Recipe Recommendation

Hi all. Does anyone have a recommendation for my first all grain batch? I've been gifted some grains- 2 Row and Crystal 40. I'd like to create a fairly big IPA and was thinking of using 11# of 2 Row and 2# of Crystal 40. What hop combinations (including boil times) would you recommend? I'm pretty open to anything- Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe, Columbus, etc. Thanks for any assistance.

Try one of these.

I would back up a little and rework the grain bill by dropping the crystal to maybe one pound. Two pounds works out to over 15% crystal malt - a bit much in an IPA for my taste. You don't have to take that advice if you don't want, but typically I find the best IPAs tend to have a fairly simple malt bill, they tend to be on the drier side, allowing the hops to shine.

As far as hops go, the ones you have listed all work awesomely. Again, a lot of things come down to personal preference, and I like to make sure my hop flavors and aromas are layered but not muddled. That usually means between two and four varieties. You can get away with single hop IPAs or a beer with five or more varieties, but it becomes more challenging to do well. Especially if you're just beginning, you're going to want to be able to identify a particular flavor or aroma with a hop - it allows you to learn what you're doing better.

Bitter with a high alpha hop. 60 minutes with CTZ is great (or Bravo, etc.) Toss in another charge at 30 minutes, and now you've got the bulk of your bitterness.

Try layering two hops for flavor and aroma - Simcoe, Citra, Summit, Cascade, Centennial are all great.
Dry hop with one or both of those, or maybe a new hop.

For example:

1 oz. Bravo, 60 min
0.5 oz. Bravo, 30 min
0.75 oz Simcoe, 15 min
0.75 oz Centennial, 15 min
1 oz Simcoe, 5 min
1 oz Simcoe, 0 min

1 oz Centennial DRY HOP
1 oz Simco DRY HOP

This is the hop schedule I use for a Rye IPA recipe I formulated, and I love it.

Awesome- thanks Bmore. If you don't mind, what's your Rye IPA recipe? I love Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye...

Thanks Woozy. I'll check those out for ideas.

78% US 2-Row
15% Rye malt
5% Crystal 40
2% Acidulated malt

+ 1 tsp CaCl2
+1.5 tsp gypsum


Mash at 152°F for ~60 min

Hops: as above

Yeast: Big starter of WLP001 (usually between 1.6 liters and 2 liters depending on cell count)

Ferment at 66°F



The acid malt is there due to my particular water chemistry - I follow ajdelange's water chemistry recommendations which can be found here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/index3.html#post2419838

I'm a complete novice to mashing rye (got a rye saisson in the fermenter right now) so I'm curious as to your recipe not containing rice hulls.

I recently talked myself into buying a lb of rice hulls when my recipe called for a few ounces and I'm not sure I shouldn't have just done without.