Help with IPA?

Here's my first IPA recipe. How does it look? I'm wanting to buy from Northern Brewer, but it looks like they are out of Amarillo hop pellets. What else could I use?

Thanks for any help!

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
82% 9 0 Northern Brewer Gold LME info 35 7
18% 2 0 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L info 34 40
11 0
Batch size: 5.0 gallons


Original Gravity
1.077
(1.069 to 1.080)
Final Gravity
1.019
(1.017 to 1.021)
Color
15° SRM / 29° EBC
(Light Brown to Medium Brown)
Mash Efficiency
75%

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Warrior info pellet 15.0
boil 30 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
boil 20 mins 1.0 Amarillo info pellet 7.0
boil 10 mins 1.0 Cascade info pellet 5.5
Boil: 4.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes


Bitterness
72.7 IBU / 15 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.95

yeast
Nottingham info
ale yeast in dry form with high flocculation and 75% attenuation


Alcohol
7.7% ABV / 6% ABW
Calories
254 per 12 oz.

Will I need a blow off tube? This is only my second batch. Is it a little too ambitious?

2lbs of crystal malt is alot, and will make your beer pretty sweet. I would consider cutting it to 1 lb.

I always use a blowoff tube - no reason not to use one.

Agreed on the crystal. Also, you should have some later hops for aroma, or even dry hop. You can add more or push back the cascades and Amarillo.

Blow off tube depends on the size of your fermented.

+1 to cutting the crystal to 1 lb, unless you want a cloyingly sweet ipa. no such thing as too ambitious. as far as a blowoff tube, what size bucket are you using to ferment? and do dry-hop it

Agree with Pappers, too much Crystal. Knock it down to a pound.

This is your second batch. Why mix up the hops?

Amarillo at 20 is really a waste. At that time you are losing most if not all the aroma and flavor contribution. I would say you could sub in almost anything.

Probably be better to move the 30 minute out to 60 to get the bitterness, and have finish additions at 15 and 5, or 10 and 0.

Try running all Centennial. Makes a good IPA. Stone thinks so, and I agree with them.

Another suggestion is to drop a pound of LME and replace it with a pound of cane sugar, but add the sugar after a few days as the fermentation starts to slow down. It will help dry it out a bit, and adding late will help the yeast eat through the sugars easier.

Thanks for the input. As everyone has suggested, I have cut the Crystal to 1 pound. But now the ABV is low due to the Imperial IPA guidelines (I'm using a calculator to make this recipe). What other grain do you suggest I add? Also, I think I am going to go with an all Centennial IPA. Might as well, because mixing up the hops might just confuse me. I know I like the taste of hops, I'm just not sure which exact hop that is, and this is one way to find out. Would you recommend a different hop to try? I saw a recipe on here for an all Amarillo IPA that made me curious. Also, is Nottingham a good yeast choice for this brew? Here's the updated recipe as of now:

malt & fermentables

% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
90% 9 2 Northern Brewer Gold LME info 35 7
10% 1 0 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L info 34 40

Batch size: 5.0 gallons

Original Gravity
1.071
(1.063 to 1.074)
Final Gravity
1.018
(1.015 to 1.019)
Color
12° SRM / 24° EBC
(Copper to Red/Lt. Brown)
Mash Efficiency
75%

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
boil 30 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
boil 15 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
dry hop 7 days 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0

Boil: 4.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes

Bitterness
66.2 IBU / 10 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.94

yeast
Nottingham
ale yeast in dry form with high flocculation and 75% attenuation


Alcohol
7.1% ABV / 5% ABW
Calories
234 per 12 oz.

Thanks!

I hate to drag you back and forth on this, but I don't see why you necessarily need all Centennial. Cascades go very well with Centennial, and Warrior and Amarillo can fit in as well.

If you want to go imperial, you'd need more extract (or go mini mash or something). Do you want to do that? 7% is a pretty big beer already. You might need a second packet of yeast if you go IIPA.

Move the 30 minute centennials to 0 minutes. 30 minute hops contribute some bitterness, but not flavor or aroma. If you need more bittering, add more hops and 60 minutes. 30 minute additions are pretty useless.

I like centennial, amarillo, cascades, etc for IPAs. You can do an all-centennial if you want to but I don't see why you'd not want to use some other hops as well unless you have a pound of centennials just sitting around and need to be used up.

Nottingham is fine to use- keep the fermentation temperature below 70 degrees.

You can use more LME or even a pound of corn sugar to boost up the OG but don't add any more crystal!

I'm not familar with your calculator, but the mash efficiency at 75% doesn't make sense. You're using LME, so the mash efficiency doesn't come into play at all.

I'd try a different calculator, or have one of us run it through Beersmith to check the OG and the IBUs.

I switched my style to American IPA, switched to a variety of hops, and added a dry hop. What do you guys think this time? Hopefully this critique will lead to a GREAT brew!

malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable ppg °L
90% 9 2 Northern Brewer Gold LME info 35 7
10% 1 0 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L info 34 40
10 2
Batch size: 5.0 gallons


Original Gravity
1.071
(1.063 to 1.074)
Final Gravity
1.018
(1.015 to 1.019)
Color
12° SRM / 24° EBC
(Copper to Red/Lt. Brown)
Mash Efficiency
90%

hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Warrior info pellet 15.0
boil 15 mins 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Amarillo info pellet 7.0
boil 1 min 1.0 Cascade info pellet 5.5
dry hop 7 days 1.0 Centennial info pellet 10.0
Boil: 4.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes


Bitterness
58.0 IBU / 15 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.82

yeast
Nottingham info
ale yeast in dry form with high flocculation and 75% attenuation


Alcohol
7.1% ABV / 5% ABW
Calories
234 per 12 oz.

What do you guys think of the new recipe?

borovy3488 said:

What do you guys think of the new recipe?

Click to expand...

You found the Amarillo after all?

Looks pretty good to me.

boo boo said:

You found the Amarillo after all?

Looks pretty good to me.

Click to expand...

I agree! Looks great.

Yep found some amarillo. Glad to hear that it looks good. I'll be buying the ingredients soon! Thanks for the help guys!

As I was about to order the ingredients for this brew, I saw austin homebrew's $20 extract kit special. Guess this one's on hold for a bit. What extract kit do you recommend (besides the ipa of course) for good practice? I figure if I make a couple more extract kits (at a good price), this recipe will turn out better.

Or would you advise against that plan?

Confused! Too many decisions! Not enough money!

......I think I'm becoming addicted to homebrewing.

Go for it, brew your recipe! It'll be great, you'll learn more from it and become a better brewer as a result.

Sounds good to me! Just completed the order! I'll post the results. Hopefully it will turn out well.

A couple more questions. How long and when should I start the dry hop? I plan on only using a primary fermenter, and will dry hop there. Also, how long into the boil do I add Irish Moss?

Thanks for any help!

Don't start the dry hop until the fermentation has finished and add the Irish moss in the final 10 minutes of the boil. Good luck!

Instead of making a new thread, I just keep updating this one. I have ordered my supplies, and they are on their way. My last beer was an extract kit with clear and simple instructions. This one is all me. So, I'm not really sure if I should follow the same instructions. I know I need to steep the grain for about 30 minutes. How much water should I use when doing this? I also know that I add the extract after removing the pot from the burner and removing the grain. Then start the boil and follow the hop schedule. I think it should be easy enough, but I'll keep you guys posted!

I have another question. Got my ingredients in the mail today. I have the capacity to do a full boil, but have never done one, and really don't want to mess this beer up because it'd my first recipe. Would you recommend doing a full boil on an extract brew?

Also, I plan on keeping it in the primary for 3-4 weeks. How long should I keep the dry hop in there? All I have to do is just put the pellets into the fermenter, right?

Thanks for all of your help guys, I think this beer will be GREAT.

borovy3488 said:

I have another question. Got my ingredients in the mail today. I have the capacity to do a full boil, but have never done one, and really don't want to mess this beer up because it'd my first recipe. Would you recommend doing a full boil on an extract brew?

Also, I plan on keeping it in the primary for 3-4 weeks. How long should I keep the dry hop in there? All I have to do is just put the pellets into the fermenter, right?

Thanks for all of your help guys, I think this beer will be GREAT.

Click to expand...

You can do a full boil, as long as you have a burner strong enough to boil 6 gallons and a way to chill it when it's done.

I dryhop the last 7-10 days before bottling.

I would put the dry-hops in a bag to minimize the trub and make the transfer to the bottling bucket cleaner. I use a 1g paint strainer bag (couple bucks for 2 and reusable) with a plastic bread tie thingy to tie it closed. Make sure to sanitize the bag and tie very well first.