Imperial IPA hop advice

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everty2007

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Last weekend I stopped at the Leinenkugels brewery in WI. They had an imperial IPA that I really liked. They state it has 5 hops and I have never brewed an IPA yet and need some thoughts or advice to get me started. I listed the general ingredients below according to their website they state the IBUs come out to an 80. Any suggestions on the order to add these hops and est amounts for a 5 gallon batch? I have only used cascade prior so don't know much about the others.


Malts:
Munich, Caramel and Pale Ale


Hops:
Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe®, Amarillo® and Citra®
 
As a general rule of thumb for IPA's, I use one large dose of hops (probably warrior) at the begginning of the boil to get about 80-90% of the total IBU's. then add more hops at 5 minute initervals for the last 15-20 min. make sure to add at least an ounce in the last minute or two.

Hopefully someone who has tried the Liney's IPA can chime in and be more specific. One option: blend the cascade, simcoe, amarillo and citra together and divide into 1 oz blend portions. use these for your late additions.

Dont forget to dry hop!
 
tdogg said:
Two questions:

Do you know the OG of the beer?

Do you brew all grain or extract?

It says it is 8.9% ABV

I recently started all grain and think I'll be doing this one as an all grain. But I do both
 
As i noted before, I havent had this beer yet, but here's a wild stab at it. I based the grain and hop bills off of a IIPA I did recently, and the info on the Liney's website.


Style: Imperial IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.04 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.082 SG
Estimated Color: 9.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 79.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
14 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 85.5 %
2 lbs Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.6 %
8.0 oz Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) (55.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.9 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 4 14.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 36.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 3.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 7.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 7.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 6.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 10 2.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 17 lbs 4.0 oz


mash low and long, use a clean american yeast. maybe 2 packs of US-05?
 
Thanks the numbers look in the right ball park.

You noted mash low and long, what do you recommend?

For dry hopping, this would go into the secondary I believe not the keg (seen both done), how long in the secondary the whole time?

Last question for now... Do you do anything for sanitation for dry hopping, never attempted it yet.

Sorry for all the questions very new to all grain just trying to learn. Thanks for the help cheers!
 
For the mash, I would probably do 148-150 for at least one hour. I test to see if conversion is done with iodine. I like the low mash temp on big ipas so they get nive and dry.

My preferred method of dry hopping is to sanitize a large muslin bag, add sanitized weights (ss washers work great) add leaf hops and tie up. Put in a keg and rack beer into keg for about 2 weeks. No need to sanitize the hops.
 
Man thats a lot of hops.... I usually do...
1oz 60 min top of boil and add 1oz every 15 min. And then either put one more oz at 5 min. Left or put it in the secondary...

Though my IPA's have been labeled more in the style of ESB... I may try to move the additions to the last 15 minutes and add it every 5 minutes??? That may move the profile away from a bitter slightly no?
 
8 oz is alot of hops, but when it comes to big IPA's the sky is the limit. Check out clone recipes for "maharaja" and "pliny the elder" if you think I'm kidding.

The hop schedule that I put on there is VERY similar to a 8.4% IPA I recently made with all 7C's hops (hop blend of cascade, citra, centennial, columbus, etc). I have made IPA's with small hop additions at around 30-40 min, but I tend to get a better product with the schedule I listed above. YMMV

If i were going to brew this (without knowing more about the beer), I would leave the warrior addition where it is, and blend all of the other hops together in a big bowl. then divide the blend into 1 oz portions and use the hop blend for flavor/aroma/dry hop additions. My $.02
 
Thanks for the suggestions on this, I'm gonna get the recipe squared away and get my ingredients to hopefully brew this in July. Tdogg I'll PM you if it turns out maybe I can send the real with our version. Thanks again for the advice. I'll keep you posted through this thread.
 
I think 8 oz. is underhopped for an IIPA. They usually have about double the hops of a regular IPA, which is hopped at about 5-8 oz average.
 
For what its worth, my recent IPA's have been doing a "hop rest" at flameout and the results have been so dramatic that I have pretty much stopped using 10 to 5 Minute hop additions. At flameout I quickly chill to 200 degrees, then I shut off the chiller and add a LOAD of hops. Then I let this rest for 20-30 minutes to try and emulate the "whirlpool", from commercial breweries. Its a great way to get a crazy hop flavor and aroma and I highly reccomend it.
 
At flameout I quickly chill to 200 degrees, then I shut off the chiller and add a LOAD of hops. Then I let this rest for 20-30 minutes to try and emulate the "whirlpool", from commercial breweries. Its a great way to get a crazy hop flavor and aroma and I highly reccomend it.

That's only 12 degrees shy of boiling temp... which isn't going to make much of a difference. What you're noticing is probably due to doubling up on your normal amount of whirlpool hops.

Try rapidly cooling to about 150 F with a wort chiller in less than 10 minutes, then slow-cooling down to 65 F in 30 minutes or more with an ice bath AND the whirlpool hops. Talk about a dramatic difference. I've found that the sweet spot for the whirlpool steep is about 90-140 F. That is where the aromatic hop oils beneficial to IPAs, like myrcene, seem to be harnessed the best.
 
Try rapidly cooling to about 150 F with a wort chiller in less than 10 minutes, then slow-cooling down to 65 F in 30 minutes or more with an ice bath AND the whirlpool hops. Talk about a dramatic difference. I've found that the sweet spot for the whirlpool steep is about 90-140 F. That is where the aromatic hop oils beneficial to IPAs, like myrcene, seem to be harnessed the best.

I can vouch for this technique...just tried for the first time and was blown away by the results. It works.

Once I hit 150 I tossed in the hops, put the lid on and slowed the flow-rate on the chiller to a trickle. Cleaned mash tun & prepped carboy while steeping, so didn't really add much time to brewday.
 
That's only 12 degrees shy of boiling temp... which isn't going to make much of a difference. What you're noticing is probably due to doubling up on your normal amount of whirlpool hops.

Try rapidly cooling to about 150 F with a wort chiller in less than 10 minutes, then slow-cooling down to 65 F in 30 minutes or more with an ice bath AND the whirlpool hops. Talk about a dramatic difference. I've found that the sweet spot for the whirlpool steep is about 90-140 F. That is where the aromatic hop oils beneficial to IPAs, like myrcene, seem to be harnessed the best.

AWESOME. I will try this next time. I noticed that with the technique I outlined above I did get a very noticiable difference, but I will chill to 150 next time and then toss in the hops. Maybe half at 200 degrees and half at 150 degrees. Two different dimensions of hop aroma and flavor!

Thanks for the tip....~!
 
To the OP, if you haven't figured this out yet, big IIPA's can get really spendy to brew. This might be a good candidate for a half batch brew.
 
I have a stupid question, I have not heard of the hop "whirlpool" before. How is this done, just with the chiller sorry this is my first IPA and is much different than the wheat beers with minimal hop additions I have stuck to thus far.
 
I wrote about how it is done. See above. You can't use your wort chiller for the whole duration of chilling, unless you feed a very small amount of water into the coils after the wort has reached about 150 F. This ensures that the hops remain in the "warm" (not hot) wort for a bit of time.
 
Sorry and thanks just wasn't sure where the whirlpool term was referring to

Whirlpool is referring to pumping your wort through or around a chiller at the end of a boil. you have the wort go through the pump and return to the kettle through an angled inlet so the wort in the kettle rotates like a whirlpool. this helps move wort over the chiller (if using an immersion chiller, this will speed up the chilling) and it helps sediment collect on the bottom in a nice little pile if done correctly.
 
Or, if you don't have a chiller, just a very basic setup, you can still whirlpool by using a spoon and stirring the wort to create a vortex, so the trub settles in the middle-bottom of the kettle in a cone shape. After it has a chance to settle, this makes it easier to siphon. I don't think the technique of "whirlpooling" is necessarily synonymous with having a coil or counterflow chiller.
 
Well today is the day I will finally be brewing this beer. I took the suggestions and tweaked to get my final recipe. Along with the grains in Tdoggs recipe I'm adding a bit of carapils and honey malt based off other recipes I found online.

The hops- I will be first wort hopping with cascade, the warrior at 60, a little more cascade at 45 then mixing 1/2 oz of simco, citra, and amarillo during the last 15 min to zero. Then I will whirlpool while chilling to pitch 2 packs of US-05. With 2 weeks left in secondary I will dry hop with 1/2 oz of simco, citra, amarillo and the remaining cascade.

If anyone is interested I will post the results and let you know. Thanks for the help and advice I really do appreciate it.
 
That doesn't seem like enough hops. 1.5 oz of hops late in the boil for 5 gallons? I'd do at least twice the late hops and dry hops. I do like hops a lot though.
 
You need to seriously up the late addition hops. My IPA uses around 5oz's in the boil and 8oz's for the dry hop. That's more to style.
 
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