Need a grain bill for an IPA

I've got my next few brews planned out, and one of them is going to be an IPA to tap in late summer. I'm having issues coming up with a good recipe.

I'm reasonably sure I'm going with a hop schedule that combines equal amounts of Willamette and Cascades (because I have a lb of each on hand), possibly with some dry hopped cascades.

Can someone recommend a good grain bill (or entire recipe) that will back up large amounts of Willamette and Cascades? I hit ~70% efficiency regularly (68-72), and would ideally like this one to end up at ~7-7.5% abv.

My IPA's are as follows:

12# 2 row
2# Victory
.5# Crystal 40

you can adjust the crystal and victory for maltiness/color as needed.

I usually use magnum or chinook for bittering and cascade and cenntennial for flavor/aroma. I love the beer this recipe produces but i am far from a technical brewer.

Oh forgot this usually gives me an OG of about 1.064 but your efficiency is probably better than mine.

Good luck
Alan

Check out my reply on this thread... I copied 3 IPA recipes from the Palmer Brewing Classic Styles book in there... just use those as a basis and riff off them.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/differences-between-british-american-ipas-164748/

Netflyer, do you know what efficiencies those are calculated for? Man I really need to pickup a copy of Brewing Classic Styles.'

edit: GI, that's similar to what I've been pondering. Only I was going to use Vienna instead of Victory, and 60L instead of 40L. So 12lbs 2-row, 2lbs vienna, .5lb crystal 60 is what I've considered so far.

Also, hop schedule I'm looking at is something like:

1.5oz cascades @60
1.5oz willamette @60
1oz cascades @20
1oz willamette @20
~possibly another .5oz mixed addition @15~
1oz cascades @ Flameout
1oz willamette @ flameout
~possibly Dry hop an oz or two of cascades~

Does that seem a bit over the top? Still torn on the grainbill though, so many choices.

I'm pretty sure they are 70% eff. and for 5.5 gal final volumes... I'm not home so I can't look at the book or put the grist into beersmith to check the eff. of the recipe. I'll check again when I'm home for you but I'm pretty sure 70%...

Edit--> I put the grist into BeerSmith and to get the OG from the recipe I needed 67% efficiency.

Excellent, so the recipe you linked, GI posted, or what I was considering should all work then? I'm just worried about not having enough malt backbone to back up that much hops. I don't want to end up with alcoholic hop-tea

Myrdhyn said:

Excellent, so the recipe you linked, GI posted, or what I was considering should all work then? I'm just worried about not having enough malt backbone to back up that much hops. I don't want to end up with alcoholic hop-tea

Click to expand...

I hear ya and from what I've read it is SUPER important to make sure you use the right hops in excess or else you will have yuck... Pay attention to the types of hops and you will be fine.

I just bottled AHS's clone if Pliny the Elder that had a ton of Centenial, Simcoe and Columbus hops in it... let me tell you, the finished product was the most floral/delicious combination of hops you can imagine. Not bitter at all in the sense of 'bitter' just amazing.

BTW if you want to brew that clone here is the recipe:

Recipe: Pliny The Elder Clone (AHS version)
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.37 gal
Estimated OG: 1.073 SG
Estimated Color: 5.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 258.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
11.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 84.87 %
0.80 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.90 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1.85 %
2.75 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (90 min) Hops 146.3 IBU
2.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 23.0 IBU
1.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 13.8 IBU
3.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 Hops -
1.75 oz Centennial [9.70 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (45 min) Hops 39.6 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (30 min) Hops 35.7 IBU
2.25 oz Centennial [9.70 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-StHops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-SteepHops -
1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 7.38 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12.55 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In at 150.0 F

:rockin:

I've got a bunch of willamette and cascades to go through, and basically all the reading I've done says it's a good and/or classic combo. I think I'm about ready to post my "hey critique this recipe" post

I like mine with 2 row, 10-40% munich malt (victory would work also), and 8% minimum crystal. I like more crystal than many, though, but I have yet to make a cloying beer.

I have been messing around with different types of crystal, but I never dip below 8% of them on the grain bill. Perhaaps I shouuld try less, we will see.