He’Brew Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA. A 10% double IPA using Rye malt that I have a brewrank of 16 to.
What I Say:
Dark brown beauty. A caramel, grainy with balanced hop coming through nose. From the nose, I was expecting it to be a lot heavier and surprised by a Sweet and Sour (the rye malt?) giving way to what I would have describe as a sweet, cherry, bitter hoppiness, that fades leaving you with a wonderful after taste.
I know this is in effect to be a Double/Imperial IPA but I would suggest that this actually could be considered more along the lines of a Belgian trippel and would be curious to taste it in a flight against such.
What They Say:
Before that, I have to have an additional say with I love the fact that the Shmaltz Brewing Company (who are behind He’brew and Coney Island) published the recipe to this find brew.
Malts: 2-row, Rye Ale Malt, Torrified Rye, Crystal Rye 75, Crystal Malt 65, Wheat, Kiln Amber, Caramel 70
Hops: Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, Centennial. Dry Hopped with Amarillo and Crystal
Ladies and Gentlemen, Shmaltz Brewing Co. is proud to introduce Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. Brewed with an obscene amount of malts and hops. Shocking flavors – far beyond contemporary community standards. We cooked up the straight dope for the growing minions of our nation’s Radical Beer junkies.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Dude – sounds insanely good. Where did you pick up this gem of brew? Rock on. Cheers, Viking Bro’
May 8th, 2009 at 1:55 am
Hey there. This is Zak from Shmaltz Brewing. Thanks so much for reviewing Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about any of our beers. Also, keep your eyes open for Rejewvenator, which launches in just a couple of weeks.
March 17th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
This is my wife’s favorite beer. Does anybody knows of a 5 gallon homebrew recipe that would get me close to this beer? It’s simply delicious.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:45 pm
@joel – You can find the actual recipe from here: http://www.shmaltz.com/HEBREW/lennys.html – it’s an Excel file so didn’t want to link directly.
You should be able to work backwards from that to a homebrew.
One thing, I’ve been told that you need to be careful when brewing with rye – but haven’t really looked into it.