Advice Needed for Malty/Sweet IPA

Hey all,

There's a sale at my LHBS for Michigan grown Bravo hops (fantastic varietal). While I love harshly bitter IPA's, I'm really looking to put together a recipe for something that has more malty sweetness to it without adding fruit or anything crazy. I would like this to be somewhere in the 7-8% ABV range, probably just 2-row/MO and crystal, and only Bravo hops. Not sure if a yeast starter is necessarily required at that ABV range, but if so, I'm not against it. I don't have a beer software, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks. :rockin:

Will simply mashing higher than usual accomplish this? What would you ordinarily mash at? I suppose it also depends on the level of malty sweetness we are talking. I am interested in the same thing so interested in other replies here!

WharfRat said:

Will simply mashing higher than usual accomplish this? What would you ordinarily mash at? I suppose it also depends on the level of malty sweetness we are talking. I am interested in the same thing so interested in other replies here!

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Well, let's hope the vets can come in and help us out. I've just had 2 wonderful quaffable IPAs recently that were only available on tap, so I'd like to replicate one at home. It's hard to describe what I mean without thinking "smooth" or "easy-to-drink" because I think most beers fit those descriptions... Hahah.

Which IPAs are you talking about?

I think mashing higher will give you a higher FG resulting in more residual sugars and a sweeter beer. Also, adding more non-fermentable sugars like crystal malts should help in this regard, as opposed to adding simple sugars that the yeast will burn through (i.e. corn sugar or to a lesser degree, 2 row malt).

WharfRat said:

Which IPAs are you talking about?

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Bravo and Cascade IPA. Founders did both over the summer. Even the Brewer's Guild IPA is amazing and quite sweet.

It's not difficult to brew a sweet IPA. You can easily hit 1.018-1.021 FG with the right grist, yeast, mash & ferm temps. Typically, brewers strive for drier IPAs (<1.011) and do not always reach as low of an FG as they had hoped. I recommend mashing at 154 F and fermenting in the upper 60's. Reach 1.070 OG. Use WLP002 or another low attenuating British yeast. Start with an American 2-row base (you could even go with Maris Otter); then incorporate 10% or so Crystal 60 and 40 in combination along with any other malts you deem necessary. Do not use sugar.

Mash at 158-159, aim for a 1.07ish gravity. That oughta be sweet enough for ya!

I recently used C120 (about 3-4%) in an IPA with about 60 IBU and the dark crystal played well with the hop bitterness.

I make a Surly Furious clone that has some residual sweetness (although a ton of hops to make it not taste sweet!).

A good way to do this is to use "richer" base malts, like golden promise or maris otter, and add some Munich malt. Use plenty of crystal malt, in a light and dark to provide complexity, and use an English ale yeast that doesn't attenuate as well as an American ale yeast.

The Surly Clone grainbill is:
Golden Promise 70.2 %
Munich Malt 18.0 %
Caramunich II 7.0 %
Crystal Malt - 60L 4.0%
(Percentages don't equal quite 100% because I use acid malt for pH adjustment- .8%)
Yeast is Wyeast 1335

That's alot of crystal! but it works so well in this recipe. If you want an IPA with some residual sweetness, and some malt backbone, this would work. But don't be afraid to bitter it appropriately to counteract the sweetness! Good beers are all about balance.

To get sweet, there are 3 main routes.

1) Use some grains that have some natural sweetness and some non-fermentable sugars. eg crystal or specialty malts or even british base malts
2) Mash at a higher temp so you create more unfermentable sugars.
3) Use a yeast that doesn't attenuate as well so it leaves some sugar.

The flip side is that the more IBU's you add, the less pronounced the sweetness will be. Obviously, you still need enough bitterness to make it an IPA, but you might want to stick with a more old school IBU range for an IPA vs the recently popular over-the-top hopping schedules.

So much great advice...

I want to reach 1.083 OG with a combination of MO and Crystal only, maybe 15lbs MO and 1LB Crystal 15, if that will get me there.

One more question, and hopefully that will solidify my recipe:

I don't have any brewing software, so could someone help me with a hop schedule for a 5.5 gallon batch using only Bravo hops (14-17 AA)? I'm hoping to get the IBU somewhere between 40 and 65 to let the sweetness shine.

Just to show I'm trying...

1oz 90 minute
1oz 15 minute
0.5oz 2 minute
2.5oz dry hop

The IBU calculator shows 91 for pellets and 72 for whole hops. Are these accurate?

Thanks!

Anybody?

beersmith has a 21 day free trial, it's really nice software.

Buna_Bere said:

beersmith has a 21 day free trial, it's really nice software.

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So let's say there's a cheap homebrewer who wanted to use it after the 21st day... :cross:

Just to update:


I wanted a more malty/sweet IPA and blew my efficiencies out of the water. As I haven't tasted it yet, it could be terrible. It could also be AMAZING.

11.25 lbs Maris Otter
3.00 lbs Munich
1.75 Crystal/Caramel 15L

1 oz Bravo (pellet, 60 minute) - 35 IBU
4 oz Cascade (wet hop, 15 minute) - 18 IBU
4 oz Cascade (wet hop, 7 minute) - 13 IBU
3 oz Cascade (wet hop, 4 minute) - 9 IBU
2 oz Cascade (wet hop, 1 minute) - 6 IBU

Going to dry hop with more that I dried. 7 days prior to bottling.

Those IBU's are based on 6% AA Cascades. Could be way higher or lower depending.

Mashed at 158 for 1 hour. 6 gallons of 170F strike water. Single sparge with 3.75 gallons sparge water. Preboil volume of 7.4 gallons. Ended with about 6 gallons. Hit 1.080 with 88% efficiency (WAY HIGH).

It's fermenting like crazy as of midnight last night. Smells so fresh and hoppy!

Interested to hear how it turns out!

Took the first hydrometer reading today (14 days of fermentation). Unfortunately it's about 3 points high (1.020 instead of 1.017). Not the biggest deal, but it tastes alright. It's a little different than I was expecting, but I've never brewed an IPA, so I'm hoping it changes quite a bit with carbonation and conditioning.

Just from my recent experience, if you used the British Ale Yeast, give it longer to ferment, mine took about a month in the primary to get where I wanted it with that yeast. Also my attempt at a Ninkasi IPA using that yeast did end up on the malty sweet side, and was awesome.

GuitarGumption said:

Just from my recent experience, if you used the British Ale Yeast, give it longer to ferment, mine took about a month in the primary to get where I wanted it with that yeast. Also my attempt at a Ninkasi IPA using that yeast did end up on the malty sweet side, and was awesome.

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Well, I used US-05. I think the reading was actually closer to 1.019 when I let it settle from bubbles and such. Pretty pumped to get to the 3 week mark so I can dry hop this baby! :rockin: