Imperial IPA... Too big for 1st all grain

I will be doing my first all grain and original recipe on sunday Is this too big to start or am i on the right track. Thanks for any feed back.

View attachment Attitude Imperial IPA.bsm

The recipe looks good to me. It's going to be one bitter SOB.
I would take the centennials for 60 and change it to 1/2 oz and add the extra 1/2 oz at flameout or dry hop with it.

Oh and I see you're using a 5 gallon MLT? There is no way you are fitting that mash in there.

attitude said:

I will be doing my first all grain and original recipe on sunday Is this too big to start or am i on the right track. Thanks for any feed back.

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You mean too big for your first AG, or to big for the style?

My first AG was a barleywine, the way I looked at it was, "If I get horrible efficiency and mess everything up it with just be a malty lower gravity ale and not a barleywine, so who cares." That logic may not work for many, but it worked for me and the beer turned out great. Good luck, congrats.

I agree...your biggest issue is going to be fitting that grain bill in to a 5 gallon MLT. If you have a 10 gallon I say go for it!

Is it just me, or is that an awful lot of carapils? I don't use any carapils in my IPAs, and a pound and a half seems like a ton to me. I would also change up the hops schedule slightly by moving the centennial 60 addition, like FSR said.

I have a 10 gallon igloo, so I don't know how much grain and water you can get into the 5 gallon. Someone posted a link to "can I mash it" on this. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT- here's the link: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Also, 75% efficiency may or may not be what you get the first time. I'd guess more like 70% for the first AG if you're not crushing your own grain.

YooperBrew said:

Is it just me, or is that an awful lot of carapils? I don't use any carapils in my IPAs, and a pound and a half seems like a ton to me. I would also change up the hops schedule slightly by moving the centennial 60 addition, like FSR said.

I have a 10 gallon igloo, so I don't know how much grain and water you can get into the 5 gallon. Someone posted a link to "can I mash it" on this. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT- here's the link: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Also, 75% efficiency may or may not be what you get the first time. I'd guess more like 70% for the first AG if you're not crushing your own grain.

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The grain+ 1.2qt/pound (thiner then I would go) puts you over the 5 gal. I would also (if I was doing this) want to use a mashout to help get more sugar in the first runnings and raise the grain temp.
I also would bet that you will not get much more then a 60%eff on this. Being your fist you may or may not hit your temps right. Plus it seems the larger the grain bill the harder it is to get the higher eff %.

I would seriously consider doing something like Ed's Haus APA for your first all grain. As your grain bill increases, you actual amplify any efficiency deviations you may experience. You can gain some confidence in your process without dropping too much money on ingredients.

Also, exporting your BSM recipe for posting as text would make it a lot more accessible to people who don't have Beersmith.

Do not attempt that big of a grain bill in a 5 gallon MLT, I can't read the recipe but I am guessing it will put you well over what you can actually contain even with a really super thick mash (which you don't want to do, especially your first AG).

my problem with it is your 1st, 2nd and mybe your 3rd AG batchs you will be figuring out the how your system works. You can toss in all the grain you want but if you dont have a good fluid flow rate or a bad sparge method or a few other things you will be wasting grain.

My 2 cents.

Reverend JC said:

my problem with it is your 1st, 2nd and mybe your 3rd AG batchs you will be figuring out the how your system works. You can toss in all the grain you want but if you dont have a good fluid flow rate or a bad sparge method or a few other things you will be wasting grain.

My 2 cents.

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He will have beer no mater what so not so much of a waste. The hops on the other hand. That's a LOT of hops to waste on a beer that could be crap.

If you don't hit the numbers on this one and you end up really low on the OG, that beer is not going to be a good one at all.

What I was trying to convey, rather poorly, is that now is not a good time to drop a huge grainbill just to baseline your AG process. If you hit 45% efficiency on your first batch, have it be a low cost bill. Tell us how you did it, we'll suggest ways to fix it, then drop the dime on an Imperial.

My first AG was a big IPA from Norther Brewer. I can't remember the details but I couldn't FIT all the grain in my 5 gallon GOTT MLT, I missed the instructions about the hop tea, and I otherwise had to fudge around to make it work. BUT it still made a great beer, I just wish I would've saved the ten bucks and downsized the recipe since I really didn't benefit from the extra grains and specialty hop schedule.

FWIW

Bobby_M said:

What I was trying to convey, rather poorly, is that now is not a good time to drop a huge grainbill just to baseline your AG process. If you hit 45% efficiency on your first batch, have it be a low cost bill. Tell us how you did it, we'll suggest ways to fix it, then drop the dime on an Imperial.

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Yeah I know what you are getting at. I too think he/she should pass on this and save it for a later date.

I saved it with a few changes and may brew this later in the summer depending on if I can get the hops I need.

Kilted Brewer said:

I agree...your biggest issue is going to be fitting that grain bill in to a 5 gallon MLT. If you have a 10 gallon I say go for it!

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Thats weird, i thought i changed it to 10 gallon

YooperBrew said:

Is it just me, or is that an awful lot of carapils? I don't use any carapils in my IPAs, and a pound and a half seems like a ton to me. I would also change up the hops schedule slightly by moving the centennial 60 addition, like FSR said.

I have a 10 gallon igloo, so I don't know how much grain and water you can get into the 5 gallon. Someone posted a link to "can I mash it" on this. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT- here's the link: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Also, 75% efficiency may or may not be what you get the first time. I'd guess more like 70% for the first AG if you're not crushing your own grain.

Click to expand...

O K I think i figured it out. It took me a few times to get it. try this:

It seems every time i would save this thing, It wouldn't save my changes. I just bought this beersmith program still learning it., But thanks for all the info. I did drop the hps a little.

View attachment Imperial IPA.txt

Bobby_M said:

What I was trying to convey, rather poorly, is that now is not a good time to drop a huge grainbill just to baseline your AG process. If you hit 45% efficiency on your first batch, have it be a low cost bill. Tell us how you did it, we'll suggest ways to fix it, then drop the dime on an Imperial.

Click to expand...

All the effciency and sparge stuff is all just default. The only thing i changed was the MLT. I wanted to see how my system worked , then adjust the effciency and all the other settings. I also have a friend of mine coming over to guide me and make sure i dont screw it up to bad.

attitude said:

All the effciency and sparge stuff is all just default. The only thing i changed was the MLT. I wanted to see how my system worked , then adjust the effciency and all the other settings. I also have a friend of mine coming over to guide me and make sure i dont screw it up to bad.

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It's not that you are going to screw it up. It's that you don't know your system yet. With a beer like this it has to be right.

Just do a simple APA first and see how it goes.

Rather than try to discourage you from brewing this, I'll just try to point out a few 'gotchas' to look out for:

1) Mashing: With that much crystal malt AND a half-lb of carapils, you may want to consider mashing at a slightly lower temperature than Beersmith will tell you to use for a "full body" mash. IMO, even Imperial IPA's should still be fairly crisp.

2) Sparging: Make sure to get your sparge water hot enough. If you are batch sparging, you may want to consider heating the first sparge water addition to 170-175 F. The extra heat should still keep the grain bed below tannin-extracting temperatures, but help rinse those sugars out of the grain bed. With a target OG of 1076, you'll need to collect a lot more than five or six gallons of wort before you start boiling. If you use the "preview brewsheet" function on Beersmith, it will tell you approximately how much water you will need for mashing and sparging together, provided you set your equipment up properly in Beersmith.

3) Hitting your target gravity: I'd also consider having a few pounds of light DME on hand, just in case your efficiency is too low. If you can get a good measure of the preboil volume and gravity, then you'll know if you're going to be on the mark with your hops additions after boiling off. Don't just assume your efficency on your first AG is going to suck, though. If you get a decent crush, hit your temperatures, and use enough sparge water, you should be fine.

4) Hops schedule: Assuming you can hit your gravity, the hops schedule isn't too bitter at all. You may also want to consider adding the 60 minute additions of Centennial and Fuggles into the kettle right as you collect your first runnings (Beersmith and a lot of others call this "First Wort" hops). IMO, it extracts more flavor from those early additions. YMMV.

It is do-able to make this beer on your first batch, but do be prepared to make adjustments, especially if you don't hit your target temperatures.