DanOmite

Recipes 

Hello,

I am working on an IIPA recipe and need help with the malts. To be blunt, I just want to increase the ABV without masking any flavor. I only want to boost the ABV to ~8.5-9. I don't want to create some overly sweet IIPA, which I have experienced in many stronger beers. I am happy with the hops, because I just finished an IPA with a very similar hop sequence and it was delicious.

Here is the IIPA recipe...

Ingredients

Malt
• 9lb Light LME (half mashing and half at 30 minutes into the boil)
Specialty Grains
• 1 lb American 2-Row Pale
• 1 lb Crystal 20L
• ¼ lb Crystal 120L
• ½ lb Victory
Extra Stuff
• 1 tablespoon Irish Moss
Hops
• 1.0 oz Magnum (60 minutes into boil)
• 1 oz Centennial (20 minutes into boil)
• 0.5 oz Amarillo (15 minutes into boil)
• 1 oz Centennial (10 minutes into boil)
• 0.5 oz Amarillo (5 minutes into boil)
• 1.0 oz Centennial (0 minutes into boil)
• 1.75 oz Columbus (dry hop 7 days)
Yeast
• White Labs California Ale Yeast


How can I increase the ABV without the beer becoming too malty? I am already using a lot of LME, since I have a bunch at home.

Suggestions? Does it look decent...?

Thanks.

Rick500

Recipes 

I'd drop the 2-row and Victory as steeping grains... you're really not going to get much of anything out of them just steeping them anyway.

I don't know that I'd put crystal 120 in an IIPA. It will impart a raisin/fig flavor...so if that's what you like, then cool.

You could add some corn sugar if you just want to increase alcohol without adding flavor. But you'd have to add a ton to get it up to 8.5 from where it is now; I'd add more LME instead.

Also, if you're doing a late extract addition with half of the LME, you could add it 10 or 15 minutes from the end of the boil instead of 30 minutes from the end of the boil.

With your hops, do you mean those times to be "xx minutes from the end of the boil" rather than "xx minutes into boil?"

DanOmite

Recipes 

Yes! Sorry about that.

So, you think more LME is the way to go?

Rick500

Recipes 

When in doubt, I usually go back and start with the recipe for that particular style in Brewing Classic Styles as a base and tweak things from there:

JZ's 'Hop Hammer' IIPA

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.013
100+ IBUs (284 calculated)
8.9% ABV
90 min boil
Pre-boil volume: 7.74 gallons

10.9 lbs Light LME 81.3%
1.5 lbs Corn Sugar 11.2%
0.5 lb Wheat LME 3.7%
0.5 lb Crystal 40 (steep) 3.7%
2.0 oz Warrior [15.0%AA] 90 min 117.8
2.0 oz Chinook [13.0%AA] 90 min 102.1
1.0 oz Simcoe [12.0%AA] 45 min 38.4
1.0 oz Columbus [14.0%AA] 30 min 25.5
2.25 oz Centennial [9.0%AA] 0 min -
1.0 oz Simcoe [12.0%AA] 0 min -
3.25 oz Columbus [14.0%AA] Dry hop -
1.75 oz Centennial [9.0%AA] Dry hop -
1.75 oz Simcoe [12.0%AA] Dry hop -
WLP001, Wyeast 1056, or S-05: 3 liquid yeast packages, 15 gm dry yeast, or equivalent starter

Ferment at 67F, slowly raising to 70F over a few days near the end of fermentation

Move to secondary after bulk of yeast drops, then add dry (pellet) hops and wait several days until they settle to the bottom. Then leave on the hops for 7 days.

---

So there ya go... take a look at what he did and see if you want to use some of those ideas. Wheat LME might be interesting.

Recipes aren't copyrightable, but the rest of the stuff in the book is... but I think it's permissible to copy a short quote for educational purposes: "...the key to brewing a great imperial IPA is to avoid having too much crystal malt flavor and too high a finishing gravity. It is important that the finishing gravity is in the 1.012 to 1.015 range, no matter how big the starting gravity. This is what keeps the beer drinkable."

It's well worth it to buy that book, by the way.

Anyway, that hop schedule is radically different from yours, which is fine, but you might want to take your cue from the fermentables in that recipe.

DanOmite

Recipes 

When do you add the corn sugar?

snailsongs

Recipes 

at any time during the boil is fine. Usually I add things like that in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil.....

DanOmite

Recipes 

Does corn sugar add any real flavor? I am trying to avoid too much malt flavoring. For instance, could I reduce my LME and replace it with a few pounds with corn sugar without messing up the outcome?

I'm now looking at something like this...

Ingredients

Malt
• 10 lb Light LME (half mashing and half at 15 minutes into the boil)
Specialty Grains
• 1 lb Crystal 20L
• ½ lb Belgian CaraVienne
Extra Stuff
• 1 tablespoon Irish Moss
Hops
• 1.0 oz Magnum (60 minutes)
• 1 oz Centennial (20 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Amarillo (15 minutes)
• 1 oz Centennial (10 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Amarillo (5 minutes)
• 1.0 oz Centennial (0 minutes)
• 1.75 oz Columbus (dry hop 7 days)
Yeast
• White Labs California Ale Yeast or Safale US-05

Rick500

Recipes 

Corn sugar adds no flavor. It'll all be fermented into alcohol.

That's heavy on the crystal/Caravienne for an IIPA.

If that's a 5 gallon recipe, that'll get you to about 7.4% ABV.
Add half a pound of corn sugar and you're at about 7.9% ABV.

Beezer94

Recipes 

I would keep the 10lbs Light LME and add 1-1.5lbs corn sugar.

The corn sugar adds no body, so if you use too much in place of the LME you will get watery-mouthfeel alcoholic beverage.

passedpawn

Recipes 

I add the corn sugar in 0.5# batches (with boiled water, of course) each time the ferment slows to a burp every 5-10 seconds. It will take off again. I just finished a IIPA and added 1.5# corn sugar, total, to a grain bill of about 15#. It is delicious, but a little sweet.