Last QA check on Neck Snapper IIPA before I brew it

I am planning on brewing this on Sunday and just wanted to run it by you guys before I call the recipe final. Well, here it is:

Name: Neck Snapper IIPA
Type: Partial Mash, Double Sparge, No Mash Out
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Mash Temp: 153F
Mash Time: 60 mins
Sparge Temp: 170F

6 lbs Light DME (1/2 late addition)
3 lbs Pale 2-row
2 lbs Crystal 20L
2 oz Columbus (13.5%) 60 mins
1 oz Amarillo (9.3%) 60 mins
1 oz Amarillo (9.3%) 40 mins
1 oz Cascade (7.2%) 20 mins
1.5 tsp Irish Moss 15 mins
1 oz Cascade (7.2%) 10 mins
1 oz Amarillo (9.3%) Flameout
2 oz Cacade/1.5 oz Amarillo Dry Hop 7 days
Wyeast British Ale Yeast (1098) 1.5L starter

OG: 1.077
FG: 1.019
IBU: 102
SRM: 11
ABV: 7.6

Any comments or last minute suggestions? Thanks.

-AJ

In terms of hop utilization, I'm not sure what the purpose of the hop addition at 40 minutes is... but there's nothing wrong with adding it then if that's what you want to do.

Also, 2 lbs of crystal malt seems like it would yield a sweetish beer... I'd suggest going with 1 lb instead. On the other hand, you might need that sweetness to stand up to the appropriately intense hop schedule.

Sounds good!

I chose 2 lbs of the crystal because the last time I PM'd I only got ~70% efficiency, so I wanted to make sure I hit my intended OG and still maintained enough maltiness to balance the hops. Now that you say it though, I am worried it might end up too sweet, so I'll run the numbers through BeerSmith with 1.5 lbs crystal and the 3/4 lbs of light DME I have left over from last batch. Thanks for your suggestions.

Just ran the numbers through BeerSmith. Lowering the Crystal to 1.5 lbs and adding .75 lbs Light DME with the late extract addition has the following effect:

>>>>>Before After
OG: 1.077 1.082
FG: 1.019 1.020
IBU: 102 104
SRM: 11.2 10.5
ABV: 7.6 8.1

I hope it finishes dry enough. Some sweetness is good, but too much is bad, especially for this style.

I think that you would be better to go with 1lb crystal and add another lb of base malt.

I am going to get on the 1lb of crystal train, and if you are trying to keep it from getting too sweet, I suggest adding some sugar... read this thread. I have been using a pound or more of corn sugar in bigger beers to keep them from being too syrupy.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ad...ot-going-make-taste-like-freakin-cider-90498/

After evaluating all the suggesstions and reading the main points of the thread s3n8 referred me to and running the numbers through BeerSmith, I've decided to take y'all's advice and drop to 1 lb of crystal and the 3/4 lbs of Light DME I said I was going to add anyway. It drops my ABV by a whopping .2%, lol, and all other critical numbers are acceptable. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will let you know how it turns out.

I decided to take a picture of all the hops I would be using for this brew, so here's a little hop porn for all you hopheads:

All those hops look beautiful

I recently learned that beersmith "does not do an ingredient-by-ingredient analysis of fermentability" - Corn Sugar and FG | BeerSmith Home Brewing Forum

I found this fact surprising, as I would do exactly that in my own spreadsheets to account for the higher fermentability of PM'd grains versus extract. And the crystal malts don't ferment much, if at all. From my numbers, I'd guess they are less than 10% fermentable.
Yeah, so the long winded way of saying I agree, less Crystal.