Imperial IPA Recipe

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Gabe

It's a sickness!
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Hi everyone, been away for awhile, but I havn't stopped brewing. I just finished a 90 schilling scottish ale brew and have conjured up a recipe for a Imperial IPA I plan on conditioning over winter. Here's what Ive come up with. tell me what u think.

60 Impala IPA:
mash-extract

8# Pale LME Briess
4# Pale 2 row
2# Pale Munich
.5# 20L Crystal
.5# 60L Crystal
.5# Malted Wheat
.5# Carapils Malt

Hops:

1 oz NZ Cascade 8.8% AA 60 min
1 oz NZ Saaz 7.8% AA 60 min
1 oz NZ Cascade 8.8% AA 20 min
1 oz NZ Hallertaur 8% AA 20 min
2 oz German Spalt Select 4.3% AA 5 min
2 oz German Saphir 3.4% AA Dry Hop

O.G 1.090 IBU 94 SRM 11.7 I plan on doing this befor October so I have
time to change or add. Thanx for the suggestions
 
Interesting. I am thinking of brewing a Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imp IPA soon, it calls for around the 100 ibu mark. Should I take it to 200?
 
beerme said:
Interesting. I am thinking of brewing a Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imp IPA soon, it calls for around the 100 ibu mark. Should I take it to 200?

I don't know Dreadnaught and so can't say. Compare it to Stone Ruination if you are able. The 200+ is what I used to get that beer's realm of flavor and bitterness, which is certainly IN YOUR FACE and leave no doubt it contains hops. However, it is not simply a mouthful of bitterness either, as the malt and alcohol sweetness come through and give it balance. I do think that if you are wanting to make these "super" IPAs with gravities in the 1.075+ range you need a lot more hops then you might guess. My Preaching in Hell IIPA is sitting at about 34 degrees, clearing nicely and tasting really fine. I am going to drop some finings in it tonight and carbonate it up so I can sip it while brewing on Friday.
 
Brewpaster, you say in the realm of Ruination which by the way is one of my favorite Imp's, 200+ IBU's is a hell of a lot of hops. You brewed 20 gal , this is just 5 gal so how much more in oz's would you add? and of which hop? If in fact you say 200+ then should I just double what I already have to be in that realm? Thanks for the input.
 
beerme said:
Interesting. I am thinking of brewing a Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imp IPA soon, it calls for around the 100 ibu mark. Should I take it to 200?

You wouldn't happen to have an extract version of this would ya? I absolutely LOVED dreadnaught when I tasted it at a local beer festival. Unfortunately you can't get it in Colorado... But man, that was a helluva beer.
 
Three words: "Pliny the Elder" made by the Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa, CA. Was on vacation last week and stopped in for a treat. Pliny the Elder was a double IPA 8.0% ABV and over 100 IBU. It was fabulous! Had to get a growler to go. Check it out if your near Sonoma or Napa.
 
Sorry I do not have an extract recipe. I have made a Pliny the Elder clone and it was very nice, however it was AG so no extract version.
 
I have a 2-3 year old issue of BYO at home that has clone extract and all grain recipes for Pliny the Elder and Stone Brewing Ruination IPAs (amongst others).

If anyone is interested, let me know and I can type them up and post them.
 
cdburg said:
I have a 2-3 year old issue of BYO at home that has clone extract and all grain recipes for Pliny the Elder and Stone Brewing Ruination IPAs (amongst others).

If anyone is interested, let me know and I can type them up and post them.

I would love to see these recipes.
 
No problem. I'll try to type them up and post them tonight.

I've never tried the clones from BYO. Does anyone know if they're generally pretty close to the "real" thing?
 
September 2004 is a great issue of BYO if anyone cares to pick it up as a back issue. It includes clone recipes for Ruunation IPA, Bear Republic Hop Rod and Racer 5, Russian River's Pliny the Elder, Rogue's Imperial IPA, North Coast's Acme IPA, Lagunitas IPA, St. Arnold's Elissa IPA, Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale, Kalamazoo Brewing Company's Two Hearted Ale, Dogfish Head IPA, AleSmith IPA, and Three Floyd's Brewing Company's Dreadnaught.

Hopefully there aren't any major typos. I'll post Pliny the Elder as well. If anyone wants any of the others, let me know, or, better yet, buy the back issue from BYO. I'm sure they'd prefer that option. These recipes are probably in their 150 clone recipes issue that was just produced as well.

Stone Brewing Ruination IPA

5 gallons
OG = 1.075
FG = 1.010
IBU = 100+
SRM = 6
ABV = 7.9-8.5%

Ingredients:

6.6 lbs Northwestern gold (light) malt extract syrup
2.0 lbs Northwestern gold (light) dry malt extract
1.0 Breiss 2-row malt
1 lb Briess crystal malt (15L)
1 tsp. Irish moss (60 minutes)
36.0 AAU Magnum hops (bittering hop)
(2.25 oz of 16% alpha acid)
15.7 AAU Centennial hops (aroma/finishing hop)
(1.5 oz of 10.5% alpha acid)
21.0 AAU Centennial hops
(2.0 oz of 10.5% alpha acid)
White Labs WPL001 (California Ale) yeast or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

Steep the 2 crushed grains in 3 gallons of water at 149 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add Magnum hops, malt syrup and bring to boil. Add Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the first addition of Centennial hops at the end of the boil, and let steep for 5 minutes.

Add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a saintary fermentor, and top off with cool water to 5.5. gallons. Cool the wort to 75 degrees F, areate and pitch yeast. Allow beer to cool to 68 degrees F and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermentation. Add last addition of Centennial hops for dry hopping. Dry hop for 3-5 days, then carbonate.

All grain option

Use 14.6 lbs 2-row malt and 1.0 lbs crystal malt (15L). Mash your grains at 149 degrees F for 60 mniutes. COllect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5. gallon yield. Decrease Magnum boiling hops to 1.75 oz to account for higher extration ratio of a full boil. Use the remainder of the recipe above.
 
Again, this is a good issue of BYO. Look it up for more recipes.

Pliny the Elder (Russian River Brewing Company)
With assistance from Vinnie Cilurzo of the Russian River Brewing Company

5 gallons
OG = 1.074
FG = 1.014
IBU = 100+
SRM = 8
ABV = 8-8.5%

Ingredients:

12.2 lbs 2-row malt
.28 lbs crystal malt (45L)
.86 lbs CaraPils malt
1.0 lb dextrose (corn sugar)
19.5 AAU Chinook whole hops (mash hops)
(1.5 oz of 13% alpha acid)
42.9 AAU Warrior hops (90 minutes)
(2.75 oz of 15.6% alpha acid)
6.1 AAU Chinook hops (90 minutes)
(0.5 oz of 12.2% alpha acid)
12 AAU Simcoe hops (45 minutes)
(1.0 oz of 12% alpha acid)
14.3 AAU Columbus hops (30 minutes)
(1.0 oz of 14.3% alpha acid)
20.5 AAU Centennial hops (0 min)
(2.25 oz of 9.1% alpha acid)
12 AAU Simcoe hops (0 min)
(1.0 oz of 12% alpha acid)
3.25 oz Columbus hop (dry hop)
1.75 oz Centennial hop (dry hop)
1.75 oz Simcoe hop (dry hop)
1 tsp Irish moss
White Labs WPL001 (California Ale) yeast
.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

Mash your grains at 150-152 degrees F. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops at the time indicated above. Ferment at 68 degrees F. Dry hop two weeks.

Extract option

Replace 2-row malt with 6.15 DME and 1.0 lb 2-row malt. Steep crushed grains in 1 gallon of water at 151 degrees for 45 minutes. Follow remaining recipes above.
 
Those look awsome and make my grain bill look extensive. Maby I should tone it down ? The carapils and wheat might be the overkill, or the 8# of LME. I am still looking for suggestions. Cheers
 
cdburg said:
No problem. I'll try to type them up and post them tonight.

I've never tried the clones from BYO. Does anyone know if they're generally pretty close to the "real" thing?

Most of the BYO clones are well thought out and a VERY good basis.

The Pliny recipe is almost spot on to the Pliny the Bastid recipe I've done twice. I got mine straight from a handout given out by Vinnie at the 2005 National Homebrew Conference.
GREAT recipe.

Hey, thanks for posting those! Love the Ruination recipe too, even if I was underwhelmed by the beer. May have been an old sample.
 
gabe said:
Those look awsome and make my grain bill look extensive. Maby I should tone it down ? The carapils and wheat might be the overkill, or the 8# of LME. I am still looking for suggestions. Cheers

Keep both of those, the beer will need body. The wheat will help with head retention. No more than a pound of each though.

If you want an imperial, you need all that LME, keep it, IMHO.

gabe said:
Brewpaster, you say in the realm of Ruination which by the way is one of my favorite Imp's, 200+ IBU's is a hell of a lot of hops. You brewed 20 gal , this is just 5 gal so how much more in oz's would you add? and of which hop? If in fact you say 200+ then should I just double what I already have to be in that realm? Thanks for the input.

gabe, do you have promash? it is nice to have when playing around with recipes....

I second the LOTS more hops though. As it ages, it will lose the hop characteristics, so you can't overdo it if you do lots of late hop additions. It will be bitter, but it won't be all bitter, if you know what I mean. Hops can add an incredible flavor too.

I'd recommend studying that Pliny recipe and adjusting from there. Vinnie really struck gold with that baby.

If you want imperial IPA, keep the OG higher and use a similar hop schedule.

I think Pliny is actually considered a double IPA. Pliny the Younger, is a triple IPA. Double the hops of Pliny the Elder. Can you imagine?
 
It's good to hear that BYO's clone recipes are generally pretty good. I just got the "best of" 150 clone recipes newsstand issue, and there are all kinds of interesting options in there. I'll be giving a lot of them a shot. Taking some of them as a base and adjusting them could be a lot of fun too.

I've actually had Pliny the Younger at the brewery. I seem to remember it being sweet more than really really hoppy. Then again, it had been a pretty long day of "sampling" at Bear Republic, Mendocino Brewing and Russian River, so I may not be the most reliable source... :cross:
 
Dude, yes I do have promash thats how I calculated this recipe. You sure can't beat this program to get you started on an idea. I will add a few more oz to my recipe. Probably the Cascade or Saaz.I am super stoked on the idea of getting my hands on that issue of BYO. Does anyone know where I can get it ?
 
Getting the back issues is easy. If you're just looking for the recipes, get the BYO 150 Clone Recipes newsstand issue. Both of these issues plus all the others I mentioned previously are in it. It's easily worth the $10 I spent ($5 for the magazine and $5 to ship it).

http://brewyourownstore.com/clone.html

If you want the actual issue, you can get it through BYO's back issue deparement. You can find more information here:

http://brewyourownstore.com/index.html

Unless you want the articles on hops and brewer interviews (which are included in the actual issue), I'd recommend the 150 clone recipe issue.
 
cdburg said:
Getting the back issues is easy. If you're just looking for the recipes, get the BYO 150 Clone Recipes newsstand issue. Both of these issues plus all the others I mentioned previously are in it. It's easily worth the $10 I spent ($5 for the magazine and $5 to ship it).

http://brewyourownstore.com/clone.html

If you want the actual issue, you can get it through BYO's back issue deparement. You can find more information here:

http://brewyourownstore.com/index.html

Unless you want the articles on hops and brewer interviews (which are included in the actual issue), I'd recommend the 150 clone recipe issue.

Is that recipe issue newstand ONLY? Will subscribers get it?
 
I haven't been a subscriber in a few years, so I don't get the magazine in the mail any more. I bought it separately to get some of the recipes I lost when I threw away my pile of back issues issues.

I'm not sure if it will be sent to subscribers. It is labeled as a "newsstand issue" or "book" all over their web site though, so I have a feeling it may not be. I'm sure someone in their Subscriber Customer Service would be able to tell you for sure.

http://***********/contactus/
 
I brewed the extract version of the Pliny Clone. Thanks for posting the recipe. It was my second brew ever. I'm happy to say, last friday was the first day I DIDN'T go to the store to buy beer, because I had my own at home!

I was very happy with the results. After two weeks in the bottle it's pretty damn good. My brew tastes more like a slightly sweet Racer 5. Damn good stuff.

I used bottled water, White Labs Cali Ale WPL001 yeast. I had to sub simcoe hops with amarillo, as I gave all my hard found simcoe to my brother (damnit! Those are the best and I think key)! I messed up on the hop schedule putting the 45 minutes in at 75 minutes on accident (noobie nerves makes math hard). I think my skill level may be low and my conversion rates were not so great. My ABV is way too weak. Pliny is above 8% and mine is about 6.5%. It's too sweet, again conversion of fermentables? That's also probably why mine isn't hoppy enough either. But I didn't dry hop for 2 weeks. I read somewhere that someone said that Vinnie said that said you don't have to dry hop that long. I'm not so sure. I wanted to avoid any vegetal taste from the leaves and bottled after one week of dry hop. I also clogged up my auto siphon as I did my hop leaves loose. Some people put them in a bag and sink them with ss bolts (tip from Brew Strong podcast).

The main thing I learned was that my yield was low. The leaf hops sucked up a lot both from the wort and during dry hop. My brother, brewed the same thing a week after me and he squeezed out all the wort from the leaf hops before primary (I didn't). When dry hopping the leaves absorbed a lot again, in the secondary. I didn't want to squeeze out the brew after the dry hop for fear of oxidation. I ended with about 3.5 or 4 gallons in bottles.

I would definitely brew this again and again, but aim for higher yield, higher alcohol content, and more hops.

On another note, I've seen Pliny price fluctuations at the bar before, but this last week my main watering hole set the price for a 20oz at $7.50! Bar manager said he even got a call from the local newspaper food writer.

Cheers —
 
I think I now have everything but theu grains, next brew day.
 
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