Hop Help (another IPA critique)

I got a brew coming up Thursday before I leave town for a week. My first Imperial IPA I don't have any experience with any of these hops aside from cascade. Heres the recipe; I'm planning on doing continuous additions ala DFH. Let me know what ya think.


13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Dextrose-Corn sugar (0.0 SRM)

1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60-35 min)
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60-35 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (35-0 min)
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (35-0 min)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (35-0 min)

1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)

The grain bill is kinda strange. Melanoiden malt to give a malty taste, and almost two pounds of crystal for sweetness and body, victory for toasty malt notes, and then corn sugar to negate those? I don't quite get it. I would definitely lose the melanoiden malt, and the carapils.

I like an IPA to be balanced, but definitely not malty sweet and "thick".

I love a combo of simcoe and amarillo hops. I've never used cascade in that combo, but it sounds great.

I was fixating on head retention, uneccessarily I think, thats why I was thinking carapils, and I'm curious about melanodin. But I think I'll heed that advice, thanks Yoop.

i would ditch the dextrose because it will only thin out the beer. Assuming you still want some biscuty notes consider lowering the crystal to 10L and keep the victory so it will still be within color range. Ditch the melanoiden malt.

Mash long and low to try and get this to attenuate down fully and use a large starter of healthy american yeast like cal ale wlp001.

I also love warrior hops but i dont know that you would want them to have a continuous presence. They have a wonderful peppery quality but i dont know that it would go so well with the other hops you have going here. Just my $ .02

taking the crystal down to 10L lowered the color out of range, How about adding a little more victory to .75 or a full pound ?

For the yeast, I'm planning on using pacman.

Should I replace the warrior with something? More simcoe perhaps? I also have a bunch of northern brewer? what do you think?

i never put it into any calculation i was just figuring it would still be within range. 20L would be fine then. I use northern brewer as the bittering hop for my IPA and it works well. Warrior would probably be fine- i just wouldnt continuously hop it. Do a 60 minute addition and thats it. Whatever you do will intermingle with a little time so you really cant screw up too bad. Ipa's are so hoppy that it will cover up alot of mistakes....

HUGE starter is key- pacman will be great if you can get your hands on it

word. I think I'll stick with the single addition of warrior.

I do want the biscuity notes of the victory though, would taking it up to a pound be a bad thing?

I got the pacman chillin in the fridge, I'll start ramping it up today or tomorrow. Thanks for the quick replies!

victory is very distinctive. I would brew it as is- you will still have some biscut from that.

When are you brewing?

I'm brewing Thursday. I appreciate the feedback, I'll let ya know how it goes. Thanks!