1st all-grain IPA recipe... thoughts?

Been doing partial mashes with my keggle and 3gal cooler. Gonna go step it up and grab myself a 10gal cooler and repeat a few older recipes first, and then brew this one up. I set it at 65% effeciency since i'm really not sure what i will get my first few times.

Thoughts on the recipe? Somewhat inspired by Alesmith IPA and Pliny the Elder.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.92 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 7.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 101.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.67 %
1.25 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
0.75 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) FWH 21.8 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) FWH 23.5 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 21.4 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (40 min) Hops 17.4 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (1 min) Hops 0.4 IBU

1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops

0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 15.00 lb
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step Add 18.75 qt of water at 167.7 F 152.0 F

I really like the Columbus and Cascade combo. Amarillo and Simcoe, not so much. Not sure what all 4 would be like? Also, I like a lot of late addition hops. Most of your additions are going to lose their flavor and aroma from being boiled quite a while. I would move the 30 and 40 minute additions to 20 - 0 minutes. Up to you though.

Edit - I like a little carapils and or light crystal. Might drop the honey. Again, up to you.

s3n8 said:

I really like the Columbus and Cascade combo. Amarillo and Simcoe, not so much. Not sure what all 4 would be like? Also, I like a lot of late addition hops. Most of your additions are going to lose their flavor and aroma from being boiled quite a while. I would move the 30 and 40 minute additions to 20 - 0 minutes. Up to you though.

Edit - I like a little carapils and or light crystal. Might drop the honey. Again, up to you.

Click to expand...

I went Simcoe/Amarillo because I had read they went well together.. i have no personal experience with them though. I do know the Alesmith IPA used both, and the Pliny used Simcoe (with others of course). I guess I could move the Simcoe up to 30min and the Amarillo up to 20

thanks for the input

s3n8 said:

Edit - I like a little carapils and or light crystal. Might drop the honey. Again, up to you.

Click to expand...

I'll probably keep the honey for a little sweetness, but now that I think about, i might add some carapils or flaked wheat for some head retention.

Think 1lb would be to much or either one of them?

Decided to tweak it a bit already. I decided on carapils rather than flaked wheat because i wanted to avoid any type of haze i may get from the wheat. I also decided to up my mash temp to 154, and decrease the times on the middle hops. This will probably be what i go with to try and get in on the 10% sale at AHS Any other input would be appreciated.

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.92 gal
Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated Color: 7.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 91.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.54 %
1.25 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.94 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.75 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 21.4 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 23.0 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.9 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (25 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale


1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 15.75 lb
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step Add 19.69 qt of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F

I'm a bigger fan of the KISS method for hop schedules, so here's my suggestion (based on my preference only).

1 oz Simcoe (FWH) (why add more simcoe at 25 min, when FWH tends to mimic ~20 min addtions, or so I've read)
1 oz. Columbus (60 min)
1 oz. Amarillo (15 min)
1 oz. Cascade (5 min)

why do with 4 hops that you can do with three?

simcoe is a high alpha hop. i learned a little here... use simcoe sparingly as an aroma/dry hop.


i like AZ IPA's hops sch. listed.

KISS is right.


although, my next IPA, imma mix magnum, crystal, and cascase together. i will use this mix for my FWH, and magnum 1.0 oz for my 60 min addition. the rest will go in ever few mins untill flameout, and the rest will be used as dry hops after a week in the fermenter.


good luck!

riored4v said:

I went Simcoe/Amarillo because I had read they went well together.. i have no personal experience with them though. I do know the Alesmith IPA used both, and the Pliny used Simcoe (with others of course). I guess I could move the Simcoe up to 30min and the Amarillo up to 20

thanks for the input

Click to expand...

Other people seem to like the Amarillo/Simcoe combo. I find that Simcoe gives an unpleasant (again to me) taste. Its hard to describe, some people call it catty, cat urine, etc. Having never tasted that I do not know whether its a fair comparison. As some of the later posts suggest, keep it simple. I have had success with FWH, 60, 20, 5, and dry hop.

The only reason for the "extravagent" hop bill is because I was trying to go for something similar to a Pliney the Elder, or Alesmith's IPA. Both have a pretty intense hop bill, but taste amazing . And I already have these hops laying around from last year, so I want to use them up.

What about moving the 25min addition of Simcoe up to 15 and then doing 1oz of Amarillo at 10min?

So basically...
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 21.4 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) (FWH) 23.0 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.9 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
1oz oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (0 min) Hops -

Does the grain bill appear to be alright?

Looks like a pleasantly hoppy IPA to me. I have never had the real Pliny the elder, but most of the recipes I have seen online are 12+ oz of hops. If you really want Pliny, look for some of the recipes online I hope you have more hops. One final question, did you take out all the dry hops? I would never make an IPA without at least an oz of dry hops. I really like Cascade or Centennial, and have used Amarillo dry hops with success.

s3n8 said:

Looks like a pleasantly hoppy IPA to me. I have never had the real Pliny the elder, but most of the recipes I have seen online are 12+ oz of hops. If you really want Pliny, look for some of the recipes online I hope you have more hops. One final question, did you take out all the dry hops? I would never make an IPA without at least an oz of dry hops. I really like Cascade or Centennial, and have used Amarillo dry hops with success.

Click to expand...

Yea, i've seen the monster of a recipe for Pliney. I have alot of hops on hand, but not that much..lol

I kept the dry-hop schedule the same. I was just revising the hops that went into the kettle.