any suggestions on a great refreshing ipa or similar recipe?

i have two batches now in the works, and excited to start my third now that my 8 gallon fermenting bucket is freed up. i have made a hoppy pale ale, that is now in the bottle and looks/smells delicious, and a kolsch that i am currently letting hang out in the secondary. one of my favorite clean refreshing ipa's is bridgeport. maybe something along those lines? nothing above around 6abv. any ideas? i have a 5 gallon brew pot so i cannot yet work full on all grain recipes. i have used lme+grains and dme+grains in the last two and i would like to try this again. ANY thoughts would be greatly appreciated i am excited to now have this as a hobby and have a new family to share it with! all recipes will be considered!

You brew approx. 3.5 gallon batches in a 5 gallon kettle and ferment in an 8 gallon bucket? Time to get some more size-appropriate equipment. Furthermore, racking to secondary with all that headspace WILL be an issue.

Anyway, to answer your question:

Refreshing IPA

4.50 gallon boil
0.80 boiloff rate (per hour)
3.70 gallon batch
Approx. 1.066 OG
Approx. 1.014 FG
Approx. 65-75 IBUs
Approx. 6.5% abv

3-4 weeks in primary
No secondary
2 weeks bottle conditioning w/priming sugar
- http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

56% Extra Light DME (added to start of boil)
31% Extra Light DME (added at 15 minutes left in boil)
7% Crystal 10 (steeped for 30-45 minutes then removed)
6% Corn Sugar (added at 15 minutes left in the boil)

0.50 oz. high alpha "bittering" pellet hops like Columbus, Magnum, Warrior, etc. at 60 min.
1.00 oz. mix of your choice of aromatic pellet hops at 10 min.
1.00 oz. mix of your choice of aromatic pellet hops at flameout
1.75 oz. mix of your choice of aromatic pellet hops at 7-10 day dryhop

Safale US-O5 dry yeast

I would brew two identical 3.5g batches and pool them in the 8 gal fermenter.

For that, he needs two kettles and two ice baths or wort chillers.

Boiling 4.5 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle is pretty tight. I guess you could use Fermcap.

That said, OP may be making 5 gallon batches by doing partial boils and topping up in the fermenter.

BigBlueDog said:

Boiling 4.5 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle is pretty tight. I guess you could use Fermcap.

That said, OP may be making 5 gallon batches by doing partial boils and topping up in the fermenter.

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I do this all the time for Partial Mash IPAs without Fermcap. After many brew sessions, I've had no boilovers, or even a slight risk or boilovers. I sometimes make it as tight as 1 liter space left from the lip of the kettle.

I hate partial volume boils. I think it kills hop character and overall beer quality, especially for an IPA. I'd rather have 3.5 gallons of awesome beer than 5 gallons of mediocre beer.

BigBlueDog said:

Boiling 4.5 gallons in a 5 gallon kettle is pretty tight. I guess you could use Fermcap.

That said, OP may be making 5 gallon batches by doing partial boils and topping up in the fermenter.

Click to expand...

Partial boils has worked great for me. I use a 5 gal pot, start the boil at 4 gal (watch it closely before the hot break to prevent boil over!). I always boil off just under 1 gal by the time I hit my 60 min boil time.

I find a pale ale to be more "refreshing" than an IPA, something similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, mid 30's IBU's with dry hopping for aroma. I make a pale ale that is identical to SN except my version has more body and more citrus aroma from Cascade dry hopping...frickin' fabulous!

Muley IPA

7 lbs light DME
1 lbs Briess Caramel 40L
1 lbs American Two-row Pale

Steep grains for 30 min.

hops

1 oz. Warrior (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (20 min)
1 oz Chinook (15 min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (1 min)
2 oz Cascade (dry hop 14 days)

yeast

White labs American Ale Blend ale yeast.

I came up with and brewed this not too long ago. In my opinion it turned out great. I did a full boil but had a buddy who did a partial boil and it turned out good just a little less hoppy. I believe he started with 3.5 gallons and topped up to five.

You're supposed to mash 2-row, not steep it.

bobbrews said:

You brew approx. 3.5 gallon batches in a 5 gallon kettle and ferment in an 8 gallon bucket? Time to get some more size-appropriate equipment. Furthermore, racking to secondary with all that headspace WILL be an issue.

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Don't secondary, dry hop in primary after fermentation is done. Headspace makes no difference for primary.

bobbrews said:

You're supposed to mash 2-row, not steep it.

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You are correct. When I looked at the recipe I forgot that I scrapped the 2-row that I was going to do a partial mash with and just used 1.5 lbs of crystal 40L.

rexbanner said:

Don't secondary, dry hop in primary after fermentation is done. Headspace makes no difference for primary.

Click to expand...

I agree. What made you believe otherwise??

In the opener, the OP said:

"and a kolsch that i am currently letting hang out in the secondary"

For partial boils with top off, this isn't a problem. But if he's doing full volume boils of 3.5 gallons, and then racking to a 5, 6, or 8 gallon secondary... well then that's an issue.

bobbrews said:

I agree. What made you believe otherwise??

In the opener, the OP said:

"and a kolsch that i am currently letting hang out in the secondary"

For partial boils with top off, this isn't a problem. But if he's doing full volume boils of 3.5 gallons, and then racking to a 5, 6, or 8 gallon secondary... well then that's an issue.

Click to expand...

Eh?

start my third now that my 8 gallon fermenting bucket is freed up

Click to expand...

Go reread.

bobbrews said:

Go reread.

Click to expand...

His primary vessel is 8 gallons. He never said what size his secondary is. I've put a two gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon bucket plenty of times. Headspace isn't an issue as long as you don't open it.

Secondaries are usually 5 to 6 gallons. But if his primary is 8 gallons then there is no telling what size his secondary is. And if he's brewing full volume boils in a 5 gallon kettle, plus racking to secondary, then this is a problem...

Simple math.

(I never said headspace in the primary was an issue. I regularly ferment 3-4 gallons in my 5-6 gallon primary's).

i am sorry, i should have specified, my fermenting bucket is 8 gallons, my secondary is a 5 gallon carboy, i usually boil 3 gallon mashes and top off with two gallons of cold water for 5 gallon batches

HEY HEY HEY! lets quit poppycockin and start putting up some more recipes! all of which have been put in here i have put into my book and will be brewed at some point i appreciate you guys.