Rusty's IPA

Hey HBT!
I'm brewing for the first time in a few months and I decided to give an IPA a shot. This is definitely in my top 3 styles of beers so I hope I don't butcher it. I was hoping to get some feedback on my recipe.

I borrowed (or stole) the recipe idea from DeepSouth's (My 60 Minute IPA). I used different hops for what was available at our LHBS. I also decided to dry hop with some Czech Saaz because they are one of my favorite hops.

3lbs Light D.M.E.
4lbs Amber D.M.E.

60 Min
.25oz Nugget (13.9%)
.25oz Amarillo (8.3%)
.25oz Chinook (11.5%)

40 Min
.25oz Nugget (13.9%)
.25oz Amarillo (8.3%)
.25oz Chinook (11.5%)

20 Min
.25oz Nugget (13.9%)
.25oz Amarillo (8.3%)
.25oz Chinook (11.5%)

0 Min
.25oz Nugget (13.9%)
.25oz Amarillo (8.3%)
.25oz Chinook (11.5%)

Dry Hopping with 2oz of Saaz (3.1%)

Let me know what you think!
-Rusty

looks good, especially the hop bill. Have you ever tried using steeping grains? A lot of people like to steep some crystal malt in an extract IPA recipe, but its by no means required.

Thanks, I thought about it but decided to go with a safe extract only. I'll post up my results in a few weeks let everyone know how it turns out.

Big thanks again to DeepSouth for the inspiration!

Steeping grains is an absolute breeze! You should consider it. No harm using Amber DME for your first brew, that only trouble is you don't really know what's in the Amber DME, if you were to use Light DME and steep some Crystal or Carapils you would achieve a nice colour, just a thought

Also, the 40 minute additions to me seem a little out of place, the emphasis for an IPA like this is going to be in the late hop additions, you could add more hops at 60 minutes to get the IBU's up where you want them, and the 20 minute additions will also contribute to bitterness. Would you consider dry hopping with Amarillo if you have enough? It's wonderful for dry hopping, it would be a more logical choice for dry hopping. Saaz wouldn't be common in a beer of this style. Either way it though it looks good, and its your baby. Happy brewing!

Thanks for the inputs guys. I'll run the hop times through QBrew when I get home, although it is floating around 72IBUs right now I would love to go higher!

I used specialty grains in my last 2 brews with moderate success... I need to knock out a no fail batch to get my confidence back up (lol).

Thanks again!

Sorry for the double post...

Ok, I just tried this out of the secondary. And it might be my new favorite beer... period. We'll wait and see but the aroma is great and it has a nice bitterness to it. Not quite as bitter as I was thinking it would be, but the flavor is awesome. I can't wait to get this into some bottles and my keg!

I have to ask, why add the high alpha hops at the end of the boil for aroma? Maybe I'm not appreciating chinook or nugget enough, but why not go for something more flavorful?

Ok it occured to me yesterday that I never posted the final recipe i ended up using. After playing with the ingredients in BeerSmith this is what I came up with (I think this makes more sense):

Ingredients:

------------

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 57.1 %
3.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 42.9 %

0.50 oz Saaz [3.90%] (60 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.50%] (60 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.30%] (60 min) Hops 7.2 IBU
0.25 oz Nugget [13.90%] (60 min) Hops 6.1 IBU


0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.30%] (30 min) Hops 5.6 IBU
0.25 oz Nugget [13.90%] (30 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.25 oz Chinook [11.50%] (30 min) Hops 3.9 IBU

0.50 oz Chinook [11.50%] (10 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.30%] (10 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
0.25 oz Nugget [13.90%] (10 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [3.90%] (10 min) Hops 1.2 IBU


0.50 oz Chinook [11.50%] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.25 oz Nugget [13.90%] (5 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.30%] (5 min) Hops 0.7 IBU

0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.30%] (0 min) Hops
0.25 oz Chinook [11.50%] (0 min) Hops

1.00 oz Nugget [13.90%] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops
1 Pkgs Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) Yeast-Ale

Well on new years eve we drank about 1/2 this batch. Everyone loved it but I was a little disappointed. Not that it wasn't good, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to give this another shot and make some changes to the hop addition times.

I'm going to move the Nuggets to the beginning of the boil for more bitterness and slide the Amarillo to towards the end for aroma. I'll probably leave the Chinooks where they are unless I get some different advice.

Interesting note: the Saaz actually come out well in this. I think it gives it an intersting (and delicious) balance.

Give me some feedback on how to improve this! Thanks!