Suggestions for Imperial IPA

First time doing my own recipe, I've altered many recipes from brewing classic styles to fit my tastes after I brewed the originals, and now I'm venturing into creating my own recipes.

I'm brewing an Imperial IPA as part of the groomsmen gifts and plan to give it to a few of my buddies who home brew as well. Any feed back or suggestions would be great! Thanks! This forum is a great resource and I always appreciate the suggestions and tips I've learned through the past few years.

Grain Bill
15lbs 2 Row 88.2%
1lb Corn Sugar 5.9%
0.5lb White Wheat 2.9%
0.5lb Crystal 40 2.9%
Mash at 150F

Hop Schedule
Warrior 1.5oz 90 Minutes
Chinook 1oz 60 Minutes
Centennial 1oz 30 Minutes
Cascade 1oz 15 minutes
Cascade 1 oz Flame Out
Centennial 1oz Flame Out

Dry Hops
Centennial 1oz 14 days
Cascade 2oz 14 days

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 with 2L starter

Est O.G. 1.088
Est F.G. 1.014

I'd probably adjust the hop schedule a little bit. Is there a reason you're doing a 90 and a 60 minute addition? There's really not a need to boil for 90 minutes, especially if you're not using Pilsner malt, and even then I never go longer than 60 minutes, unless it's to correct volume. I'd probably combine your 60 and 90 minute to get the desired IBUs and only do a 60 minute. I would try use something other than Chinook as well - stick with Warrior or another low cohumulone hop to keep the bitterness smooth. I'd also probably move both the 30 and 15 minute to either 15 minute or 10 minute and adjust your bittering to keep the IBUs the same.

If you have extra hops, a great technique is whirlpool or hop steeping. Depending on how you chill, you get the main volume down to below 180F and throw the hops in and let them sit while you continue to chill. It helps to keep some of the aromatics around. If that's something you want to do here, you could use an oz of both, or maybe even throw another hop in the mix. If you already have the Chinook on hand, I personally like using it as part of a later hop addition - usually flameout. I like the piney/resiny thing it contributes but don't like it's harsher bittering qualities.

I would probably adjust the hop schedule like this:

Hop Schedule
Warrior 1.5oz 60 Minutes
Chinook 1oz 20 Minutes
Centennial 1oz 15 Minutes
Cascade 1oz 10 minutes
Centennial 1 oz 5 minutes
Cascade 1oz Hop Stand at 170 degrees for 30 min.

I think this would give you a lot of hop flavor while keeping the bitterness balanced with the malt.

Adjusted the hop schedule and the boil time to 60 minutes.
2oz Warrior 60min
.5oz Simcoe 20min
1oz Centennial 10min
1oz Cascade 5 minutes
Chill to 175 whirlpool 1oz Cascade for 15-20 minutes

Dry Hops
2oz Cascade
1oz Simcoe
1oz Chinook

Thoughts?

waaaaaaaay more late addition hops

Working on an imperial rye IPA that I plan to brew soon and I need to pick up some more hops (after reading this will probably pick up Warrior, thank you HBT for saving my beer).

Is it "better" for example to do 4 oz of assorted late addition hops in the last 10 minutes and conversely do less dry hops (2oz or less)? Or is a more balanced approach better? On my recipe I was looking at about 3 oz in the 10/5/0 range with a manual whirlpool, and then maybe 1-2oz of dry hopping. After reading this I was probably going to add another oz to my late additions.

ArkotRamathorn said:

Working on an imperial rye IPA that I plan to brew soon and I need to pick up some more hops (after reading this will probably pick up Warrior, thank you HBT for saving my beer).

Is it "better" for example to do 4 oz of assorted late addition hops in the last 10 minutes and conversely do less dry hops (2oz or less)? Or is a more balanced approach better? On my recipe I was looking at about 3 oz in the 10/5/0 range with a manual whirlpool, and then maybe 1-2oz of dry hopping. After reading this I was probably going to add another oz to my late additions.

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That sounds good to me. I just brewed my first attempt at creating my own recipe for a double IPA. I got some good feedback on the hop schedule from some other folks on here. This is what it looked like:

0.50 oz Simcoe 60 min
1.0 oz Simcoe 20 min
1.0 oz Amarillo 15 min
1.0 oz Simcoe 15 min
1.0 oz Amarillo 10 min
1.0 oz Simcoe 5 min
1.0 oz Amarillo 1 min
2.5 oz Simcoe Hop Stand @ 170F for 30 min
1 oz Amarillo Hop Stand @ 170F for 30 min
1 oz Simcoe Dry Hop for 7 days
1 oz Amarillo Dry Hop for 7 days

I am really excited to try this beer. It has only been fermenting for 3 days but the wort tasted awesome. I hope this helped you.

grain bill and hop selection look great.

personally, i'd keep the 90m addition and move everything else to flame out. dry hop with a good 4 to 6oz and send me a couple bottles for review

Why the sugar and not just another pound or two of 2 row? I just did a SMaSH American IPA and it was a very similar recipe. Other than that it looks good to me.


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I would keep the 90 minute boil personally. And how about adding a few ounces of hops to the mash? It will give you more depth. Many big breweries are doing mash hopping in their big IPA's these days, or at least they say so on the bottle!

Did you do an IBU calculation? What do you expect to have as a starting gravity when the boil begins? With any beer, a 15 minute pre-boil will help avoid losing hops in a boil-over.

Why the sugar and not just another pound or two of 2 row? I just did a SMaSH American IPA and it was a very similar recipe. Other than that it looks good to me.

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Table sugar will increase ABV and help to dry the beer out more than adding more malt would. With a double IPA you don't want the hops to have to compete with too much malt.

I would keep the 90 minute boil personally.

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What's your thought process for keeping the 90 minute boil? Not arguing, just curious.