry Hopping

Add most or all dry hops after fermentation is complete. This preserves cleaner hop character and reduces "juice bomb" flavors.

3. Increase Sulfate

A sulfate-forward profile sharpens bitterness and helps offset Pomona's natural fruitiness.

4. Mash Lower

To get that crisp West Coast finish:

Mash at 148-150°F

5. Choose Classic West Coast Hops

This gives pine, citrus, grapefruit, and resin with enough modern character.

6. Consider a Small Bittering Charge

Add a firm bittering charge at 60 minutes

7. Clarify the Beer

Pomona can remain somewhat hazy if treated like a hazy IPA.

For a brighter West Coast IPA:

Use Whirlfloc or Irish Moss

Cold crash aggressively

Fine with gelatin if desired

Give the beer an extra week cold before packaging

Here's My Recipe

Results:

Since Pomona is typically used to make Hazy IPA, I knew that it might be challenging to create a Juicy, Modern IPA that finishes more like a west coast IPA. So how did I do?

• 1 Fermenting Cooler - Seems to have worked well although there is some ripe peach, nectarine, maybe even plum esters that give it a nice subtle frutiness. I enjoy the hop character.

• 2 Skip Early Dry Hopping - I didn't use a dry hop hoping to avoid oxygen exposure in this sensitive style

• 3 Increase Sulfate - I used a ratio of 4.5/1 Sulfate to Chloride ratio. The beer finishes dry and slightly bitter

• 4 Mash Lower - I mashed at 148 to try to drive attenuation down. The actual FG was 1.002 so that worked very well to produce a dry beer.

• 5 Choose West Coast Hops - I used mostly citra, mosaic and nectaron. Also there was a galaxy hop stand addition. While these are not typical WCIPA old-school hops, the result is still very good

• 6 Small Bittering Charge - I added about 27 IBU bittering at the Mash-In and early boil (30 minute boil) I think it's plenty bitter but I may add cascade or centennial next time at 30 minutes

• 7 Clarify The Beer - While not completely clear it still looks reasonably clear to me. It may improve in time

Overall Impressions:

I really like this one as it does present as a modern, juicy IPA that is not a soft pillowy juice bomb Hazy. As I mentioned, I get peach, nectarine, plum and a dry slightly bitter finish. Plus it cleared up reasonably well. I would definitely brew it again, although I may add some hops to give some pine-resin character to the hop mix.