English IPA recipe feedback

Hi everyone--

I just brewed an English bitter and will have a bunch of Fuller's yeast (WLP002) on the bottom of carboy when I bottle. I also just ordered a bunch of Kent Goldings hops. Since I just brewed a bitter (1.050 OG, exclusively Bramling Cross), I didn't want to brew another bitter, and so I thought I'd go for an English IPA. Here is what I have so far. (I couldn't find too many models on the forums; although American IPAs are really popular, it seems like most people who brew English of this broad style either go lower, for bitters, or higher, for barley wines.)


OG 1.062, FG 1.019 (but hope to get it to more like 1.015 by rousing the yeast)
ABV 5.7%
IBU 57 Tinseth, 39 Rager

fermentables:
9 lbs Maris Otter
.5 lb biscuit
.5 lb 40L crystal
.25 lb 120L crystal
.5 lb turbinado sugar

water: I plan to add a small quantity of Burton salts to the mash, though I haven't calculated this yet. My filtered NYC tap water is normally extremely soft.

mash: single infusion, target 151F. I don't want this to get overly malty, especially using the Fuller's yeast, which has relatively low attenuation.

boil: 60 minutes.

hop schedule:
first wort: .5 oz Kent Goldings, .5 oz fuggles
20 minutes: 1 oz challenger, 1 oz goldings, 1 oz fuggles
8 minutes: .5 oz goldings, .5 oz fuggles
0 minutes (knockout): 1 oz goldings, 1 oz fuggles
dry hop with 1oz goldings after one week

fermentation: as mentioned, Fuller's, from previous batch. attempt to pitch at 65F, and plan to try to keep the fermentation around 68F to avoid getting overloaded on fruity esters.


My aim here is to get a lot of hop flavor and a fair amount of hop aroma, but not go nuts on the bitterness. That's why I have only FWH and no true bittering hops. I was not going to dry hop this beer, though I know that is often done, and was going to instead use the 8 minute and 0 minute additions. But after reading around, I think I will also dry hop with another 1 oz of Goldings, and maybe some meridian, which I have sitting around.

On the malt bill, I didn't want to get too far away from a basic pale. The small quantity of sugar (which easily could have been maize) was to keep the thing light; my understanding is that this is a traditional technique. But I wanted a little biscuit and a little of the darker crystal malts to add some complexity. (I suppose another option would be a longer boil.)

Any comments much appreciated!

This might work well Try it. My English IPA yeast, tried and true, is Wyeast 1968. It fits in with prior bitter batches too. Many commercial IPAs use this yeast too, like Ninkasi Total Domination and Goose Island. I use a floor malted Maris Otter in my Goose Island clone and it is light enough without adding other adjuncts. I don't really think you'd have to worry about it. I don't usually add a dark crystal at all. But hey, experiment. You're drinking it.

I'd dry hop with 2 or 3 ounces of Goldings. Or mix Goldings, Willamette and Fuggle in the dry hop. Both options go quite traditional. Modern English IPAs often have slightly interesting dry hop choices such as Target or Progress. I've not tried an IPA that's heavy on First Gold for aroma but I think it would be cracking.

Alternatively you can go for just goldings and fuggle in larger quantities and only maris otter as malt. Make a MASSIVE dry hop without flameout additions. Overshoot your IBUs by 5-10%. Then leave it in an oak cask for 6 months somewhere warmish and hope for the best .

JKaranka said:

I'd dry hop with 2 or 3 ounces of Goldings. Or mix Goldings, Willamette and Fuggle in the dry hop. Both options go quite traditional. Modern English IPAs often have slightly interesting dry hop choices such as Target or Progress. I've not tried an IPA that's heavy on First Gold for aroma but I think it would be cracking.

Alternatively you can go for just goldings and fuggle in larger quantities and only maris otter as malt. Make a MASSIVE dry hop without flameout additions. Overshoot your IBUs by 5-10%. Then leave it in an oak cask for 6 months somewhere warmish and hope for the best .

Click to expand...

Haha, I'd love to do it that way, but I don't have an oak cask. But I am definitely going to dry hop. I've now settled on doing 1 oz each of Goldings and Meridian.

I actually already brewed the recipe above--did it yesterday--but with a few slight modifications. Wound up using a smaller amount of the 120L crystal (went for more like 3 oz, instead of 4), and used Victory rather than Biscuit because LHBS was out. I think it'll be good--the wort tasted and smelled excellent. And it's already fermenting quite steadily. I guess pitching onto a full yeast cake will do that!

Yeah, I was thinking about in the next brew making a traditional big IPA. When fermentation ends cask it with a big handful of hops for dryhopping. After six months the grass and vegetable of the hops would probably subdue a bit.

Never tried victory malt, you never get it around here. Only used British or Belgian biscuit malt. I wouldn't personally add dark crystal to a British IPA, I guess that some regular crystal would compensate for the higher conversion of modern malts.

...just bottled this today after a 5 or 6-day dry hop with an ounce each of Goldings and Meridian. It had a great taste and aroma--I got stone fruit (apricot) and ginger from the Goldings/Meridian combo, which was very interesting and delicious. The Fuller's strain continues to surprise me--the gravity here was 1.012 including the priming sugar, so probably actual FG was 1.010. I don't know if it was just my vial or something else I've done (in this case, I did pitch onto a full yeast cake, but that doesn't explain the previous batch), but two beers in a row it's gotten apparent attenuation of more like 80%, not the 70% I was expecting.

Anyway, if this tastes good in two weeks, I will post this recipe on the recipe forums.

Just brewed one yesterday. Only pale malt with 4% of caramalt (a light British crystal). Nugget for bittering, LOTS of goldings at 10m for flavour, and willamette and nugget at flameout. I might have skimped a bit on the nugget and willamette due to the cost, but 5oz of goldings should make up for it.