Camel Tow IIPA development

Going to brew this in a couple weeks and I want this to be kind of my flagship beer so I want to see if you guys/gals think the recipe is solid or just ingredients thrown together...I chose centennial hops because I love bells two hearted and founders centennial IPA...

O.g. 1.079
F.g. 1.015
IBU. 60.1
ABV 9%
Batch size 5 gallon
Boil volume 6.5 gallon

GRAINS

10 lbs Marris otter
2 lbs 6oz Munich 10l
2 lbs Vienna
1 lb 8oz crystal 60l

HOPS

1 oz centennial 60 min
1.25 oz willamette 30min
1 oz centennial 15 min
1 oz centennial 5 min
2 oz centennial 7 day dry hop

YEAST

US-05 OR BELLS harvested

Definitely open to any suggestions

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just curious...why the Williamette at 30, and not more centennial?

Ibu's seemed to be too high with centennial there and I thought a different strain may add a gentle variance to the flavor

I don't really get the willamette-addition.. I doubt it will come through added at 30 min..

The grain-bill is very malt-forward - I personally don't like that in a DIPA.. I tend to think it'll quickly overpower delicate hop flavours and aroma.

At 1.079 it will be way balanced towards the malt. If you want this to be an IIPA you'll need to cut the crystal in half and up the IBUS to 100+. Also Munich and Vienna seem superfluous with the MO to me.

Cheers!
Steve da sleeve

I had actually originally intended on creating an IPA similar to two hearted, but different enough to be my own and I also like the 9% ABV part which is how it became an IIPA.

However, I kind of like the idea of a malt forward IPA and I'm not sure which direction I need to go in. I can scrap the Vienna and Munich I suppose. I've also thought about some biscuit malt as I thoroughly enjoy amber ales with biscuity malt profiles, but this is an IPA and I don't want to completely overpower the hops...I was thinking like malty goodness followed by fairly strong hoppy bitterness...I want the centennial to be pronounced also as this is what I love about founders centennial IPA and bells two hearted.

I have a taste profile in mind that I'm having trouble putting into words, apparently.

In my experience you can of course have a lot of malt-forwardness and complement it with strong bitterness - but at 9% that's a Barleywine. The problem with lots of milliard-like malt-character is that it takes the punch out of hop-aroma and flavour..

The key is the right balance (which is of course a personal preference) - but in this case I'd say your way more malt-forward than your average DIPA..

Was really hoping this was a clone of Piece Brewery Camel Toe DIPA...

dukedevil0 said:

Was really hoping this was a clone of Piece Brewery Camel Toe DIPA...

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Oh wow, a professional brewery actually named their beer that? I was going to suggest the OP maybe not use that name if he ever opens a brewery...know what I'm sayin'?

Otherwise, I'd up the late hops by almost double. Double IPA needs to be HOPPY to balance the malt/alcohol.

I think you could keep the malt bill as is if you add more late centennial. I would add 1 more oz of Cent at 5 minutes and add 1 oz at flameout.

Otherwise I agree it looks very similar to 2H IPA with stronger malt character. Not a bad starting point at all My 3rd batch of 2H IPA is just about carbed and I'm having a hard time waiting. This time I used vienna base and added more late centennial to balance. Tasted really good at bottling.

beersk said:

Oh wow, a professional brewery actually named their beer that? I was going to suggest the OP maybe not use that name if he ever opens a brewery...know what I'm sayin'?

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Mine has nothing to do with vaginas though, its all about the hemtt wrecker I drove overseas with the army, hence the spelling.

So I can lower the malt percentages or up the late hops?

I do have to admit I didn't realize an imperial IPA and a double IPA were the same thing

Modified the recipe

14 lbs Marris otter
2 lbs crystal-60L

2oz centennial- 60 min
1oz centennial-30 min
1.5oz centennial-15 min
1oz centennial-5 min
2 oz centennial- dry hop 7 days

Us-05

O.g. 1.080
F.g. 1.015
Ibu 102.8
Srm 16.2
Abv 9.1%


O.g. is still high bit I thought it might have the malt forward taste I want with out overpowering the hops since I got the ibu up over 100...perhaps I'm misunderstanding hops utilization

I was saying you should up the hops. Double IPA needs a massive load at the end of the boil and dry hop. Use the most attenuative ale yeast you can find. Looks like you've got a good start there. A little dextrose would dry it out a little too...something to consider.

I did up 2 additions of the hops...trying to get it to a good enough point to brew a good beer and take notes and turn subsequent batches into a great beer

keep your crystal malts to 5% or less in an IPA, especially with the darker crystal (such as c60).

You guys are making it hard to hit my 9% lol

Well - you don't really have to have a lot of crystal malt to reach a specific ABV. Just exchange it for pale ale malt - or less roasted malt at least..

Reduced the crystal and added alittle biscuit will post updates tonight

be very cautious with the biscuit malt. I'd limit to 2oz. I know that sounds extreme, but it's a very potent malt.

Maybe use sugar to get to 9%. I would reduce the crystal as stated before.


Beer and crabs were meant for each other!

Just out of curiosity, why does the MO render the Munich and Vienna I originally had pointless?

First thought: You spelled "Camel Toe" wrong. Looked at the label, "ok, some tow truck reference...hmm. I don't really get it." I guess I would need some background information that sells the weird name before I could seriously consider it for any type of flagship brew....and that's without even glancing at the recipe. It's just that off-putting to me as a name/label the way it is. That may sound *****ey, but its honestly what went through my head. Given a backstory as simple as "I own a tow truck company and I'm brewing for the guys that work for me." or something would have helped me swallow it.

I was a mechanic in the Army and we were deployed overseas where camels are everywhere and so the army tow truck and surroundings became camel tow and a guy drew up this image for me for platoon t-shirts but the female mechanics didn't like it so we never used it...I decided for it to be my beer and hbt user JINKS turned it into the label you see now......is it worse than Satan's anus?


Disclaimer: Satan's anus is not my label found it in the show your label thread I believe

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munich and/or vienna certainly won't render marris otter useless.

we can't get in your mind w/o help and understand what exactly you're looking for in the glass - so don't be afraid to brew a recipe and learn along the way. worst case, you get to brew some more beer

my cheap 2 cents - IPA's need a simple malt bill. the reason is, you dont have a lot of room for specialty malts so each one needs to be chosen carefully and used in extreme moderation. KISS rules the IPA world except when it comes to hops.

Im just afraid I'm going to end up with 50+ terrible ipas

I think, if done right, a slightly off recipe is not going to give you terrible beer. It'll give you suboptimal beer or "not the beer you wanted"..

If you look at the general consensus in the thread you can safely conclude that you are more likely to end op with a suboptimal DIPA if you maintain a very higher level of crystal/speciality malt than if you cut it back a bit..
But it's of course entirely your beer! - If you want a malt-forward DIPA you should go ahead - but your original recipe will likely be a very barleywine like IPA. You can brew it - get an idea of what that level of crystal malt does and refine the recipe for next time..

I really need to post the updated recipe, I did scale the crystal down to 1 lb even and am only using 2 oz of biscuit mount...I also upped the later hop addition quantities...ill try to post the updated recipe in a few minutes

Screenshots of updated recipe

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Read a few recipes for double recipes and byo's style guide and updated one more time I think its a lot closer now....I reduced all the malt and added some corn sugar

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wtaylor3 said:

I was a mechanic in the Army and we were deployed overseas where camels are everywhere and so the army tow truck and surroundings became camel tow and a guy drew up this image for me for platoon t-shirts but the female mechanics didn't like it so we never used it...I decided for it to be my beer and hbt user JINKS turned it into the label you see now......is it worse than Satan's anus?


Disclaimer: Satan's anus is not my label found it in the show your label thread I believe

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Oh. If this is for you and your buddies, then OK. If you're going to use this as your flagship beer, I'd rethink the name. Even "Satan's Anus" gives me a clear, though unpleasant visual image just from the name. "Camel Tow" requires the whole backstory, which will then still only really be appealing to people who have been in your unusual situation. It almost works for me. I have many ideas that almost work that I get too excited about before thinking it through. That's my "marketing division" opinion.

wtaylor3 said:

Read a few recipes for double recipes and byo's style guide and updated one more time I think its a lot closer now....I reduced all the malt and added some corn sugar

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this is it! fine looking recipe - i think it's gonna be REALLY good

my only 2 cents - 1 package of S-05 is not enough. I'd up that to 2 packages. I'd also move that 30min addition to flame out - you've got some really good layering of hops going on in your scheme, it just looks incomplete with no hops at the very end

Moved 30 min hop addition to 0 minute boil and added second pack of us-05 to recipe...hopefully now ill get to brew this soon...sometime between Wednesday and next weekend I'm brewing another batch of co3c for my dads Christmas party and then ill get the supplies for the trial run of this....

As far as marketing and the name I may change that but I'm FAR from going pro

Wow, its taking me awhile to get to this...

Was wondering what you guys thought about a second runnings session IPA off of this?

Brewsncrabs said:

Maybe use sugar to get to 9%. I would reduce the crystal as stated before.


Beer and crabs were meant for each other!

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Second the sugar advice, it helps a lot in a big IPA like this by drying out the body a little, adding that extra kick of alcohol and it's cheap. I use up to 10%.

edit, saw you've added it now