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April 10, 2020
Last updated

Milkshake IPA Recipe - How to Brew Beer

Owner of Clawhammer Supply

milkshake ipa recipe

Honestly, our expectations for this milkshake IPA were low. Big bodied, sweet beers aren't really the type of beers the folks in our office like to drink. However, we were pleasantly surprised. If you're looking for a tutorial on how to brew beer, specifically, the milkshake IPA style, you're in the right place. First things first though, we brewed this beer using Clawhammer's 10 gallon kettle with a 240 volt controller. This recipe is for a 5 gallon batch of beer.

Milkshake IPA Recipe

If you're the type who would rather watch a video than read, here you go. Scroll further down to see the detailed instructions.

Water

The first thing you're going to want to do is add 8 gallons of water to a brewing kettle. If you want to adjust your water to match the exact profile we are using, here are the targets that we prepared using beersmith recipe creation software.

  • Ca - 106ppm
  • Mg - 13ppm
  • Na - 5ppm
  • SO4 - 74ppm
  • Cl - 134ppm
  • HCO3 - 0ppm
  • pH - 5.2 to 5.4

Beersmith water profile - milkshake IPA

Grains

The grain bill for this recipe provides for a full bodied beer with lots of haze. Like we did for the water profile, we used beersmith to build this recipe. 

  • Pilsner - 7 lbs 9.1 oz
  • White wheat malt 2 lbs 7.2 oz
  • Flaked oats 1 lb 14.3 oz
  • Honey malt 12.5 oz

Mash

This is a pretty straightforward mash. Add the grains and let it rip at 155F for 60 minutes.

milkshake ipa mash

If you're able to do so, adjust pH about 10 minutes into the mash and try to hit somewhere between 5.2 and 5.4. We use the Milwaukee MW 102 pH meter. After mash is complete and the grains have been pulled, your post-mash / pre-boil volume should be 6.88 gallons.

Milkshake IPA pH target and adjustment

Boil and Hop Additions & Adjuncts

We went with a single hop addition for this brew day and used 100% Loral hops. Thanks to the folks at Yakima Chief Hops for donating the hops for this brew day. This isn't a paid promo or anything. They just sent us a bunch of hops because they are cool folks and we used them because, well, free hops!  Thanks to Eric at Sauve & Son Farms.

milkshake ipa loral hops

  • Total boil time - 60 minutes
  • 1 oz. Loral Hops - 10 minutes left in the boil
  • 1 lb. milk sugar - 10 minutes left in boil

milkshake ipa lactose

After the boil is finished, cool to 170 an whirlpool / steep more Loral hops

  • 8 oz. Loral Hops - steep for 20 minutes at 170F

Yeast and Fermentation

Once boil and steeping are complete, cool the wort to 70F. We pitched one package of Imperial's A24 - Dry Hop Yeast. We stored the fermentation bucket in a mini-fridge to keep it under 70F and let it do its thing for 8 days. For more information on how to ferment beer, read this article.

Milkshake IPA Imperial A24 dry hop yeast

  • 1 package - Imperial A24 - Dry Hop Yeast

Tasting

We brewed this before the stay at home orders were put into place in 2020 and it wasn't ready to drink until everyone was keeping their distance from one another. Kyle filled a mini keg, wiped down the entire thing in StarSan, and dropped it off to Emmet. They then did a "virtual tasting." 

The beer turned out much better than we expected. As two people who aren't into sweet beers, Kyle and Emmet both really liked the Milkshake IPA. So, this beer gets a 100%, A+, Great Job, definitely brew this beer rating. One note, you'll want to let the beer age for just about a week once kegged. It was overly bitter and not well balanced the first day in the keg.

If you like this IPA recipe you should check out

West Coast IPA

Belgian IPA

Citra Double IPA

Kyle Brown is the owner of Clawhammer Supply, a small scale distillation and brewing equipment company which he founded in 2009. His passion is teaching people about the many uses of distillation equipment as well as how to make beer at home. When he isn't brewing beer or writing about it, you can find him at his local gym or on the running trail.

  • On the YouTube video, it was stated that no dry hopping occured

    Posted by Isaiah on February 07, 2022
  • How many Gallons did you end up with? Would you recommend anything different when Bottle Conditioning it?

    Posted by BrANDON on June 24, 2020
  • Og? Fg? Dry hopping?
    You don’t comment…

    Posted by Raquel on April 20, 2020
  • Og? Fg? Dry hopping?
    You don’t comment…

    Posted by Raquel on April 20, 2020

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