My First Imperial IPA Reciepe

Hi fellow brewers, this is my first attempt at an Imperial IPA. Used grains that would give me a malty flavour,

The Southern promise is a South African bittering hops. Please could I have your input, as to be honest I am not sure if I have the correct flavour profile.

The Liquid malt extract was pre hopped to 20 IBU's. So my final IBU reading is approximately 76

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: IPA
Brewer: Nick
Style: Imperial IPA
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size (fermenter): 18.93 l
Boil Size: 18.00 l
Bottling Volume: 17.42 l
Estimated OG: 1.084 SG
Estimated Color: 28.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 55.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
40.00 g Southern Promise [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 m Hop 6 34.2 IBUs
2.0 pkg SafAle American Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-05) Yeast 12 -
40.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 5.6 IBUs
20.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - Boil Hop 10 1.4 IBUs
0.50 kg Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 EBC) Sugar 4 10.0 %
40.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.00 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 5 40.0 %
1.70 kg Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for5 min](15.8 Extract 8 34.0 %
0.50 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup [Boil for5 min](0.0 Extract 9 10.0 %
0.05 kg Carafa II (811.6 EBC) Grain 3 1.0 %
0.05 kg Caraaroma (256.1 EBC) Grain 2 1.0 %
0.20 kg Caramunich II (38.1 EBC) Grain 1 4.0 %


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 5.00 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 11.83 l of water at 72.5 C 65.6 C 75 min


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I would pull back from the Fuggle hops. You seem to be wanting the Fuggles for Aroma and Flavor hops, and I believe that is very out of character for an IPA. Fuggle is very earthy and is typically seen in other less Hoppy beers.

In addition, I feel very similar about Hallertauer as well.

I would suggest considering the following bitter hops:

- Magnum
- Chinook

The following Aroma/Flavor hops:
- Centennial
- Simcoe
- Amarillo
- Cascade

Thanks for the good advise. This brew is 5 days in the primary it had a og of 1.090 and is currently sitting at 1.024 and still going strong.

Tasted it last night and it's not great. Malt flavor is good but hops flavor is terrible. Earthy and bland as you suspected.

How do I save the batch? Would a bit of orange peel, zest or orange juice in the secondary give me a bit of a citrus kick or will I just go from bad to worse ?

Please advise friends.

How about dry hopping with 40 grams each of Simcoe and Amarillo or Cascade? I would think that would wake it up a bit with some bright hops without addiing more bitterness. I'm a newbie but I know that hop profile and it is nice and fruity with some good aroma and flavor.

I should add that I have no idea what the adding orange juice would do but it doesn't sound appealing. Generally the citrus flavor is from hops. Cascade and Centennial are well known for the grapefruit flavor.

Brewitt said:

How about dry hopping with 40 grams each of Simcoe and Amarillo or Cascade? I would think that would wake it up a bit with some bright hops without addiing more bitterness. I'm a newbie but I know that hop profile and it is nice and fruity with some good aroma and flavor.

I should add that I have no idea what the adding orange juice would do but it doesn't sound appealing. Generally the citrus flavor is from hops. Cascade and Centennial are well known for the grapefruit flavor.

Click to expand...

I've never done this particular approach before. Not sure what the result would be with these blends of hops.

However, if the beer is that bad, you could try to dry hop as recommended.

It's even possible that you could use Oak chips to help mask that flavor. I use Oak chips sometimes to cover up off-flavors, and I love oaked IPAs.

Unfortunately, getting this crazy with things could even make it worse. Proceed at your own risk.

Oh, and by the way, you might actually like the beer by the time you've carbonated and cooled. I wouldn't worry too much. Beer is Beer and I suspect that you won't have to toss this batch

Well, I can at least tell you that the simcoe Amarillo blend is wonderful. Not sure you will get enough flavor from the dry hop to get to where you want to be.

Thanks for all the advice brewers. Gonna let it ride maybe bottle it in two weeks and let it age for maybe four weeks and see what we have. A lesson learnt either way.

Next project a sweet chocolate stout, loving this hobby !