For two weeks in February, frenzy falls upon the west coast.  Sick calls in to work grow exponentially.  People’s Twitter accounts are refreshed at alarming rates.  Long lines form at bars hours before they open.  All of this, to sample the elusive Pliny the Younger.

Younger at Heart is inspired by this rare release and brewed as part of the Fountain of Younger project for the National Homebrewers Conference being held this June in Bellevue, WA.  I’ve been lucky enough to sample it on a couple of occasions and decided creating a beer inspired by it would be a fun challenge.  The hop intensity is the first thing that strikes you followed by a mouth feel that is medium, but not nearly as huge as you’d suspect from a 10.5% ABV beer.   The malt is present but clean with little if any toasted or caramel malt qualities.  The color is light; incredibly lighter than most standard IPAs.  With the arms race of bitterness raging between most west coast IPA’s, the bitterness The Younger exhibits is relatively gentle.  The hops show there personality in flavor and aroma with just enough bitterness to balance such a big beer.

When approaching the recipe formulation for this beer there are several known factors that can be used.  Russian River’s website, as well as their tap board, lists the beer as having a starting gravity of 1.088 and an alcohol percentage of 10.5-10.7% by volume.  With these numbers, we can calculate a target attenuation rate of 92%!  This is dry beyond even the level most Belgian beers go and is probably the key to making such a big IIPA drinkable.  Additionally from various interviews, websites, and magazines we know:

1. Russian River often uses isomerized hop extract for bitterness.
2. Russian River tends to do staged dry hops on their Pliny beers.
3. Russian River tends to limit the amount of crystal malt in their hoppy beers.
4. Russian River is not afraid of using simple sugars to dry out their beers.

I deviated from the Younger’s hop profile a bit, favoring less pine and trying to get more tropical fruit notes in the aroma.  With all of this in mind, I took a shot and used the following recipe.

Younger at Heart
Author: Nick Ladd

Size: 6.6 gal
Efficiency: 64%
Attenuation: 92%

Original Gravity: 1.088
Terminal Gravity: 1.007 (measured)
Color: 12.74
Alcohol: 10.69%
Bitterness: 223.2 (calculated)
Mash Temp: 148 °F

Fermentables:
16 lb Pale Ale Malt (69.1%)
3 lb Munich TYPE II (13%)
.5 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L (2.2%)
3 lb 10.25oz Corn Sugar (15.7%) – Late addition at 30 m

Hops:
45ml (3 syringes) Amarillo Hop Shots - - added during boil, boiled 90 m
.5 oz Simcoe® (12.2%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
1 oz Amarillo Leaf (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 20 m
1 oz Citra Leaf (13.6%) - added during boil, boiled 20 m
1 oz Amarillo Leaf (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 10 m
1 oz Simcoe® (12.2%) - added during boil, boiled 10 m
.75 oz Amarillo Leaf (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
1 oz Simcoe® (12.2%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
.75 oz Centennial (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
1 oz Amarillo Leaf (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 0 m
1 oz Citra Leaf (13.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0 m
1 oz Centennial (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 0 m

1.5 oz Citra Pellet (13%) - added dry to secondary fermenter for 3 days, pull and add second DH
1.5 oz Amarillo Pellet (10.1%) - added dry to secondary fermenter for 3 days, pull and add third DH
1.5 oz Simcoe® (12.2%) - added dry to secondary fermenter for 3 days

Misc.:
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient - added during boil, boiled 10 m

Yeast & Fermentation:
2800ml starter on stir plate of  WYeast 1056 American Ale™ plus an extra pack of 1056 I had
Start at 62*F and keep at 62-64*F for first 2/3 of fermentation.  Raise to 72 to finish fermentation.  Cold crash when complete.