Will this Ale have enough BITE?

**Walker** · 09-09-2005, 02:32 PM

I have recently liberated myself from beer kits and am trying my hand at creating my own recipes. I'm attempting an IPA this weekend for my wife, who LOVES biting, hoppy pale ales.

Below is my recipe, and I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions.

INFO: I boil 2.5 gallons of wort for a 5 gallon batch, and use 2-stage fermentation.

Grains (steeped at 150 degrees for 30 minutes):

1/2 lb 10L Crystal Malt

1/2 lb Carapils

Malt Extracts:

5.5 lbs british light DME

Hops:

1 oz Galena 11.8% @ 60min

1 oz Northern Brewer 8.8% @ 60 min

1 oz EK Goldings 5.2% @ 30 min

1 oz EK Goldings 5.2% @ 15 min

1 oz EK Goldings 5.2% dry hop in secondary at racking time

-walker

Rookie · 09-11-2005, 07:32 PM

Looks O K to me.

PT Ray · 09-12-2005, 01:57 AM

If I used that much bittering hops that would put me at 75+ IBUs(calculated at 25% utilization) which would be too bitter for an IPA let alone a pale ale. If you drop the utilization to 15% to compensate for the concentrated 2.5 gallon boil it will put you around 45 IBUs which should be plenty bitter.

**Walker** · 09-12-2005, 02:08 PM

She's already been brewed.

Fortunately, the alpha's were not correct on my recipe. I had used the numbers listed on my LHBS's website, but when I actually picked things up, the %'s were different (actual %'s were slightly lower on all hops types.)

ACTUAL HOP TYPES AND SCORES

1 oz Galena (11%) @ 60 minutes
2 oz NB (7%) @ 45 minutes
1 oz EK (3.3%) @ 30 minutes
1 oz Cascade (7.3%) @ 15 minutes

Anyway, I plugged it into the Beer Recipator's spreadsheet and it came out at 63 IBUs. According to the recipator's style guide, this is a little over the high range of IBUs for this style of beer (range is 40 to 60), but it's kind of close.

One STUPID mistake I made will reduce the bitterness more (but also flavor and % alcohol); when I dumped my wort into my bottling bucket (I use the bucket to cool with ice and then rack to the carboy) I had the @&^%$# spigot open. I must have lost about 2 pints of my 2.5 gallon boil right onto the floor before I saw what was up and closed the spigot. I ended up replacing this lost liquid with water.

So, that should bring it down some more. I just hope I didn't make a bitter and watery beer.

I'll have to taste it before I rack to the secondary next weekend. If it's still too bitter and/or watery, I might have to add some boiled extract or sugar to sweeten and get more alcohol and get back some of the flavor I lost in the spill.

-walker