Critique My IPA

I came up with an IPA recipe on beer calculus. I want to stick with the 4 common C hops. I'm looking for a nice hoppy IPA. What do you think? I'm a newbie so any advise is acceptable.

3 lbs Northern Brewer Gold LME (60 min boil)
1 lbs caramel 20 (Steep 20 min @ 150)
6 lbs Northern Brewer Gold LME (Flameout)

60 min .5 oz Columbus 15.4 AA
30 min .5 oz Chinook 13.0 AA
15 min .5 oz Centennial 10.0 AA
5 min .5 oz Cascade 5.5 AA

Dry .5 oz Columbus
Dry .5 oz Chinook
Dry .5 oz Centennial
Dry .5 oz Cascade


Safale 05

Approx 2 gal Fermenter Top Off

According to beer calculus:

OG 1.067
FG 1.018
ABV 6.5%
IBU 67.4

Get rid of the 30 minute addition. Add a couple of ounces of something at the end of the boil. I'd say you should shoot for 6-8oz of hops added either in late additions (15 minutes or later) or dry hopping. Don't be worried about adding too many hops. I've done a beer with 1oz bittering and 15oz of late additions which was hoppy but not excessive. It will be fine how you have it but if you are gonna make an IPA, in my mind it should be hoppy to an extreme. I doubt you'll make one that is too hoppy although you can definitely make an IPA too bitter and not hoppy enough.

I do like the dry hop mixture.

Double the dry hopping, and it'll be crazy hoppy. It'll be good as is but a huge dry hop is where it's at if you ask me.

I'd also cut your caramel down by half.

Looks quite tasty overall.

Definitely cut the C20 to 8 oz at least. You could omit it even. It looks like you're not doing a full boil, and if that's the case you're not going to get 67 IBU. I would do at least a full oz of Columbus at 60 in a full boil, probably more. For a partial boil, I'd do 2 oz. I would double all the other kettle additions as well, personally. And, bring the dry hops to at least 3 oz total. But, I like my IPAs dry, bitter, and hoppy. 4 oz of total hops isn't really going to scream hop aroma or flavor at you. I usually use 8-10 oz in my IPAs.

Personally I find that dry hopping with 2-3 oz is enough, so if you want to up the dry hops, maybe up to centennial and cascade to 1 oz and leave the others at .5 oz. For the boil here's what I would do (again just personal preference, no science):

.5 oz Columbus @ 60
.5 oz Chinook @ 20
.5 oz Centennial @ 20
.5 oz Chinook @ 10
.5 oz Centennial @ 10
1 oz Cascade @ 0

IBU's end up around 70 even with the partial boil

I am not an extract expert, but IMHO it looks like some dextrose/corn sugar might be a nice addition. Malt Extract isn't the best attenuator and IPA's taste more refreshing when crisp and dry. A better attenuation also makes the hops more presentable.

Since you can't adjust your mash temps to control attentuation, corn sugar would be a helpful tool.

Side note: I would cut back on the crystal malt as caramel malts can make a beer cloying in a hurry. A little truly does go a long way.



As for the hops, that is certainly the focal point. I believe 30 minute additions are a waste of time. Any volatile, aromatic compounds will be long gone with that time. Get your desire IBU's squared away with your main boil addition. Pile the hops on at 10 minutes and flame out to get the nose and flavor you desire. I feel 2.5 - 3 ozs of dry hops make a big difference. I think bumping the cascade to a full ounce would help balance the sweeter softer side of your hop spectrum in a good way.

cheers

Boleslaus said:

Personally I find that dry hopping with 2-3 oz is enough, so if you want to up the dry hops, maybe up to centennial and cascade to 1 oz and leave the others at .5 oz. For the boil here's what I would do (again just personal preference, no science):

.5 oz Columbus @ 60
.5 oz Chinook @ 20
.5 oz Centennial @ 20
.5 oz Chinook @ 10
.5 oz Centennial @ 10
1 oz Cascade @ 0

IBU's end up around 70 even with the partial boil

Click to expand...

2-3oz is 'enough', but 4-5oz is awesome.

bovineblitz said:

2-3oz is 'enough', but 4-5oz is awesome.

Click to expand...

Haha I agree, best IPA I ever made had way more than "enough" Summit and Centennial, but I feel like you need to at least partial mash to really add a ton of hops. With extract I've found that you need to be a little more moderate than normal to balance the bitterness since you won't get any real "maltiness" from the LME/DME.

Ok... Im going to add .5 oz crystal at the 10 minute mark. And another .5 oz crystal to dry hop. I'm also going to cut the caramel down to 8oz.... Sound better?

sorta. reducing the caramel is def a plus, but the oz of crystal hops is just gunna get lost with the rest of those, its fairly mild. i'd use something else instead

also, like jammin said, it'd be best to use some sugar to help reduce your FG