Ipa Recipe - needs some help

So this is my 3rd all grain batch but my first 'flying solo' as I had a ton of hand holding on my previous two, and this is my first crack at a recipe so please let me know what you think. Obviously it is gonna be a hop monster but I'm hoping that by skipping the bittering charge and adding a ton at the end it will balance out.

6 Gallon batch

13lb 8oz Golden Promise
2lb Munich malt
9.6 oz Cara-Pils
6.4 oz honey malt

1oz cascade 15 min
1.25 oz centennial 15min
1.5 oz centennial 10 min
2 oz cascade 5 min
2.5 oz centennial 5 min
3 oz citra 5 min
3 oz citra 0 min
2 oz centennial 0 min

Wyeast 1056

I was thinking about mashing at 152 and adding a pound of sugar at the end of the boil.

Beersmith estimates a 1.066 OG and 66 IBUs
but this doesn't take the sugar into account

any and all advice is welcomed

Hmmm...too many hops IMO. What makes you want to not have a 60 or even 30 minute bittering addiction?Just curious. You could accomplish a balance beer with a bittering additional and less late additions. All depends what you're going for.

I think you're good at around 60-80 ibus, but the hop additions larger than 1oz seem like overkill. What would the recipe look like ibu wise with 1oz each for all additions? Add to that whatever amount of cascade you need at 60 minutes to reach target ibus.

I agree with the veganbrewer. Also, I would skip the sugar, as it isn't going to add much flavor to your beer (I assume you meant basic granulated sugar). I'd rather see you boost your grain bill with more base malt to balance out some of those hops. I look at it like this: my very informal definition of an IPA is a pale ale, with more of everything. With over 16 oz hops, your beer strikes me as unbalanced, even without the initial bittering addition.

i would add a 60 min and 30 min addition. then save some of the late additions and dry hop with 2 - 3 oz. here was my last ipa hop sched

0.25Chinook [13.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 5 8.7 IBUs
0.75 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 15.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 11.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 9.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

I think the lb of sugar is a good idea in order to dry the beer out a bit and showcase the hops. I like the idea of using citra and centenial together...I imagine that they will play together well. I agree that you probably need a FWH or 60 minute addition otherwise you'll have fruit punch. I'd suggest using an ounce of magnum at 60. Also, dry hopping is the halmark of the style...you may want to reduce some of the quantity of your late additions and instead use them to dry hop. Otherwise it looks quite nice.

After reading through Designing Great Beers, I wouldn't be too concerned about the sugar - you're only talking about 5.7% of your grist, which is well within acceptable limits for the style. I'd say stick to your plan on that count.

On the hops; first of all, once you add the sugar, assuming you're looking at 65% efficiency, you're going to bump your gravity up to 1.074 - 66 IBU's might quite not stand up to 1.074 OG in an IPA, you might want to get that closer to a 1:1 or 1.1:1 ratio (get it closer to 70-80 IBU). And also, that hop bill looks EXPENSIVE!!! Throw an ounce of Bravo or some other high alpha in there at 60 or 45, so you can reduce those other additions to an ounce or so - you're still going to get plenty of hop flavor and aroma (I've got an IPA dry hopping right now that I did exactly this with, can't wait to get this in a keg!!!) - and you'll save yourself a ton of money, let alone the amount of muck you'll save yourself in the bottom of your kettle and/or your fermenter! And you can still dry hop the hell out of the beer if you want.

I agree on the hops, if for no other reason because you are going to have so much material floating in your kettle that you may have problems transferring to the fermenter. I do like the hop selection - I use that combination in a smaller (1.055) american pale ale all the time and I love it. I use:
60 - 1 oz. cent.
30 - 1oz. centennial
5 - 1 oz. cascade
0 - 1oz. cascade
0 - 1oz. citra
Dry hop for 5-7 days with 2 oz. citra.

Those hops make for a great combination.

I gotta go against the grain here! I've been during "hopbursting" quite a bit and love the results.

If you have the hops, and can afford that many of them, do it!

I would consider dropping the honey malt and carapils, though, if you want to use sugar to help thin and dry the beer. They would be at cross purposes here!

I'd probably drop the honey malt, keep the carapils, and leave out the sugar. Keep the hop schedule as is!

I have to agree with Yooper here, it works, but you can NOT have a malty sweet beer...you need to cut at least the honey malt, and at least do half the carapils.
You can do a late hop beer like this but you want it to be a little dryer malt wise. You will need some good dry hopping additions, at least 2 and stick with the citra and centennial theme.
The only other suggestion I would give is to probably use a High AA hop at the 15 min addition most cascades are around 5% and you do want some bittering, If your citra or Centennial are 9% + then use them...

I dare not contradict the queen..but Ive noticed that a 1/4 pound of honey makes a nice lead in to the citra hops. It kind of sets the stage for the passion fruit flavor.

Adding the honey sounds like an interesting idea. Are you adding the hone during fermentation or to back sweeten the beer?

For those that use a pound (ish) of hops in late additions in a 5-6 gallon batch - How do you deal with the enormous amount of trub/hops/etc.? Generally, I just brew a 6.5 gallon batch and leave behind about .75 gallons in the bottom of my kettle as the spigot is a little off the bottom and I can let most of the break settle out during cooling. But with this amt. of hops, it seems like it might be problematic as far as just getting the beer from the kettle to the fermenter. This is one of the things that has kept me down around the half pound range. Seems counter productive to put 5 and 0 minute additions in bags. Just curious for strategies.

I meant honey malt. ...As for the hops/trub I shoot for 6.5 gallon batches with the expectation that I'll sacrifice a gallon and a half to the hop gods. ...it keeps them from killing kittens.

6 Gallon batch

Mash @ 150

85% Golden Promise, or a base malt blend with American 2-row
6-7% Munich malt
6-7% Wheat malt
0-3% Honey or Light Crystal malt
(Sugar if you deem necessary at the end of the boil)

30-40 IBUs from a 60 min bittering addition (you aren't asking for much hops)
2 oz. at 15
2-3 oz. at 7
3-4 oz at 0
4-5 oz at dryhop

(yes, this is still considered hop-bursting)

Wyeast 1056 Starter

Wow thanks for all the suggestions, some good stuff in here.

I went a little overboard when I put in my initial hop order and I have a ton of hops going stale in my freezer so I'm really just trying to burn through some of my stash. I'm not worried about $ because I already spent that money

I thought the honey malt might equalize with the sugar addition, essentially balance the sweet/dry while boosting my gravity. Think this will work or am I just wasting ingredients?

One thing that I am concerned about is the amount of hops soaking up too much beer and being a pain transferring to the fermenter. Anyway reduced most of my additions(a little), added a small FWH citra charge, and added 1oz of Amarillo at 5 mins.

Ok here is an updated recipe

14lb 8oz/79.2% Golden Promise
2lb/10.9% Munich malt
6.4 oz/2.2% Cara-Pils
6.4 oz/2.2% honey malt
1lb/5.5% sugar - end of boil

.5oz Citra 60min FWH
1oz cascade 15 min
1.25 oz centennial 15min
1.5 oz centennial 10 min
1oz Amarillo 5 min
2 oz cascade 5 min
1.5 oz centennial 5 min
2 oz citra 5 min
2 oz citra 0 min
2 oz centennial 0 min

Beersmith says 1.076 OG - 69 IBUs - 8.2% ABV

Looks like I'm getting into DIPA territory! whoa

I would cut back the Munich by 1 lb, sacrifice Centennial for bittering instead of Citra, add a 4 oz. dryhop, and skip the idea for FWH - This is an inherently bitter monster of a beer style. No need for FWH. And 69 IBUs is still on the low end for a 1.076 IIPA. Try to streamline your late additions a bit more. Looks confusing and excessive in spots.

If you're worried about the hops absorbing your wort/beer, go with pellets. As a side bonus, they offer more aroma in a quicker time.

Please keep us updated once this gets made and tasted. Also 2nd the not using Citra for bittering, I've done it twice and didn't like the results.

+1 centennial for 60 min. Save those wonderful citra hops for the end and dry hopping.

ok switched to .5oz of centennial for the bittering hop, I'm still thinking about this and is subject to change/go away

Unfortunately I bought 1lb of citra cones so I'm gonna use that before I open something else. The more you know...

dry hop 1 week
2oz citra
2oz cent

66.8 IBUs according to beersmith, so not super bitter for the style but I don't like super bitter so I've got that working in my favor
57 without the bittering charge

I'm also thinking about adding a small amount of crystal malt 80 to increase my SRM, my brain tells me that big, strong beers should be a little bit dark. My current SRM is 6.3

Ghost_Fish said:

I'm also thinking about adding a small amount of crystal malt 80 to increase my SRM, my brain tells me that big, strong beers should be a little bit dark. My current SRM is 6.3

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Depends if you want a sweet, full, rich monster of an IIPA like Avery Maharaja or a more drinkable, dry, aromatic DIPA like Kern River Citra. I wouldn't be afraid of bitterness too much with 1/2 oz at 60 for an IIPA, then nothing else until 15 min. You seem to be quite fearsome of IBUs.

bobbrews said:

You seem to be quite fearsome of IBUs.

Click to expand...

IBUs killed my father. I will have my revenge!

yeah I will probably do a FWH, seems like the easiest way to go, I have a bag of Magnum open so I will probably do 1oz.

carastan was suggested as a SRM helper so hopefully my homebrew shop has it.

My current calculations have it at 76 IBUs, seems pretty good for my taste

sorry for the waffling but I have something of a waffle addiction

Here's the hops schedule for a 10 gallon batch that I absolutely love (it's an APA, not an IPA, but you get the idea!):


2.00 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 11 9.9 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 12 21.1 IBUs
2.00 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 13 5.9 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 14 12.6 IBUs
2.00 oz Amarillo [4.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 15 0.0 IBUs

For an IPA, I'd just up the hops to get 60 IBUs. This recipe has 50 IBUs.

Well I brewed up on Saturday and overall it went pretty well but there were a few glitches.

Wanted to mash out at 170 but only got it up to 162 before feeling a time crunch. I ended up mashing at 150.

Forgot to add the LB of sugar!

Getting the beer from the kettle to the carboy - I have 2 Blichman 10gal Boilermakers but only 1 false bottom. Lautering went great but the damn whole cone hops kept plugging the valve after the boil and I ended up sauce potting the entire thing back into the (now cleaned but not sanitized false bottom equipped) MLT. I figured out later that the inner tube/connection had fallen out of the valve, possibly during my failed attempt to whirlpool.

Couldn't find the right bung for my carboy, ended up using a smaller one and wrapping it with sanitized saran wrap.

A small amount of water from the inside of my immersion chiller(copper coil) fell into the beer.

Forgot/didn't have time to take an OG reading

Things I learned -
Don't drink too many homebrews while homebrewing.
Don't have a BBQ with guests that will require my attention while I should be concentrating on the beer.
Get all my S**t together before hand.
Don't be pressed for time by other engagements.
Don't drink too many homebrews while homebrewing.


The beer is now safely fermenting away and it smells great, nice hoppy krausen on top so hopefully everything worked out. I am a bit concerned about the water that fell into the beer causing a possible infection but I guess I will have to wait and see.

Overall I learned a ton and I'm already itching to do another batch, I am going to harvest the yeast from the primary and do the next batch ASAP.

If you think your OG is too low or you want to dry the beer out a bit add the sugar now...
Just boil it on your kitchen stove with a little water and cool it with a lid in your fridge, when it gets to ferment temps dump it in...it will have the same effect

Develop a brew day check list, and use it on brew days...I think mashing at 150 for an IPA is perfect
Wait til Krausen drops and start dry hopping

Your only hope is to sing songs to your fermenter night and day until the batch is done. Songs of freedom. Then dry hop.

Right on I didn't realize that I could add sugar to the primary...

I'm going to take a gravity reading when the krausen has fully dropped, probably tonight, might add some sugar depending on what reading I get.

Would the sugar kick fermentation off again?

Ghost_Fish said:

Right on I didn't realize that I could add sugar to the primary...

I'm going to take a gravity reading when the krausen has fully dropped, probably tonight, might add some sugar depending on what reading I get.

Would the sugar kick fermentation off again?

Click to expand...

When I add sugar to the primary, I add it at high krausen. No need to check the gravity at this point since it's no where near finished.

When I add sugar at flameout, I do it to correct the OG and supplement some of the malt I intentionally left out of the recipe with the sugar. Adding 1 lb of sugar on top of a wort that was already measured at 1.070 OG is not going to make the FG drop several point lower like some people think. I've done this plenty of times and usually reach the same FG, sometimes higher! I equate this to the (let's say 5%) sugar fully fermenting out, but the yeast quitting on converting that 5% of remaining maltose.

ok added 1lb of sugar boiled with 2 cups water for 10 minutes.

Activity has indeed picked up, the krausen is back up to about 1.5inches and the airlock is bubbling like crazy.

Are you singing?

oregone said:

Are you singing?

Click to expand...

is that the secret? I did just put new strings on my guitar...