thoughts on IPA recipe

Ok, desperately need some IPA in the pipeline, I'm all out.

So, I'm thinking:

9# 2-row
3# munich
0.5# crystal 10L
0.5# crystal 40L
0.5# wheat malt
0.125# Dingeman's debittered black malt


HOPS:
0.50 Warrior (60)

0.40 Centential (30)
0.40 Amarillo Gold (30)
0.40 Cascase (30)

0.85 Centential (15)
0.85 Amarillo Gold (15)
0.85 Cascase (15)

0.50 Centential (5)
0.50 Amarillo Gold (5)
0.50 Cascase (5)

0.25 Centential (0)
0.25 Amarillo Gold (0)
0.25 Cascase (0)

Dryhop: Undecided, maybe an ounce each of these three

Yeast: Nottingham

OG: 1.064 (at my current, pathetic efficiency)
FG: 1.016
IBUs: 89.6

Color looks like it'll be a nice, reddish orange

Thoughts?
Trying to do a couple things here - trying to do a major hop addition at 15 minutes to get more flavor along with some IBUs, trying out the debittered black malt for some color, using up some excess crystal malt (else I would have probably used a pouind of 20L). Using a good amount of Munich to get some extra maltiness in there to counterbalance all the hops.

Am I insane? This look drinkable?

Looks like a very nice recipe. I wouldn't change a thing, other than removing the debittered black, but that is just me.

And since you're the expert on IPAs, that gives me a ton of confidence.

I do want to leave the debittered black in there, I want this to be my "red barn" ale. It's purely for aesthetics. I might be more inclined to get SWMBO to give it a taste if it's got a little bit of color to it.

I am hardly an expert. I just love IPA, it is my favorite style BY FAR.


Regarding your efficiency...do you batch sparge?

Also, have the HBS crush your grain twice next time. That should help.

Yeah, batch sparge. It doesn't bother me too much, it's just a matter of pride, you know?

Oh - I bought some oak chips thinking that I would do that in the secondary for a week or so. Think that would be doing too much in this recipe, would the oak just get lost?

How much oak would you use? I'm thinking maybe two ounces for a week, then taste.

I think I'd make an oak tea and add to taste at bottling. This way, you;ll have complete control over the oakiness, and can even do some of the beer without any at all.

I doubt the oak will get lost, considering everything I have read says people want the oak to mellow.

I think that would be a good starting point though. Better to NOT overdo it.

Chairman Cheyco said:

I think I'd make an oak tea and add to taste at bottling. This way, you;ll have complete control over the oakiness, and can even do some of the beer without any at all.

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How would you go about making an oak tea? You don't want to boil it, do you?

the_bird said:

How would you go about making an oak tea? You don't want to boil it, do you?

Click to expand...

I'd just steep about 50g of oak chips in some boiled water, like making real tea. Remember, part of the oak shtick is tannin so if you get some in there it's okay. You could also use vodka and let them soak for a few days. I've done it by boiling them in the microwave for a few minutes and it tasted really nice. Just make sure you know what kind of chips you're using. The french oak ones are treated or aged or something and are really strong as compared to using homemade oak chunks from Home Depot - (this is where the control advantages of the oak tea comes into play.)

Ok, cool. I bought them from Northern Brewer, but they're American, not French. I think they were the "medium," if such a thing exists.

Thanks for your help, guys!

Grr, I swore I bought Warrior, but they are nowhere to be found. OK, subbing in some Chinook, and also bumping up the 15 minute additions to a full ounce each and the five minute additions to .75 ounce each. Still should be good...

Hey bird


I didnt think any hope addition with 20 min or less added much bitterness. I know promash makes adjustments for it but why not just acheive your IBU by adding right away and then with 10 min left go for the flavor addition then with 5 or less go for aroma.

Or have i had it all wrong the whole time.

I wanted to make walkers IPA and took the recipe into my LHBS guy and he looked at me like i was on crack when i told him i would be adding hops every so many min. He said that was a waste of time as you need a min amount of time to cause the reaction from the hops you want and if you add say at 38 min you are not getting all of the bittering out but you are boiling off most of the flavor.

Now i am confused.

You don't get as much bitterness for a given volume of addition, but you get some. Consequently, you use a lot more hops when you add them late in the boil. I mean, I'm adding 3 oz at 15 minutes, almost 2 oz at 5 minutes, that's a lot for a five gallon batch (plus the 30, 60, and flameout additions). They are giving me enough bitterness because of the quantity, but I'm also going to get (I hope) an incredible amount of hop flavor and aroma off those same additions.

What I've noticed is that some IPAs (like Stone Ruination and the 10th Anniversary) are bitter, but they also have a LOT more hop flavor and aroma than most IPAs. I think they use a similar technique. It's not just about the bitterness, I want this beer to really have all that hop flavor to it. I want to feel like I'm chewing on a grapefruit tree in the middle of a rose garden.

Plus, the Chinook will give me a great base to the bitterness.

Anyway, IBUs are calced at around 90, so I should be :rockin:

i love grape fruits in rose gardens.

I am with you now. It looks like you have a winner then.


brew on brother

1062 OG, but I collected a half gallon more wort than I had assumed in BeerSmith, so efficiency was a :rockin: 70% - AND, I forgot the PH buffer again, so maybe I can squeeze another five points next time.

Should be good...

Somehow, I barely managed four gallons of beer - but damn, this is one tasty beer. HUGE grapefruity nose, bitter but not too bitter, reasonably dry like an IPA ought to be. 1.062 OG, 1.013 FG, the color is pretty much spot-on what I wanted. I had a lot of late hop additions, the flavor from which are really coming through. Great grapefruity, somewhat piney flavors, just like I wanted. I know I'm a bit biased, but... I may have found a house recipe...

No roastiness evident from the debittered black malt, just some color. Wonder how much of that I could get away with using, wondering how I could make "Creeping Death" - a black IPA.

Damn good beer, IMHO. Looks like a good entrant for the swap!

the_bird said:

Somehow, I barely managed four gallons of beer - but damn, this is one tasty beer. HUGE grapefruity nose, bitter but not too bitter, reasonably dry like an IPA ought to be. 1.062 OG, 1.013 FG, the color is pretty much spot-on what I wanted. I had a lot of late hop additions, the flavor from which are really coming through. Great grapefruity, somewhat piney flavors, just like I wanted. I know I'm a bit biased, but... I may have found a house recipe...

No roastiness evident from the debittered black malt, just some color. Wonder how much of that I could get away with using, wondering how I could make "Creeping Death" - a black IPA.

Damn good beer, IMHO. Looks like a good entrant for the swap!

Click to expand...

That sounds really great! I was wondering about the black malt- I'm glad you got the color you wanted. Maybe I'll try your recipe sometime, but leave out the black malt.

Lorena

The black malt is debittered, remember; it's not black patent. Bought it from Northern Brewer. Depends on what you want for color; I was aiming for an uber-hoppy red, which is what I seem to have achieved.