Need Comments on a English IPA

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the site. Hope it goes well! I need some comments / criticism on an English IPA recipe I formulated. Thanks!


Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 89.2 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.6 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.4 %
4.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.2 %
2.20 oz Target [11.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 40.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 6.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 7.6 IBUs
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 1.3 IBUs
1.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 3.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 12 -

how many gallons are you shooting for? at 5 gallons, that'll be around 12%

when i make IPAs/DIPAs i like to have around 80% of IBUs from 60min addition, then i put a lot of hops for flavor and aroma (15, 10, 5 and 0min) so i would move your 30 and 20 min additions and add more hops in 60min. If you making 10gal it will be nice ipa for summer but if this is 5gal batch then mash low and add some sugar and more hops cuz you will be making dipa

nathan46290 said:

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the site. Hope it goes well! I need some comments / criticism on an English IPA recipe I formulated. Thanks!


Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 89.2 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.6 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.4 %
4.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.2 %
2.20 oz Target [11.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 40.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 6.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 7.6 IBUs
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 1.3 IBUs
1.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 3.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 12 -

Click to expand...

I think you are over-complicating things here. The English IPA in the modern style is really just a British Bitter/Special Bitter as opposed to the "real" IPA, the 19th Century English version made to stand up to the sail to India. Neither is much like the contemporary American version, but I digress.

Here are my thoughts: You don't need all those specialty malt additions with that MO base. Drop the Victory, Special Roast and Munich and use a UK 55L crystal instead of a domestic 40L. Replace the discarded poundage with additional MO. Simplify the hop additions to two, one at 60 (90 would be better) and one at 20/10 minutes. A knockout or dry hop addition would be fine. Target is fine if you like it but it doesn't have much in the way of character to me. I'd go with Challenger early and use Goldings for the late additions.


20 lbs MO pale malt
1 lb UK 55L crystal

3 oz Challenger @ 90 min
1 oz Goldings @ 90 min
2 oz Goldings @ 20 min
1 oz Goldings @ 0 min

Thanks for your for your input. This is for a 10 gallon batch. Do you think having some special malts would be good for this brew? I will remove the Victory malt. I will focus more on the 60 min. hops rather than the 30 and 20.

Revised Recipe:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
19 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 92.7 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.7 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.4 %
4.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.2 %
3.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 37.8 IBUs
1.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 10.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 6.3 IBUs
1.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.8 IBUs
2.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
2.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 10 -

BigEd said:

I think you are over-complicating things here.

You don't need all those specialty malt additions with that MO base.

Replace the discarded poundage with additional MO. Simplify the hop additions to two, one at 60 (90 would be better) and one at 20/10 minutes. A knockout or dry hop addition would be fine.

n

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

EDIT: welcome to HBT! This forum & the Brewing Network radically improved my beer

The ibus are a bit high, my off the hip gravity calc says you'll be hitting about 1.054ish with 58 ibus, assuming 70% efficiency. I'd drop it 10 or so to balance the beer better. Also I second dropping the specialty malts aside from crystal and only using a british crystal ~60L.

I agree that the IBU's are on the high side, and there are far too many other malts in the recipe. You could drop all of the specialty and simply add a pound (or two) of some Crystal Maris Otter (at 55L)... At ~58 IBU's, it's at the top end of the scale. While it's still within style, it could be more bitterness than you really want. I would reduce the bittering additions and maybe increase the later additions. Especially EKG (so damned fine in this style).

I did a 10 gallon batch of an English pale ale (ESB) with 20# MO and 11oz of crystal MO in it. No other malts. Used all EKG with 19.2 IBUs at 60 minutes, 9.5 at 15 minutes, 7 at 10 minutes and 3.8 at 5 minutes (1.5oz of 7.2% AA EKG). Used Wyeast 1882-PC yeast. Came out damned good too. IF I was to make it an English IPA, I'd be more inclined to increase the late addition hops so that I also get more flavor/aroma additions to it.

BTW, Maris Otter is such a great base malt, that it would be a shame to cover it up with so many other malts.