Falconer's Flight IPA Recipe Critque

I walked into my LHBS a few days back while the owner was portioning some Flaconer's Flight hops and they smelled absolutely AMAZING. I decided then that I wanted to make an all Falconer's Flight IPA. But rather than taking an existing IPA recipe and adapting it for the hops, I would like to try my hand at making a recipe from scratch.

I want to make an AIPA that has a strong hops presence, and moderate bitterness. After consulting Designing Great Beer and browsing the recipe section here I came up with the following:

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG
Estimated Color: 10.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 72.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Mash Method: BIAB, Medium Body at 152*F
Yeast: Wyeast 1056

Grain Bill:
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12 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.0 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.75 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)
0.5 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine

Hops Schedule:
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All hops are Falconers Flight Hops (11.40% AA)

1.5 oz @ 60 mins
0.5 oz @ 15 mins
0.5 oz @ 5 mins
0.5 oz @ Flameout
1.0 oz Dryhop for 7 days

Do you have any other bittering hop you could use? That 1.5 oz at 60 would be better served at flameout or another late addition.

I've got something similar in primary and the sample I took today tasted great. I bittered with Columbus and ended up with about 70 IBUs. I also used less caramel malt but mashed a little higher at 152 to boost the maltiness a bit.

It's my first try with falconer's flight so I hope it turns out well!

I have not yet purchased the ingredients, so I could swap it out, and/or increase or decrease quantities if I wanted. I do have 1 lb of whole leaf Nuggets on hand though. Do you feel that using the FF for bittering would be a waste?

So finally getting back to this recipe. I updated the grain bill, swapping the Crystal 60 for 80 and reducing it to 0.75 lbs. I also decided to add a lb of Vienna. I think I am going to leave the Hop schedule alone, provided I can get enough FF hops. Also I upped my mash temp to 152*F.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

EllisTX said:

Do you have any other bittering hop you could use? That 1.5 oz at 60 would be better served at flameout or another late addition.

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I agree. I just tapped a FF IPA I brewed recently an it came out amazing! I used millennium to bitter. The FF hops are fantastic and I wouldn't want to take away from what they are being lost in the boil.

Also, why the change to the crystal? I used 60 and I'm curious for when, because I definitely will, brew this again!

I'm not a brew master but I really thing 2.75# of crystal malt is way to much. I used 3/4# of crystal 60 in my FF IPA and bittered with 3/4oz of Chinook and it was nicely balanced. I think with as much crystal as you have you will end up with a very sweet beer.IMHO.

Disregard the comment about the crystal. I misread the recipe. Sorry ...

Billybrewer09 said:

Disregard the comment about the crystal. I misread the recipe. Sorry ...

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No prob. Thanks for taking a look.

I purchased the grains, hops and yeast this evening and plan to brew it sometime this weekend. I will let you all know how it works out.

Chaostar said:

I agree. I just tapped a FF IPA I brewed recently an it came out amazing! I used millennium to bitter. The FF hops are fantastic and I wouldn't want to take away from what they are being lost in the boil.

Also, why the change to the crystal? I used 60 and I'm curious for when, because I definitely will, brew this again!

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The change from crystal 60 to 80 was mostly for color. It is my understanding that Vienna lends a little bit of sweetness, so I wanted to cut down the sweetness from the Crystal while keeping the color. I am interested to see how it turns out.

How would you recommend I distribute the 1.5 oz of bittering hops then? I will probably just replace the bittering with either Magnum or Nugget.

I think bittering with magnum would be good. Nice clean bitterness. As for the 1.5 oz off FF. I would add a half ounce to the 5 min, FO and DH.
Adjust your IBU's if you use the magnum. I would maybe only use 3/4oz.

I brewed a very similar brew recently. My grain was 5# 2 row 4# marris otter 1.25# c-60, 1# Vienna. The hop schedule almost exact and it was excellant. I used a notingham yeast with this one. I am fermenting a re-brew of this right now and the only thing i changed up was I subbed an ounce of chinook for the bittering and bumped up the dry hop to 2 oz. The hops mellowed in the first batch after about 2 weeks in the keg but those first 2 weeks were fantastic. I've also brewed this with 3# of rye and that was outstanding but again I lost the aroma too fast for me. drink it young and I think it is great.

Billybrewer09 said:

I think bittering with magnum would be good. Nice clean bitterness. As for the 1.5 oz off FF. I would add a half ounce to the 5 min, FO and DH.
Adjust your IBU's if you use the magnum. I would maybe only use 3/4oz.

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It appears I only have 0.60 oz of 10% AA Magnum pellets in my freezer. That won't be nearly enough bittering. I may have to use the Nuggets, as I don't really want to make a trip out my LHBS tomorrow.

EDIT:
If I swap out the FF for Nuggets, and add the extra 1.5 oz to 5, FO and DH I get the following:

1.10 oz - Nugget (14.50% AA, Whole Leaf) @ 60 [54.5 IBU]
0.50 oz - FF (11.40% AA) @ 15 [9.7 IBU]
1.00 oz - FF @ 5 [7.8 IBU]
1.00 oz - FF @ 0
1.00 oz - FF DH for 7 Days

Total IBUs: 72

That looks better than the original. Did you run the IBU'S using the magnum hops. Maybe back the nugget down to an ounce. I think 54 is a little high to start or you could FWH with them.

Billybrewer09 said:

That looks better than the original. Did you run the IBU'S using the magnum hops. Maybe back the nugget down to an ounce. I think 54 is a little high to start or you could FWH with them.

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I don't have enough Magnum to get up to the IBUs I want. I could split the bittering between the Nugget and Magnum, but not sure if that would be the best thing to do. Plus I have a fair amount of Nugget in my inventory.

The Nuggets are whole leaf, that is why it looks like a lot.

Maybe if you used the nugget as a FWH and then the magnum at 60 min that would get you to your target IBU's.
I'm just trying to think of a way for the FF to be the star in your brew without being overshadowed by your bittering hops.

Billybrewer09 said:

Maybe if you used the nugget as a FWH and then the magnum at 60 min that would get you to your target IBU's.
I'm just trying to think of a way for the FF to be the star in your brew without being overshadowed by your bittering hops.

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What is you aversion to using the FF for bittering? At 11% they should work well at it.

No aversion to using it as a bittering hop. I just prefer them as a Flavor and aroma hop. And just because they are 11% does mean they will be a good bittering hop. That is why I prefer to use magnum or Chinook as my bittering charge.

Billybrewer09 said:

I think bittering with magnum would be good. Nice clean bitterness. As for the 1.5 oz off FF. I would add a half ounce to the 5 min, FO and DH.
Adjust your IBU's if you use the magnum. I would maybe only use 3/4oz.

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+1 on the bittering with magnum, can't really go wrong with that one. Getting ready to bottle my Falconer's Flight IPA tomorrow, looking forward to seeing how it turns out! I used Chinook for bittering because that's what I had, but magnum would have been the next choice if I had 'em.

Ok updated hops schedule:

0.70 oz - Nugget (14.5% AA) @ FWH (60) [34.9 IBU]
0.53 oz - Magnum (10% AA) @ 60 [18.2 IBU] (All the Magnum I have.)
0.50 oz - FF (11.40% AA) @ 15 [9.7 IBU]
1.00 oz - FF @ 5 [7.8 IBU]
1.00 oz - FF @ 0
1.00 oz - FF DH for 7 Days

Total IBUs: 71

I just cracked the first one on my first 5 gallon batch .. ever. Now I did not as you guys do AG nor come up with the recipe. I used the Brewers Best kit and it had .75 oz of Millenium for bittering. Then it was 1 oz of FF at 20 and another at 10. Then 2 oz for dry. Man this stuff is good. Aroma is over the top. Bitterness is not as much as I was expecting but lately I have been drinking some really high IBU beers. Stone Ruination, Moylans Hopsickle, Green Flash Westcoast IPA .. all over 90 IBU so that may have something to do with it. Anyways the flavor of this beer is great but it does linger with a grapefruit finish at the end for a while after each sip. I have some brew friends and family coming over this weekend and am excited to hear there response.

Wow, your magnum is only 10%AA? Seems really low for magnum. No worries though, recipe looks pretty excellent to me. Just maybe think about steeping that flame out addition for 20min or so before cooling the wort, some say it really helps out in the flavor/aroma department.

ChessRockwell said:

Wow, your magnum is only 10%AA? Seems really low for magnum. No worries though, recipe looks pretty excellent to me. Just maybe think about steeping that flame out addition for 20min or so before cooling the wort, some say it really helps out in the flavor/aroma department.

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Yep, guess my LHBS got a low batch. I usually do let me FO hops steep for a little bit. I will be brewing this tomorrow, so I will let you all know how it turns out.

Looks like my IPA turned into a session IPA. I had a horrible efficiency today, missed my numbers big time, and didn't have any DME on hand to make up for the deficits.

I will be sure to revisit this recipe again in the future and do it justice.

How bad did you miss your OG?
I brewed Denny's rye PA last month in my new mash tun and missed the OG by 12 points. I just skipped the dry hops and it turned out really good. I don't recommend this as a fix, but it is an idea to keep the beer balanced.

Billybrewer09 said:

How bad did you miss your OG?
I brewed Denny's rye PA last month in my new mash tun and missed the OG by 12 points. I just skipped the dry hops and it turned out really good. I don't recommend this as a fix, but it is an idea to keep the beer balanced.

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~16 points. My measured OG was 1.054 with a estimated OG of 1.070. I will sneak a taste when I take a SG reading in a week or two. I am sure it will still turn out ok, but not what I was expecting.

I just took a SG reading, and it definitely missing some malty backbone. It is currently about 6 points lower than the estimated FG, and it is probably. That was to be expected considering I missed my mash temp by a fair margin.

I think I am going to skip the dry hops, and save them for the second take on this recipe. I will probably let it sit for a about another week (maybe a little bit longer) and then keg it.

I finally taped my rye pa this weekend and it is light on the body. I'm sure that is due to missing my OG also. It is still a very good beer with losts of hop flavor and aroma even without the dry hops.
I will definitely brew it again now that i have figured out my new mash tun.
Do you know why your efficiency was so low?

Billybrewer09 said:

Do you know why your efficiency was so low?

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It was combination of things. This brew was the first time with my new Chugger pump, and my first time doing a recirculation mash.

To start with there was too much restriction between the bag, steamer basket and grain (I BIAB), and the pump was pulling more from the bottom than could be replaced from the top portion of the kettle. This caused an overflow about 5-10 minutes into the mash, I lost between 1/4 and 1/2 a gallon.

Also I changed a setting in Beersmith which lowered my strike temperature, combined with my recirculation caused a (way) low mash temperature which I didn't compensate for until towards the end of the mash. I did extend my mash from 60 to about 90-105 minutes but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

Overall it was just a really bad brew day, but it was a learning experience and I just need to dial it my system. (And stop making changes to it :cross

I'm a huge fan of the Falconers Flight. I used only FF in a pale recently and it's one of the best beers I've brewed. Loved the flavor and aroma. I dry-hopped in the secondary for 10 days and after a month in the keg, the aroma/flavor is still going strong. Unfortunately I have no idea what the grain bill was. I was in a hurry and just told the HBS guy to give me a 5% grain bill with a little color and vienna. Pretty sure there was some wheat and carapils in there, and I know it used WLP001.

Gotta hand it to you, Voltin.
Falconer's Flight recipe you listed turned out great. Not just great, but outstandingly great. The aroma is out of this world, the lingering taste is something to behold. It turned out even better than Stone's IPA.
I kept the hop schedule exactly the same as the recipe but the wife would not allow a 7%ABV, so I made some changes to the grain bill.
The 1st photo the delicious result followed by my spread sheet of the recipe, if I can get all of that in my first attempt at posting something here.

Well, I told you, this was my 1st attempt.
Here is the photo of the beer.

CallMeMrBrew said:

Well, I told you, this was my 1st attempt.
Here is the photo of the beer.

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That looks tasty. I am glad you like the beer. To be honest I totally forgot about this recipe and thread. Now that I have worked out all the kinks in my system I need to brew this recipe again. I might just be making a trip to my LHBS after work today. :rockin:

Just pitched this, I'll let you all know how it turns out in a few weeks.

This beer turned out very good. Dry hops create a great aroma that jumps out immediately after it is poured. It is malty upfront with a lingering bitterness in the background that is not overpoewring. This is a very drinkable beer, I will definitely have to put this beer into my brew rotation.