Adam Robbing’s home brewery, Reuben’s Brews, named after his son Reuben, can be found online at  www.reubensbrews.com.

Though originally from London, I moved to Seattle in 2004. Originally, I was on a two- year transfer for work, but after meeting my wife, Grace, I extended my stay. We are now firmly planted here in the “Emerald City” with our eleven-month-old son, Reuben.
   
When I moved to the States I was worried that I would miss British beer, at least initially . . . but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The craft beer industry in Seattle is absolutely so robust and thriving that I miss it when I go back to the UK to visit.
   
After being in the US for about five years I started thinking about crafting beer myself. My young son kicked things off by buying me a homebrew starter kit for my birthday that year. (How did he know? He’s very considerate!). I am now all-grain brewing and at a point where I am crafting my own recipes from scratch.
   
In July 2010, my wife Grace and I went to a local Beer Taste, (which is put on by the Phinney Neighborhood Association), which had around 30 local breweries and hundreds of people attending. Intrigued, we applied to be part of the next Beer Taste as homebrewers. We took four of our beers for their review and we were accepted to compete!
   
Trying to decide on what to brew for the event, I wanted to choose something that stood out but was not too extreme. I love IPAs (as does most of the Pacific Northwest) and I loved especially the idea of a black IPA. So, I decided on trying to make a winter IPA — taking a base IPA recipe and “warming it up” with roasty character and some rye. The result was a “Roasted Rye PA” recipe, in which I took a hoppy IPA recipe and added crystal rye and a small amount of chocolate malt to move it towards a black IPA. I brewed three 5-gallon (19-L) batches for the event and then kegged them.
   
With some bumps along the way, the day of the event came up quickly. It was definitely intimidating when we were setting up next to Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, Ninkasi and 25 other breweries! We started getting some great feedback from folks right away and hit a turning point that night. Word started getting around about our beer, and Grace was pouring and explaining it like a pro. All in all, we served around 200 beer tastes at the event! Without anything else, it would have been a great night, but, as we were packing to go, we found out that we had won first place in the people’s vote for favorite beer. I haven’t stopped pinching myself since!
   

Reuben’s Hopmonster IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
70% efficiency assumed
OG = 1.065  FG = 1.016
IBU = 100+  SRM = 8  ABV = 6.2%

Ingredients
12 lb. (5.4 kg) US 2-row pale malt
4 oz. (113 g) Carapils® malt
4 oz. (113 g) crystal malt (10 °L)
3 oz. (85 g) crystal malt (40 °L)
28 AAU (2 1/8 oz.) Chinook hops (60 min.)
1 oz./28 g (60 g) Amarillo hops (20 min.)
1 oz./28 g Cascade hops (5 min.)
1⁄4 oz./7 g Centennial hops (5 min.)
1⁄4 oz./7 g Chinook hops (0 min.)
3⁄4 oz./21 g Amarillo hops (0 min.)
1⁄8 oz./3.5 g Amarillo hops (dry hop)
7⁄8 oz./25 g Centennial hops (dry hop)
White Labs 001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast

Step by step
Mash for 1 hour at 152 °F (67 °C).
Boil for 60 minutes, following the hopping schedule in the ingredients list. Chill the wort rapidly to pitching temperatures and pitch the yeast. Dry
hop for up to two weeks in a secondary fermenter.