American IPA recipe -feedback?

I've really been enjoying reading the forums and finally found a reason to post.

I'm trying to put together an American IPA and here's what I came up with for a recipe:

Malts:
6lbs 10oz Light LME
1lb crystal malt (52-72L) -steeped at 150F for 30min

Hops:
1 oz Chinook - 12% AA - 60min
.5 oz Amarillo - 9.2% AA - 35min
.5 oz Amarillo - 20min
.25oz Amarillo - 5min
.25oz Amarillo - 1min
.5oz Amarillo - dryhopped in secondary

Yeast:
WLP001 - California Ale

according to beer calculus:
OG - 1.050
FG - 1.012
12 SRM
65 IBU
5.1% ABV

This is only my third brew- but I'm shooting for an IPA with a nice citrus character and some malt but not finishing too sweet.

Per style guidelines it is more like an over-hopped APA (below IPA OG, and over IBUs for an APA). That said, I don't really care about guidelines and usually shoot for a good beer, which I think your recipe would make. A couple things I would consider changing is removing the 35 minute addition and upping the 5 min and 1 min additions. I would also use at least 2 oz for dry hops.

I may over-do it a bit, but I usually use 6-9 oz of hops for a normal ipa, almost all being after 15 minutes. I like the flavor/aroma to punch me in the nose. Blowing a few extra bucks to make sure that happens is worth it to me.

I think it looks great personally, and love Chinook as a bittering as it carries its favor through the boil. I personally would go lighter on the crystal malt, maybe 5% of the total bill tops, but you'll make an awesome IPA either way IMO.

skeezerpleezer said:

Per style guidelines it is more like an over-hopped APA (below IPA OG, and over IBUs for an APA). That said, I don't really care about guidelines and usually shoot for a good beer, which I think your recipe would make. A couple things I would consider changing is removing the 35 minute addition and upping the 5 min and 1 min additions. I would also use at least 2 oz for dry hops.

Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I was pulling guidelines from beer calculus - it is a bit under OG - i could add some light DME to make up for that - but I'm not sure how important that is really. The IBUs were in range according to that site and I do like me some hops, but maybe I'll tone it down a bit and move some of the the additions to later in the boil as you suggested.

You could throw in a bit of high alpha bittering hops at 60 to get back up to your desired ibus, but the Amarillo at 35 is kind of a waste, as you will not get the flavor/aroma it provides with that boil time. I added to my first reply also.

I would remove the 35 min and increase the 5 and 1 to an ounce.