Please critique my Centennial Hop Bomb recipe

Gonna brew here later today. I have an 18oz bag of Centennial Leaf hops in my freezer from 2006 harvest that i want to use up today, as they are going to be well past there ’best use by’ pretty soon.
I want to make a bull bodied Hop Bomb that has LOTs of oozing hop flavor and aroma without too much bitterness.

Any adjustments you would make to this?

Centennial IPA
Brew Type: All Grain
Style: India Pale Ale
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Volume: 6.98 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 % Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.71 %
1.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.57 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.71 %

1.50 oz Centennial [7.50 %] First Wort Hop) Hops 29.4 IBU
6.00 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (10 min) Hops 53.0 IBU
6.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
4.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.5 Pkgs US 56 Safe-Ale (DCL Yeast) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.076 SG Measured Original
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.022 SG
Estimated Color: 12.4 SRM
Bitterness: 82.4 IBU Alpha Acid Units: 11.3 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 7.08 %
Actual Calories: 318 cal/pint


Mash Profile Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Mash Tun
Mash Grain Weight: 17.50 lb
Grain Temperature: 70.0 F Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 3.86 gal Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 21.88 qt of water at 173.4 F 156.0 F 90 min

The bitterness might have dropped over time by about 1 or 2 IBUs. You might want to consider bumping the main bittering addition by half an ounce to compensate for the lost IBUs. I must admit this beer looks really good; there will be a lot of hop flavor and aroma without the huge bitterness.
One suggestion would be to aim for a higher volume because the hops will end up absorbing more wort, leaving you with less beer than expected.

Why the 1.5 pkg of S-05? 1 package is more then enough to ferment out 5 gallons.

adx said:

Why the 1.5 pkg of S-05? 1 package is more then enough to ferment out 5 gallons.

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According to the yeast calculator at mrmalty.com, i need 1.5 packets of dry yeast (with no starter)....i ended up using 2 packets, as i don't see the point of throwing away 1/2 a packet, and my wort had cooled down to 64f by pitching time.

I dropped the hops down by a couple ounces from 13.5 just so i wouldn’t lose quite the amount of wort..still at over 80ibus, and 11.5 ozs is a lot in the brewpot (will still dryhop too), Ended up mashing at 154f and changing hops to:

1.50 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (40 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 28.8 IBU
2.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (25 min) Hops 27.6 IBU
4.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (8 min) Hops 23.9 IBU
4.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (0 min) Hops
*******************************************************
3.00 oz Centennial [7.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

Tastes pretty good although a bit more bitter than i had expected....oh well i luv Centennial hops so it's all good.

I think your hop adjustment is good. The only thing I didn't like about your old recipe was hops at 10 minutes with none near 20 or 5.

In the future save the $4 and just rehydrate the S-05. There is enough yeast in there that it will take off in a few hours.

adx said:

In the future save the $4 and just rehydrate the S-05. There is enough yeast in there that it will take off in a few hours.

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Yeah, i normally rehydrate...forgot this time, duh.... and it was time to pitch. Honestly though, as long as the yeast is the same temp as the wort, is rehydrating even necessary on US05?

The Safale package says "Pitch."

I go back and forth on this. I "like" to make a quick 15 minute slurry to pitch, but I usually do that by habit with Nottingham because it says to. Safale doesn't say that.

kenb said:

Yeah, i normally rehydrate...forgot this time, duh.... and it was time to pitch. Honestly though, as long as the yeast is the same temp as the wort, is rehydrating even necessary on US05?

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It is not necessary but it is better than pitching it in wort as far as yeast viability goes. The yeast has to rehydrate before it can start functioning. Wort is a very sweet liquid with high levels of sugars dissolved in solution. The yeast is less likely to be successful when rehydrating is such a rich liquid.
Ofcourse rehydrating does add the chance for user error by not sanitizing the water or container before rehydrating, of putting the yeast in too hot water and killing them. So the manufacturers will sometimes not recommend rehydrating as the amount of yeast in a packet is more than sufficient for fermentation and it reduces the chance of no fermentation due to user error. In other words they are trying to make brewing more idiot proof. But as you know there is always a better idiot

Craig