Help Needed on IPA/Dry hopping and keg fermenting

Me and a couple of my friends have successfully brewed about 15 beers all 10 gallon batches. We have made most common beers except IPA, boch, and barley wine.
Its time to cross IPA off the list, but I am doing only 5 gallons.
I am going pretty big for the recipe I am choosing. It is from a clone brewing magazine and I have modified it a little (sierra nevada torpedo). I am going to write out what I am going to use and do and would love pointers. Especially to do with the dry hopping and conditioning of the beer. Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

5 gallons

14 lbs of briess pale ale malt
11 oz caramel 60
Mash at 152 for 60 min
boil 90
60 minutes:
1.33 oz of magnum pellets
.33 of citra pellets
.33 of crystal

5 minutes
1 oz crystal
1 oz of magnum

Dry hop
.67 oz of citra, crystal, and magnum hops

wyeast labs american ale

I am going to ferment for about a week in primary (longer if needed)

Put in secondary for 2 weeks (adding dry hops halfway through). I am using a keg for secondary because I usually use demijohns for 10 gallons but because this is 5 gallons I cannot secondary in them.

Then I am going to go from the secondary keg to the actual keg that I will use and cold carb it for a week or two.

I have never dry hopped or used a keg for fermenting. Any tips on these two would be great. Also any info you notice regarding the recipe would be great too.

Calculations:
0g:1.070
Fg:1.018
IBU:66.8

I like to use american ale 2 from wyeast. I think it's cleaner and lets the malt and hops come through better for IPAs. There's no reason I can think of for you not to use your demijons as a secondary vessel. They're glass and will hold the entire volume with no problem. It would be more of a pain in the ass to get all the yeast sediment and hops out of the keg than a glass bottle but that's just my opinion. And I'm pretty lazy. Everything else looks really good. I'm a sucker for magnum and citra I always keep a stock of them.

Double_D said:

I like to use american ale 2 from wyeast. I think it's cleaner and lets the malt and hops come through better for IPAs. There's no reason I can think of for you not to use your demijons as a secondary vessel. They're glass and will hold the entire volume with no problem. It would be more of a pain in the ass to get all the yeast sediment and hops out of the keg than a glass bottle but that's just my opinion. And I'm pretty lazy. Everything else looks really good. I'm a sucker for magnum and citra I always keep a stock of them.

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Thank you for the reply.
I have read that a lot of head space for secondary is no good because of oxidation. The demijohns hold 13 gallons and only 5 gallons would not be close to filling it.

Why boil for 90 minutes if there aren't any hop additions till 60?

I'm a sucker for a "flavor" hop addition around 20 min, and using a little bit less in the additional bittering phase.

Otherwise, there are a bunch of threads about dry-hopping around here. I like to leave the hops in dry-hop-mode for 5-10 days, in a weighted muslin bag, suspended halfway in the fermenter by dental floss. Then I'll usually drop hop again with the same method in the keg.

If it's still fermenting then it's giving off Co2. The Co2 is heavier than air and will stay between the liquid and the air in the container. Or you could purge the container.

hillhousesawdustco said:

Why boil for 90 minutes if there aren't any hop additions till 60?

I'm a sucker for a "flavor" hop addition around 20 min, and using a little bit less in the additional bittering phase.

Otherwise, there are a bunch of threads about dry-hopping around here. I like to leave the hops in dry-hop-mode for 5-10 days, in a weighted muslin bag, suspended halfway in the fermenter by dental floss. Then I'll usually drop hop again with the same method in the keg.

Click to expand...

thanks. that seems like a really good idea