Critique: RyePA -My First Recipe

Hey, I am relatively new to the brew community and extremely new to homebrewtalk. I have done about 8 batches, all 5 gallons extract with specialty grains. This is the first recipe that I have come up with from scratch. I am aiming to brew it this weekend and would love any and all feedback. I want a RyePA with strong hop character and slightly higher ABV (note the larger quantity of hops and extract). Any pointers would be greatly appreciated
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RyePA, My First:

1.5 lbs 2-row Pale Malt
0.375 lbs Flaked Rye
0.125 lbs Crystal Malt 20L
9.9 lbs Light LME (roughly 3 cans)

Wyeast or White Labs California Ale (starter or pitch 2 tubes/pouches???)

1 oz. Columbus hops (60min)
1 oz. Magnum hops (20min)
1 oz. Amarillo hops (0.5oz @ 15min / 0.5 oz dry-hop 7 days)
0.5 oz Cascade hops (dry-hop 7 days)
0.5 oz Centennial hops (dry-hop 7 days)

• Grains steeped at 150 for 60 minutes (I have heard slightly cooler and longer steeps are best for rye)
• Bring wort to boil and add LME and Columbus hops
• Add Magnum hops with 20 minutes remaining and 0.5oz of Amarillo at 15 minutes remaining
• Cool to 68 Fahrenheit, aerate and pitch yeast. Ferment at 68 for 2 weeks
• After primary, move to secondary and add remaining Amarillo hops, Cascade and Centennial for 1 week (would 2 weeks be too long for this many hops???)
• Bottle and age for 2-3 weeks

My 2 main concerns are the yeast and the length of secondary. I want a slightly higher ABV so I am not sure how much yeast to pitch. I have heard that a lot of hops in a 2 week secondary can lead to some off flavors, am I wrong to think this?

Thanks in advanced for the help!

I would use 1 lb of rye if you really want this to have a Rye flavor in the final product. 1/3 of a pound in 5 gallons isn't going to even be noticeable.

As for the yeast amount, what is the expected Original Gravity of this beer? I would assume 1.070 or higher. I would make a 1.5 liter (1/3 gallon) starter and use one tube of yeast...no sense burning money on yeast when you can just make a starter to double or triple the yeast count! DME is cheap.

So I should shift the ratio to like 1 lbs. Flaked Rye, .75lb 2-row and a little crystal for color and body?

And as for the OG and all that jazz, it looks like it should sit right around 1.072. I have the recipe posted here, http://hopville.com/recipe/1659786

I will definitely up the Rye to give it more flavor. But in terms of the yeast, if i am brewing it in say 2 days, that isn't enough time for a starter is it? Should I just go dry yeast?

VTrookie said:

So I should shift the ratio to like 1 lbs. Flaked Rye, .75lb 2-row and a little crystal for color and body?

And as for the OG and all that jazz, it looks like it should sit right around 1.072. I have the recipe posted here, http://hopville.com/recipe/1659786

I will definitely up the Rye to give it more flavor. But in terms of the yeast, if i am brewing it in say 2 days, that isn't enough time for a starter is it? Should I just go dry yeast?

Click to expand...

48 hours is plenty of time for a starter. I try to make my starters 3 days before I brew but if I forget and only have 2 days I just pitch the entire starter to the beer, that little bit of extra liquid really doesn't change the flavor of your beer, most brewers recommend this and pitching active yeast ensures immediate start to fermentation in your wort.

I always use 1/2 lb of Crystal malt per 5 gallons in my IPA's it's just enough body.

IMO: steeping 2-row is pointless. It's a base malt and won't make any flavor difference in that low quantity in a mostly extract recipe. Steeping grains doesn't add hardly any ferment-able sugars, only flavor.

One comment on your hops: Columbus @ 60 and Magnum at 20 is a bit of a waste of hops since Magnum is a clean bittering hop. I would just use 1 oz magnum for bittering and then use Columbus @ 20 min and Amarillo to finish at 10 minutes, then dry hop as planned. With an IPA in the 1.070 OG range I would shoot for 70-90 IBU's.

So what should my grain bill be? I read 2-row is like the basis of IPA's so that is why I threw it in there but if, in an extract scenario, I don't need it, what specialty grains should i include?

And what type of crystal? 15, 20, 30, 40?

VTrookie said:

So what should my grain bill be? I read 2-row is like the basis of IPA's so that is why I threw it in there but if, in an extract scenario, I don't need it, what specialty grains should i include?

And what type of crystal? 15, 20, 30, 40?

Click to expand...

Most of the fermentable malt sugars in your extract comes from 2-row of some kind.

Crystal 15-40 will not add much color to 5 gallons. Most brewers use Crystal 60...it will impart a nice copper/orange tint to your IPA. Depending on the quality of your light malt extract the final beer may be anywhere from dark yellow to copper in color.

If I was doing it I would use your 3 cans of extract and for the specialty grains I would use:
1 lb Crystal 60
1 lb Rye

If you don't want it to have a lot of body cut the Crystal down to 1/2 lb.

What do you think about
1lb Flaked Rye
8oz Crystal 40L
8oz Victory

??

I am just thinking it would be good to have some body to balance out the predicted 84 IBU level of this beer. I have also heard that IBUs are lost in the process somewhere so if I am aiming for a hoppy bite should I up the hops or is 84 IBU a good ballpark to aim for.

Also on the topic of hops, Could I leave them in for teh full 2 weeks of secondary or should I stick to 7 days of dry hopping? I ahve heard they impart off flavors if left in too long? Does anyone have experience with this or would be willing to speak to this?

Thanks again for the help Jayhem

Just brewed the RyePA tonight! Ended up with:

-1 lb. Flaked Rye
-1 lb. Crystal 40L
-9.9 lbs. Light LME
-1 oz. US Magnum
-1 oz. Columbus
-1 oz. Chinook
-0.5 oz. Cascade
-0.5 oz. Centennial

Steeped for 60min. around 150 Fahrenheit. Added all the LME and Magnum at the start of the boil. Columbus went in at 25min and half the Chinook went in at 15min.

Pitched 2 tubes of White Labs California Ale yeast to make sure fermentation goes off without a hitch. The remaining hops will be added in secondary for 7 days.

I tasted the wort before we pitched the yeast and it was pretty bitter and plenty sweet. Seems like its well on its way.

Sounds good. What was the final IBU calculation? Did you measure the Final Gravity before you pitched yeast?

I actually just brewed an all grain CDA (black IPA) on Sunday as well!
I hit 1.074 OG and 88 IBU's and it's jet black! Can't wait to try this. Although I will never do an all grain big beer again! I had to boil for 2.5 hours in order to boil down my 14.5 gallons of collected wort to 10.2 gallons in order to hit my gravity. Next time I'll do a partial mash.

I'm not sure if the final IBU calculation is right but it says it sits around 112... which is pretty extreme. It was 1oz of 14.7%AA at 60min, 1oz of 13.9%AA at 25min and 0.5oz of 11.1%AA at 15min. The final gravity I measured before pitching the yeast was about 1.060. That was a little lower than I was expecting but I wasn't sure how to correct that. :-/

I am going to be adding another 1.5oz of hops in secondary just to bring out the aroma.

Cascadian Dark is some good stuff. I brewed an extract w/ specialty grains recipe out of the BYO magazine. I think it was O'Dark's Cascadian Dark Ale. Turned out pretty solid. Good luck on your brew and thanks for the help with this recipe. Some day I will be moving up to All-grain when I can put the money together for a set up.