American IPA recipe critique, please

Hey All,

First attempt at building my own recipe for my next batch and I wanted some opinions from more experienced brewers (read: everyone besides me)

I'm limited to boil size by my 5gal brew kettle while I save up for my 10gal boilermaker, so this is a 2.5gal recipe designed with the help of my iPad and iBrewMaster to hit my desired style and still allow me to do a full boil and cool my wort effectively. I'm a huge fan of hop-heavy ales, the more bite the better, so here's what I came up with!

American IPA (per BJCP guidelines)

OG: 1058
FG: 1015
ABV: 5.63%
Color: 8.9 SRM
IBUs: 80

8oz Crystal 20L (steeped for 20min @ 155F)
3lbs Light DME

1oz Amarillo @ 60min
0.5oz Cascade @ 20min
0.5oz Cascade @ 5min

Nottingham Ale Yeast

What do you say? Any recommended adjustments? Drinkable?

Thanks!

Maybe a little bit of Carapils to help head retention? People like head.

I like a bit less crystal in my IPAs, so I'd probably go with .25 pound in a 2.5 gallon batch. You've got over 14% crystal malt- far more suited to an amber ale or possibly a pale ale, but not an IPA. But if you like a lot of crystal sweetness in an IPA, that's fine.

As far as hopping, what you have is better for an APA instead of an IPA. You have plenty of hops bitterness (maybe too much) but not enough "in your face hops" for flavor/aroma. It also needs dryhopping.

Your recipe is high in IBUs, but is far more suited to an American pale ale than an IPA.

For an OG of 1.058, I'd go with no more than a total of about 60 IBUs. I'd cut the bittering addition, and add some more hops to late addition- perhaps .25 ounces of amarillo at flame out, for example.

Maybe something more like this:

3 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops
0.50 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (20 min) Hops
0.25 oz Amarillo [9.50 %] (15 min) Hops
0.50 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (5 min) Hops
0.25 oz Amarillo [9.50 %] (0 min) Hops

Dryhop with amarillo/cascade/centennial/simcoe/chinook/whatever sounds good!

I really like the hops from New Zealand, pacifica, pacific jade, and nelson. Also I like palisade for dry hopping IPA's, just depends on how grassy or citrusy you like it, I think the New Zealand Hops have a nice citrus bite to them......good luck cant wait to see your final recipe.

OT jhart, what is that photo in your avatar? looks almost identical to the cover of Man Up by The Blue Van.

I went to beer labalizer and found the lable format, then I just typed in, "Day of the dead women" in google and found a pic I liked.

Great suggestions, thanks!

Yooper, I really appreciate the detailed advice! How about this modification:

3lbs Light DME
4oz Crystal 20L
4oz Carapils

0.50oz Amarillo @ 60min
0.50oz Cascade @ 20min
0.50oz Amarillo @ 10min
0.50oz Cascade @ 5min

Dry hop 5-7days with 0.50oz Amarillo

Looking better?

BierKoning said:

Great suggestions, thanks!

Yooper, I really appreciate the detailed advice! How about this modification:

3lbs Light DME
4oz Crystal 20L
4oz Carapils

0.50oz Amarillo @ 60min
0.50oz Cascade @ 20min
0.50oz Amarillo @ 10min
0.50oz Cascade @ 5min

Dry hop 5-7days with 0.50oz Amarillo

Looking better?

Click to expand...

Yes, that looks really good! It'll be very citrusy with a solid bitterness but not too bitter.

Cool! Thanks for responding so quickly! I'm also thinking of bumping the gravity up by 0.5lbs more of light DME.

I really enjoy the citrusy flavors of commercial IPAs, and I also really like that pinetree type flavor, I think it tastes like Christmas! Would you advise a Simcoe hop swap @20min?

I've found even a little Simcoe will dominate the hop flavor..so a little goes a long way.

My general IBU rule is to match the number to the starting gravity..eg 60 IBUs for a 1.060 start.

I also like to FWH to get pretty much all my IBUs, then use the rest at 5 mins to flameout for flavor/aroma

Curious, what's the alpha % for the hops?

1/2 pound of crystal is usually what I use for a 2.5 gallon batch for an APA or IPA. They don't seem overly sweet to me

Simcoe will def give you the pine. I may rename my all Simcoe Pale to Christmas Pale Ale lol

I also used a half ounce of Simcoe at 20 mins for a 5 gallon batch, along with 1 oz Cascade at 10 and .5 Centennial @20 in the mix, and the Simcoe really overpowers them