Critique this Partial Mash Simarillo IPA

I have a ton of Simcoe and Amarillo in the freezer and I want to make a tasty IPA that's not too heavy. I love super hoppy IPA's but it's nice to have something that's a bit more session-able for your everyday brew. I actually set out to make a hoppy pale ale, but at the last minute broke down and pushed the recipe into the lower IPA ranges. What can I say, the hops'll do that to you! I brewed this last week and it's well on its way, but just wanted to get some feedback from the board. The Melanoiden malt was a last minute sub when I realized I didn't have dark Munich, and I also would have used Vienna over Victory but was also out.

Forgive the weird amounts, I actually brewed a 3 gal batch and scaled back up for posting just to keep it more familiar. What do you think?


Simarillo Pale Ale

Style: American IPA OG: 1.060
Type: Partial Mash FG: 1.015
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 5.90 %
Calories: 196 IBU's: 55.09
Efficiency: 70 % Boil Size: 5.90 Gal
Color: 10.1 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Partial mash: Steeped at 156F for 30 mins prior to boil
Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 14 days @ 65.0°F
Secondary 14 days @ 65.0°F


Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
4.25 lbs 43.02 % Briess Golden Light LME 60 mins 1.038
1.67 lbs 16.90 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L 60 mins 1.035
1.25 lbs 12.65 % Cara-Pils/Dextrine 60 mins 1.033
14.00 ozs 8.86 % Melanoiden Malt 60 mins 1.037
1.00 lbs 10.12 % Victory Malt 60 mins 1.034
0.83 lbs 8.45 % Briess 2-Row Pale Ale Malt 60 mins 1.037

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.42 ozs 20.07 Columbus (Tomahawk) 60 mins 14.00
1.00 ozs 20.33 Amarillo Gold 25 mins 8.50
0.22 ozs 6.74 Simcoe 25 mins 13.00
2.50 ozs 3.15 Amarillo Gold 1 mins 8.50
2.50 ozs 4.81 Simcoe 1 mins 13.00

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.7 pkg Safale US-05 Fermentis US-05 (I just used the whole pkg for the 3 gal batch)

Additions
Amount Name Time Stage
1.00 tsp Irish Moss 15 mins Boil
1.00 tb. Wyeast yeast nutrient 10 mins Boil

Mash Profile
(none)

Carbonation
(none)

Notes
Steep grains 30 minutes in 156-158

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Looks good.

I'd suggest moving the 25min addition up to 15, or even 10 minutes to get even more delicious hop flavor. Maybe up the Columbus at 60min to make up for lost IBUs...Columbus is supposed to be a pretty clean bittering hop that will let your later additions take the spot light.

That's just my opinion...I personally love loading up on later additions (15 min or less) then upping the 60min addition to make up for IBUs instead of having 30, 25, 20 minute hop additions.

Let us know how it turns out. I would definitely be interested to know how those 2 hops work together.

Thanks for the input. I agree about late hop additions and was wondering that myself, but I held back since I wasn't sure how much of that the relatively weak malt bill could stand up to. I am debating about dry hopping for that reason. I love the aroma, that's for sure. If I do I will probably do either Simone, Amarillo or some combination of the two since I also want to get a sense for the combo. I've heard great things but this is my first time trying it myself.

the combination of simco, amarillo and columbos is likely one of my favorites for ipa's. I brew a honey ipa regularily and find that the more honey malt (melanoiden) i use gives a much sweeter almost creamy character which, in combo with the carapills might give you a heavier body then you are looking for. but in my oppinioun this should go great with the hops. deffenitly dry hop. simco and amarillo are amazing for flavor and aroma, i agree with stankonia that you should push the later additions to fifteen or even 10 mins. let us know how it turns out.

these hops are absolutely lovely together. I did a simple pale ale years ago (see my recipe in my signature) and it is wonderful! Definitely one of my favorites!

Seems like a heck of a lot of crystal malts. And 14oz of melanoiden seems like too much.

Personally, I like 5% max out of each carapils and crystal malts in my IPAs. So 5% Crystal, 5% carapils, the rest base malt (pale or 2row).

IPAs are really about letting the hops shine through and I think that much melanoiden, victory and crystal will really muddle the hops.