How does this IPA recipe look?

So I went to the LHBS yesterday to get the ingredients for a brew day tomorrow. I'm still trying to learn how different ingredients taste, so I wanted to do an IPA with a basic grain profile and a single hop, which I had chosen to be Centennial. Well, they were almost out of Centennial hops , so I winged it and grabbed a little of this and a little of that. Here is the recipe I came up with. I call it Dumpster Fire IPA. :rockin: Let me know if you have any opinions.

Batch Size: 5 gallons

Grains
11 lbs. Pale 2-row
1 lb. Crystal 40L

Mash at 154 F for 60 mins.
Sparge at 170 F.

Boil Schedule
1 oz Centennial - (60)
1 oz Chinook - (5)
1 oz Cascade - (5)
1 oz Liberty - (1)
1 oz Centennial - dry hop last 7 days of secondary

Yeast - Wyeast 1056

Fermentation - 1 wk primary, 2 wk secondary, 2 wk bottle condition

Plugged this all into iBrewmaster and it came back with an 1.059 OG, 5.76% ABV, and 58 IBU. What do you guys think?

I think you need some flavor hops around the 15 to 20 minute mark.

Carter5112 said:

I think you need some flavor hops around the 15 to 20 minute mark.

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That's a good thought. If I move the cascade hops to the 15 minute mark that puts me at 65 IBU which is on the high end of where I was hoping for. I was shooting for 50-60 IBU.

I always use a touch of honey malt in my pales and IPAs. It lends a slight sweetness, that balances with citrus hops. Just my personal tastes.....

planetscott said:

I always use a touch of honey malt in my pales and IPAs. It lends a slight sweetness, that balances with citrus hops. Just my personal tastes.....

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What's a touch? Half a pound? Quarter pound?

Carter5112 said:

I think you need some flavor hops around the 15 to 20 minute mark.

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I think he'll still get plenty of flavor at 5/0/DH... (isn't 75% of what we taste from our nose anyway?)

Hop oils are delicate & volatile...less boiling the better, IMO. I like the late additions. Actually, I'd bump all or a portion of the 5min Cascade to dry hop.

Half a pound or less......What ever you add in honey malt, remove from the crystal to maintain the same weight in grain. Otherwise it will become an amber. My gut tells me 5 - 6 oz would be fine. I prefer a more complex malt profile in all my beers.

TyTanium said:

I think he'll still get plenty of flavor at 5/0/DH... (isn't 75% of what we taste from our nose anyway?)

Hop oils are delicate & volatile...less boiling the better, IMO. I like the late additions. Actually, I'd bump all or a portion of the 5min Cascade to dry hop.

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Interesting to hear the difference of opinion. I think I'm more in line with your thinking. I was looking for tons of flavor and aroma, but I don't want it to suck your tongue back into your head with bitterness.

planetscott said:

Half a pound or less......What ever you add in honey malt, remove from the crystal to maintain the same weight in grain. Otherwise it will become an amber. My gut tells me 5 - 6 oz would be fine. I prefer a more complex malt profile in all my beers.

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Thanks for the advice. I already had my grain crushed and bagged at the LHBS, so I'll have to try this on the next go around. Remember my original intent was to focus on the centennial hops to learn the flavor, so I purposely went with a basic grain bill.

If you can get it, Mikkeller sells single hopped IPAs. My home brew club did a tasting. We had 12 of the 16 available. Each beer was hopped with just one hop variety. It was interesting to taste the differences. It's a less expensive way to experiment with hops trying to determine which hop you like, however, brewing is fun.....

Phyrst said:

Interesting to hear the difference of opinion. I think I'm more in line with your thinking. I was looking for tons of flavor and aroma, but I don't want it to suck your tongue back into your head with bitterness.

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You could scale back the 60 minute addition, move the cascade to 15 along with what you take away from the 60 in addition. Or FWH the 60 min addition.

skeezerpleezer said:

You could scale back the 60 minute addition, move the cascade to 15 along with what you take away from the 60 in addition. Or FWH the 60 min addition.

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See, this is why I love you guys. For some reason splitting up the portions didn't occur to me. It probably doesn't seem brilliant to you, but it is to me. I've got a lot to learn in formulating my own recipes. Thanks.

TyTanium said:

I think he'll still get plenty of flavor at 5/0/DH... (isn't 75% of what we taste from our nose anyway?)

Hop oils are delicate & volatile...less boiling the better, IMO. I like the late additions. Actually, I'd bump all or a portion of the 5min Cascade to dry hop.

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Was going to say the same thing. I'd move those cascades to the dry-hop.

paulster2626 said:

Was going to say the same thing. I'd move those cascades to the dry-hop.

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Done. What kind of flavor/aroma are the liberty hops going to give me? I know Chinook will give me a piney flavor, and the cascade and centennial will give me a citrus flavor. But I'm not familiar with Liberty.

Alright, after reading a bit about Liberty hops I don't think it's a good fit here. So I'm leaving them out on this batch. With the input I've got from you fine gentlemen, here is what my new hop schedule looks like.

60 mins - 0.75 oz Centennial
15 mins - 0.50 oz Chinook
5 mins - 0.50 oz Chinook, 0.50 oz Centennial
2 mins - 0.75 oz Centennial
Dry hop 7 days - 1 oz Cascade

Discuss.

I think it looks nice and basic... As a first IPA should be. However, considering the abv, it's more of a hoppy pale ale I think. I might increase the two row a bit and get over the 6% mark at least. I know the low end abv of IPAs is 5.5% according to BJCP guidelines, but you rarely find an IPA that low. My min abv on an IPA is high 6s.

Also, your aroma may be a bit mild unless you are going for a milder IPA, which looks likely. Just thought I'd mention it. I'd up the dry hop addition to two drops... One at day 10 or so and leave for 10 days to two weeks with the second drop being 5-7 days. I aim for 3-5 weeks in primary and rarely secondary as I find it unnecessary and potentially problematic.

Have fun!!

erockomania said:

I think it looks nice and basic... As a first IPA should be. However, considering the abv, it's more of a hoppy pale ale I think. I might increase the two row a bit and get over the 6% mark at least. I know the low end abv of IPAs is 5.5% according to BJCP guidelines, but you rarely find an IPA that low. My min abv on an IPA is high 6s.

Also, your aroma may be a bit mild unless you are going for a milder IPA, which looks likely. Just thought I'd mention it. I'd up the dry hop addition to two drops... One at day 10 or so and leave for 10 days to two weeks with the second drop being 5-7 days. I aim for 3-5 weeks in primary and rarely secondary as I find it unnecessary and potentially problematic.

Have fun!!

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Thanks. That's great advice I'll keep in mind for the next batch. Being my first IPA I wanted to keep it simple and a bit on the mild side. I'll assess this batch and tweek it next time more to my liking.

Instead of more malt, just add a lb or so of dextrose.

You also lost your dry-hop of centennial! More dry-hopping! Move that 5 minute 0.5oz of centennial to the dry-hop with the cascade, add your lb. of dextrose late in the boil, and you're golden.

paulster2626 said:

Instead of more malt, just add a lb or so of dextrose.

You also lost your dry-hop of centennial! More dry-hopping! Move that 5 minute 0.5oz of centennial to the dry-hop with the cascade, add your lb. of dextrose late in the boil, and you're golden.

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Ah. That's an interesting thought. I have a pound of DME I bought for yeast starters. Could I use that instead of dextrose?

I have a few thoughts, FWIW:

1) Mash a little lower. With 1# of C40 and 154, you'll have a pretty substantial body. While I like the taste, that combo makes it hard for me to have more than one. I'd probably go with 149-150 to get a lower FG. Maybe add some sugar as well... .5# to up the ABV and drop the FG a touch more. Not everyone agrees, though.

2) Why Liberty? Not against it, just curious to me in that mixture.

3) I happen to really like Chinook, but it's not for everyone. Unless you really know & like it, I'd probably flip the Chinook and Centennial additions. My approach would be: 60-Chinook; 15 (or 10)-Centennial; 5-Cascade; 1-Liberty; DH-Centennial.

4) Make a 500ml starter about 24hrs before you plan to pitch--get that fermentation off on a healthy, wort-shredding start to keep it clean and crisp.

5) Ferment at 65-67 and keep in the primary for two weeks; if you want to do a secondary to clear it, transfer & cold crash for a week, then prime & bottle.

Cheers & hoppy brewing!

I would do a FWH with centennial or cascade. I recently did a very hoppy american wheat and tried FWH for the first time and I am amazed at the flavor I got out of the beer. I think I will be doing a FWH on all my hop forward beers in the future.

Yeah, like Piratwolf said, mash lower. I'd go around 150, 152 max.

Piratwolf said:

I have a few thoughts, FWIW:

1) Mash a little lower. With 1# of C40 and 154, you'll have a pretty substantial body. While I like the taste, that combo makes it hard for me to have more than one. I'd probably go with 149-150 to get a lower FG. Maybe add some sugar as well... .5# to up the ABV and drop the FG a touch more. Not everyone agrees, though.

2) Why Liberty? Not against it, just curious to me in that mixture.

3) I happen to really like Chinook, but it's not for everyone. Unless you really know & like it, I'd probably flip the Chinook and Centennial additions. My approach would be: 60-Chinook; 15 (or 10)-Centennial; 5-Cascade; 1-Liberty; DH-Centennial.

4) Make a 500ml starter about 24hrs before you plan to pitch--get that fermentation off on a healthy, wort-shredding start to keep it clean and crisp.

5) Ferment at 65-67 and keep in the primary for two weeks; if you want to do a secondary to clear it, transfer & cold crash for a week, then prime & bottle.

Cheers & hoppy brewing!

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Thanks for the advice.

1. I kind of like medium body beers. I just drink one or two and I'm done. I'm not the kind of guy that likes to pound a sixpack at a time.

2. I already decided the Liberty hops is out.

3. I love Chinook. The Northern Brewer Chinook IPA is one of my favorite recipe kits.

4. Starter is already sitting on the stir plate bubbling away.

5. This is pretty much my plan. I'll probably keep it in primary for 2 weeks and then transfer to secondary and dry hop it a week and then cold crash it.

Sounds delicious! Sorry if any of my advice was redundant!

Just wanted to say thanks and let you guys know brew day went awesome! I incorporated a lot of the advice in this thread and I think my IPA is going to turn out great.

I lowered the mash temp to 152 F. Friday night I stopped at the LHBS on the way home and bought some extra hops. This is the hop schedule I decided on.

60 min - 1 oz Centennial
15 min - 0.5 oz Chinook
5 min - 0.5 oz Chinook
1 min - 1 oz Citra, 1 oz Cascade
Dry hop 7 days - 1 oz Cascade, 1 oz Centennial

I also added a pound of corn sugar at flameout to boost the ABV. Hit my target gravity right on the money. So according to iBrewmaster my IPA will 6.5% ABV and my IBU's will be 59. Can't wait to try this!

Yum, sounds fantastic!

6.5%, 59IBU, and lots of late and dry-hops. I think this will be delicious!

planetscott said:

If you can get it, Mikkeller sells single hopped IPAs. My home brew club did a tasting. We had 12 of the 16 available. Each beer was hopped with just one hop variety. It was interesting to taste the differences. It's a less expensive way to experiment with hops trying to determine which hop you like, however, brewing is fun.....

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I had the Bravo IPA on Jester King's guest tap at their brewery. It was pretty good, even though I don't generally like IPAs.

Looks to be a nice solid IPA!

Hey guys. Just wanted to let you know I cracked open the first bottle of this brew I called "Dumpster Fire IPA" this weekend and it was absolutely AMAZING. It was exactly what I was going for. Medium body with a nice basic malt flavor. The hops don't punch you in the face, but it's a nice firm slap that gets your attention. Kind of what I was going for since most of my wife and friends are new to craft beer and can't really handle the hop bombs yet. Easily my best brew so far and given the fact it's a unique recipe I put together with some help from my friends on this board makes it even better.

In case anyone is interested and doesn't feel like going back to decypher all of the changes I made, here is the final recipe I settled on.

Malt Ingredients
11 lbs. Pale 2-Row
1 lb. Caramel 40L
1 lb. Corn Sugar (added at flameout)

Mash Schedule
15 qt. at 150 F for 60 mins
Batch sparge twice with 2.5 gallons at 175 F

Boil Schedule
60 - 1 oz Centennial
15 - 0.5 oz Chinook, Irish Moss
5 - 0.5 oz. Chinook
1 - 1 oz. Citra, 1 oz. Cascade
Dry Hop (Last 7 days) - 1 oz. Cascade, 1 oz. Centennial

Fermentation
I used Wyeast 1056 and made a 1 L starter the day before.
14 days in primary at 65 F
7 days in secondary at 68 F (with the dry hop additions listed above)

I carbonated it naturally in the bottle with 3.8 oz. of table sugar and kept it at 75 F. It was fully carbonated after 2 weeks.

Cheers Guys!

Like the others... Since you have plenty of hops the only question is when do you toss them in....I would take 1/2 the Cascade and Chinnok from the last addtion and toss them in at 15.... leave everything else the same... If it is in the Ball-Park then next time change your addition times... repeating a brew is about the best way to learn the malt and hop profiles...

Everyone loves a hoppy ending. HA!