Imperial IPA Critique

I'm brewing this over the weekend to get rid of my hop surplus before summer.
Suggestions and comments welcome. This will be my last extract batch before AG.

Drew's Imperial IPA
Extract Recipe
5 Gallons

4 Gallon Boil

9# Extra light DME
1# American Caramel 40
1#Victory Malt
.5# Lager Malt

2 oz. Magnum Plugs @ 60 min
1 oz. Centennial @ 30 min
2 oz. Cascade @ 15min
1 oz. Amarillo Gold @ 15 min

2 oz. Liberty Dryhopped 14 days
1 oz. EKG Dryhopped 14 days

2 vials of WLP001 or a big starter

2 weeks primary
4 weeks secondary
4 weeks bottles

Pretty good recipe. Not sure what half a pound of lager malt will contribute but it won't hurt. If you're going to buy two vials do your wallet a favor and just use two packets of safale05. Either that or make the starter but I wouldn't spend that much on yeast for one batch. You should have an OG of about 1.076-1.080. And damn that would be an expensive recipe if you were buying all the hops now! Nice to have them around, eh?

Brett0424 said:

Pretty good recipe. Not sure what half a pound of lager malt will contribute but it won't hurt. If you're going to buy two vials do your wallet a favor and just use two packets of safale05. Either that or make the starter but I wouldn't spend that much on yeast for one batch. You should have an OG of about 1.076-1.080. And damn that would be an expensive recipe if you were buying all the hops now! Nice to have them around, eh?

Click to expand...

Yeah. My LHBS has a 3oz limit with every 7 pounds of extract/grain bought so I make sure I get the full allotment no matter what I am brewing. They have accumulated in my fridge. The Magnums were a freebee thrown in with a bulk equipment order on craigslist.

I doubt anyone but myself will be touching this stuff. How long can I expect this stuff to last in bottle before major changes in flavor?

I would say 5 weeks in bottle before its not green anymore. I would guess about 7 months before it starts decline. The beers that I have done that use alot of extract seem to fade faster then the ones that use a good amount of grain.

You will likely be able to notice a decrease in hop aroma and flavor after 6 months or so.

Hop surplus????? What's that???? I can maybe help you with the problem though.

I might add 2 lbs of 2 row to the PM.

A beer that big in the bottle will only get better after a year if you are careful about oxidation.

The hop bitterness and aroma may suffer slightly. Good Luck! It will be delicious regardless.


P.S. Although I went AG a while back, I have used the second runnings of each grain batch fortified with a little DME to make some incredible beers. If you figure those runnings are half strength, then it only takes 2 lbs or so of DME and some hops to get a great batch out of it.

$15 bucks or so for another 5 gallons is still cheaper than the AG batch!