Critique my Magnum RyePA extract recipe?

Hello all,

First time poster here. Relatively new at homebrewing so my knowledge is limited to extract brewing unfortunately. So I'm attempting to come up with a recipe as opposed to just brewing with kits all the time. I got Beersmith and am new at it but let me write down what I've punched into that (certain ingredients I am using were not listed in beersmith so I replaced them with what I thought were kind of similar ingredients and adjusted the SRM/Lovibond accordingly) most ingredients are being purchased from Northern Brewer - recipe is for 5 gallons with about a 3 gallon boil:

1 pound Fawcett Crystal Rye Malt (steeping grains) (entered that into beersmith as caramel/crystal 80L)
6 # Rye malt extract (entered that into beersmith as Amber liquid extract 6.0 SRM)
2 oz. Magnum @ 60 min (14%AA)
3.15 # Gold malt syrup (put that into beersmith as light dry extract 4.0 SRM) late addition - 30 minute boil
1 # corn sugar late addition @ 15 minutes
1 oz. cascade @15 minute (5.5%)
1 oz. magnum @15 min (14%)
1 oz cascade @ 10 min (5.5%)
1 oz magnum @ 10 min (14%)
1 oz cascade @ 5 min (5.5%)
1 oz cascade @ flameout (5.5%)

Using wyeast 1056
and plan on keeping in primary for one month and dry hopping with freshly dried whole cascade that my buddy grew at about 3 weeks in.

Beersmith has these for final numbers:

est OG 1.081
IBU 120.8
13 SRM
est ABV 8.2%

Any thoughts? is 120 IBU's gonna be crazy?? Is this just a rediculous recipe or does it sound half decent? I have also never had rye beer before so I am doing this out of pure curiousity..and to try something new.

Thanks!

120 is a lot of ibus, although the ones from the 15-10-5 adds kinda don't count. I would just use 1oz magnum at 60, and switch out the later magnum adds for about .5oz each of willamette or something like that. I've used crystal hops in similar recipes with good results. The rye extract already has crystal malt in it, but if you want a sweeter, thicker beer you can leave it in. I would probably cut the crystal rye in half, or thereabouts, but that's a personal preference thing. Looks like a solid recipe.

You won't get much from late hopping with Magnum- its a super clean hop. You might as well just late hop with all cascade. I would cut down your 60 minute addition as well- that's just going to be a boatload of linear bitterness. I would get 50-60% of your IBUs from that addition and the rest from late hopping so you get a lot of hop flavor and aroma.

No matter what you do you won't actually get 120 IBUs. Maybe 80-90. Maybe a little more depending on your process. Those calculations never account for the places in the process that you lose IBUs.

I'm assuming the Rye extract is part rye, part two row?

Thanks guys! I definitely was considering cutting the 60 minute magnum down to one ounce (or maybe 1.5) and cutting the crystal rye steeping grain in half; but based on my previous brews, (since I only boil 3 gallons max) I think I'm not getting the hop utilization that I could or should be getting if I was able to do a larger boil...
I have a lot of these two varieties of hops stockpiled so I figured I'd do it this way just to get through some of them - I kind of figured the late addition magnums wouldn't really do much, so maybe I'll cut them out..we'll see.

and yep, that rye extract is only 20% rye..the rest is 70% 2-row, 10% caramel 40

Thanks again!

That being said, I think I should I add..I am a serious hophead, so I love aggressive hopping, but I suppose I do love more hops in the nose/mouth than I do initial bitterness...so I think this definitely means I should cut back on the 60 minute magnum additions, and focus more on the late additions of better aroma/flavor hops?

Exactly. Grain bill sounds good, So yea I'd just cut the 60 addition in half and late hop the **** out of it. Almost anything will go well with that cascade if you wanted to add another variety- Amarillo or Chinook for sure. It'll be good on its own too- up to you.

Thanks! Part of my motivation for this (in terms of hops) is from Sierras Torpedo IPA, which I LOVE...aand which I know they use mainly Magnums, for bittering and late additions...(with crystal and citra hops too for late and dry hop) so thats pretty much why I thought about using magnum for late additions... I don't have any other "C" hops that I'd like to use, unless I bought some...so we shall see...

If the extract is only 20% rye, you could make a pretty good beer with just that for fermentables. All of my rye beers are more than 20%, but I do love me some rye.