Deep Woods IIPA idea

So i was going for a piney, dank, earthy IIPA. Last few ipas we have brewed have been citrusy and hopburst styles. Kinda wanted to go the other direction on this one and this is what I came up with. Any advice or ideas is greatly appreciated.

15g batch
og-1.073
fg-1.017
7.5%abv
10 srm
80 ibu

35# 2-row
2# Crystal 40L
2# caramunich

60 min - 2.5oz Columbus
30 min - 2.5oz US Northern Brewer
15 min - 1oz Chinook
15 min - 1oz US Northern Brewer
5 min - 2oz Chinook
5 min - 2 oz US Northern Brewer
5 min - 4 oz Rosemary
Dry-hop - 3oz Chinook
Dry-hop - 3oz US Northern Brewer
Dry-spice - 2oz Rosemary

WLP001

Planning on mashing at say 152*

Looks pretty solid to me. If you really want that dank aroma, apollo and summit hops may be what youre looking for. Ive used summit before, and it came off as fairly dank, but with a hint of citrus. Havent used apollo, but ive heard theyre supposed to be pure dankness.

10% Caramel malts is quite high if you want piney & dank to shine through. Go with 0-5%. And add 2 lbs. carapils or wheat instead of either the crystal or caramunich.

Remove all of your 15 & 5 minute additions. Instead, focus on post-boil late hops for a warm aroma steep like Pliny the Elder does.

Adding rosemary would be a mistake here given your goals. It's potent and overpowering. Especially 6 oz. of it.

Use less hops at 30 in relation to your early addition. Figure about 15% of your total hops used for the middle addition. Also, for a dank IIPA, you're not using enough hops for the batch size. 21 oz. here equates to 7 total oz. per 5 gallon batch, which is standard IPA territory.

Attenuation will most likely exceed 80%, but you need a yeast starter for this beer. Possibly some corn sugar for added dryness.

Other than that, I would recommend removing Northern Brewer and instead going with Centennial, Simcoe, Summit, Apollo, or more Columbus. Sure you'll get some citrus, but most Pacific NW hops have a citrus element to them. The piney dank focus should take over in this case.

It is only 5% cara..?

Wouldn't losing the 15 & 5 min additions lose most of the flavor, and the post boil only leave aroma?

I dont know, was cooking with fresh Rosemary the other day and wanted to plop it in my IPA. Remember this is 15g so thats only 1.33oz per 5gal in the boil and if its enough at that point i wont add any with the dry hop.

Why remove northern brewer? I have never used it in an IPA or hop forward beer, but from the descriptions of it being minty pine-like seems like it would be right in line for this. Im not a big Centennial fan and my first draft of this recipe i had Simcoe, but switched it around. i have never used Summit or Apollo so never considered them.

ktraver97ss said:

It is only 5% cara..?.

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Caramunich and Crystal 40L are both sweet crystal malts with a toasty, caramel forward flavor. One uses American 2-row as a base, the other relies on Munich. -- 39 lbs. grain x 10.25% = 3.9975 lbs.

ktraver97ss said:

Wouldn't losing the 15 & 5 min additions lose most of the flavor, and the post boil only leave aroma?.

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A misconception. Every addition adds flavor. 15-10-5 is not the peak at which hops offer flavor. It's just convenient for people to label.

ktraver97ss said:

I dont know, was cooking with fresh Rosemary the other day and wanted to plop it in my IPA. Remember this is 15g so thats only 1.33oz per 5gal in the boil and if its enough at that point i wont add any with the dry hop.

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ktraver97ss said:

5 min - 4 oz Rosemary
Dry-spice - 2oz Rosemary

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= 6 oz. Rosemary, and 2 oz. per gallon

You were also cooking with it. Rosemary is a hardy herb that is usually used in small doses and cooked for a long period of time. Adding a bunch of fresh rosemary to beer would be like dumping a tbsp. of raw garlic on a salad.

ktraver97ss said:

Why remove northern brewer?

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Because there are better, piney-er, more dank American Pacific NW hops out which better suit your goal. Anchor steam uses 100% Northern Brewer, but then again that's not an IPA. NB is not dank or piney like some American hops... Rather, it's more earthy/herbal/musty like most Non-American hops.

btw thanks for the honest feedback, Ill have to put some more thought into this one.

hmmm ill have to play with the malts a bit to add some carapils, but still keep the srm what im looking for.

Im guessing the time of the hop additions is something quite debatable as I read different opinions. Im friends with a couple local brewmasters, Ill have to get their opinions.

With the Rosemary I would taste after the first 4oz in the boil and only add more if needed. Now you got me thinking though and maybe ill just add a bit to only 5g with less dry hop and see how it compares to the rest. I disagree though, I think Rosemary is very similar aroma to pine, and almost mint-like as well.

Maybe ill leave what I got for hop additions and just add an ounce of both summit and apollo at flameout.