First IPA attempt

I am attempting to make my first IPA this weekend. I am looking for tips and any help on making a clone of Breckenridge 471 IPA. This is what I have so far for all extract.

Original Gravity: 1.090
Terminal Gravity: 1.020
Color: 12.21
Alcohol: 9.29%
Bitterness: 70 IBU

Briess Pilsen Light LME - 14 lbs
Munich Malt 10L - 0.5 lbs
Crystal 30L Malt - 1 lbs
Carapils Malt - 0.50
Torrified Wheat - 1 lbs

Chinook - 0.50 oz at 60 minutes
Centennial - 0.50 oz at 30 minutes
Centennial - 0.50 oz at 20 minutes
Simcoe - 1 oz at 20 minutes
Fuggle - 1 oz at 20 minutes

WLP005 British Ale Yeast

Ferment at 67 degrees for 3 weeks then bottle. Bottle condition for 4 weeks at 70 degrees.


Should I be dry hopping this brew? If so, should I cut back on some of the hops in the boil and add them to the dry hop?

So in it's current form, this recipe won't give you any hop aroma. Aroma boils out very quickly (within 5 minutes). You'll get the bitterness from the hops with the longer boil times.

Since IPAs are very hoppy (I'm not sure exactly how hoppy the one you're trying to clone is as I've never had it), I would add an oz of a couple of different hops with 2 minutes left, and I would probably also dry hop as well. I wouldn't steal them from the boil. I would try to get different hops for the 2 minutes and the dry hopping.

Ill preface this with the disclaimer that im still learning as well, but....

Im not familiar with that beer, beeradvocate seems to see it as a pretty aromatic ipa, so maybe go with some more towards the end of the boil?

most of the reviews mention piney and citrus, have you looked at cascades? I got both of those characteristics out of them in my last IPA.

Disclaimer, never had the beer you're looking to clone. But just from looking at it, I'd definitely add some more hops. At an OG of 1.090, you're looking at IIPA territory. I'd aim for at least a 1.00 BU:GU (gravity to bitter, right now you're at 70:90, about 0.77). Maybe up your Chinook a little, and definitely dryhop. There's just something about IPAs that need that nice fresh hop aroma, and dryhopping is the easiest way to do that. But maybe that's just the hophead in me talking .

I haven't had the 471, before but their Lucky-U is fan-freakin'-tastic.

You should absolutely dry-hop this. You should also add hops at flame-out. Otherwise you'll miss the hoppy-IPA nose.

I love IIPA's and have made quite a few. I usually shoot for a 1:1 IBU/OG. I would recommend a few more chinook to bring the IBU's up and then definitely dry hop. I usually use cascade as they have a great aroma. Enjoy.

Here is the link to the brew on their site. It explains whats in it a little.

http://www.breckbrew.com/beer/smallbatch.html

So I am hearing a lot of you tell me to dry hop. If I do that, should I use Cascades? And how much after racking to secondary?

i would add the cascades when you have 7 days left til bottling. for a 5 gal batch i would do an oz to 1.5 oz's

ninja edit: whoa hey we are from the same area!

Ok. Sounds good. But should I add an ounce or more?

Yep, only about 30 minutes away.

for 5 gals i would do 1 to 2 oz's just depending on how much hop aroma u like. experiment!

My bad, just checked the stats you posted for your beer and it looks like you're spot on, I'd ignore my previous comment on upping the IBUs. For the dry hop I've never actually run into the problem of having too many hops yet, but you'll have to figure out how hoppy the beer tastes that you're trying to clone. Don't be afraid of going up to 2 oz. or more for the dry hopping. Cascades are great for dryhopping, but if you're tied to trying to clone the other beer any of the your other four hops would work for dryhopping as well, or you could combine a couple. Not sure how the fuggle would combine, but any combination of the simcoe, centennial, and chinook would taste great!

Need some suggestions here on this brew.

I am not real sure on what my OG was since I screwed up and took the reading when it was still really hot. I am guessing it was around 160 degrees and the reading was 1.073. I left this in the primary fermenter for 10 days then transfered it to the secondary. At that time the gravity reading was 1.036. 15 days later I took another gravity reading when I threw in the dry hops and it was only at 1.034. Going by the Beer Smith program, this recipe should get down to a FG of 1.019.

Does it sound like the yeast is stuck? Is it possible the yeast cannot handle the alcohol content? Should I throw a new packet of yeast to see if it will drop the gravity down?

dry hop it