First AG recipe

wanted to check with some experts and see if you thought this would be a good first try at all grain. Heres what Im thinking for an IPA because this is what I've already got lying around.

5gal batch
6.5gal boil (2- 3.25 gallon boils in two pots, have to do it on a stove top)

10 lbs 2-row
1 lbs carapils
8 oz Crystal 40

Mash in 14qts @ 154 60min
batch sparge with 3 gallon @ 168

1 oz Magnum 60min
.5 oz cascade 30min
.5oz cascade 10min
.5oz cascade dry hop


alright, be mean if you need to. I like really hoppy beers and I totally hope this one will be. If its good everyone gets a case on me

If I wanted something really hoppy, then I'd use more hops than that. Is this BIAB?

Looks good. Do you have your calculations for strike temp and water needed?

Looks more like a pale than IPA. Don't have time to run the numbers but I would move the 30 minute addition to the 10 and if you have more hops use them. .5oz of dry hops is not enough either. I usually use a minimum of 3oz for a pale and 5 oz for an IPA/IIPA

If you have more hops I would add another ounce at 10 minutes and another at flame out as well. I'm not really sure if you even need the carapils.

Yeah, you need to add more hops. Move the first Cascade edition down to 20 min, and at the very least add a flame-out addition.

So:

60
20
10
0 (Flame-out)

It's not a biab...I've got a bazooka screen. And I don't have any calculations yet but wanted to check it on beersmith or something when I get home. Ok I'll def change my hops schedules and add some. I could easily change my grains too. Would it be better to add crystal 80 or 120 or something similar and nix the carapils? Or just have a lighter ipa and trick some people.

Also was curious...you think the hops will compliment each other. I see tons of guys using citra for ipa but since I just built my mash tun and my permanent roommate said whoa I won't be getting any citra for sometime.

Thanks yall


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I would lose the carapils altogether and mash lower. You generally want an IPA to finish dry, so 1/2 lb of crystal total is plenty and the extra hops will help with head retention (as mentioned you need more late and dry hop). Do you know what you want your target OG to be? You'll have to guess at the efficiency this being your first batch. You may want to either set it a bit low or have some DME on hand in case you miss. Magnum is just there for the bittering and it's pretty neutral so hard to go wrong with that. You could just go with more cascade for almost a single hop beer or mix in something else - simcoe, centennial, chinook would be some of my favorite pairings with cascade.

I hadn't really thought about my OG. On top of my head maybe 1.058. Im planning on using this to help figure out efficiency and then tinkering with hops, yeast, vanilla, etc to,help change it into something creative.

Ok so I've got some dme but how do you add that to your wort. Do you measure sg at flame out then add some dme and cool it? Or cool it, measure it, then boil some up and add it? And probably a dumber question but how do you calculate how much to add?


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You won't be able to figure out your efficiency until you actually brew.

A good starting point would be 70-75%

If you need to add DME to get your desired OG then you mash all your grains first and then take a preboil gravity reading after mash and sparge. If your desired of is 1.058 then preboil should be about 7-10 points less, give or take.

1lb of DME will provide 9 points so if you're short you can add what you need around the 10 minute mark left in the boil to help meet your desired OG.

Btw, if you haven't read "how to brew" by Palmer I would highly recommend it!


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Here are some numbers to give you context. (I threw your recipe into BeerSmith out of curiosity, so there may be little variations depending on your system).

OG range for American IPA style: 1.056-1.075
Estimated OG for this recipe: 1.060

IBU range for American IPA style: 40-70
Estimated IBUs for this recipe: 32.9 (I even entered a higher AA% based on the Cascades that I have on hand here)

Recommended IBU/SG ratio for IPA (per Ray Daniels): 1.10
IBU/SG for this recipe: .553

So basically, go BIGGER! Here are the take-aways:
-If you were to remove the carapils (as suggested above, since you will get more than enough body from your high mash temp), you wouldn't even hit within the low OG range for an IPA. I say add more base malt, or dextrose sugar if you want to up the gravity while drying out the final beer.
-2/3, roughly, of your IBUs come from your Magnum addition. This is going to mean a nice clean bitterness, but not a big hop character at all.
-Regarding the IBU/SG ratio, it has to be to your tastes, but if you're a big hop head you're going to want to aim for that recommended ratio, more or less, and do so by increasing your late boil additions to get more character into the final product.
-Not covered in the numbers above, but definitely up that dry hop amount.

That said, your hop choices are great. Magnum is very clean and pleasant, and it won't get in the way of the Cascade, which are of course a classic for a reason!

I can do all that. More cascade and more base malt it is!. Thanks for the help. I'll definitely let you know how this finishes. I'm hoping to do it this weekend when I get all my wedding beers out of fermenters.


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