Please critique this IPA recipe!

Hey guys,

I am coming up with a new recipe (only my second original recipe) and I'd love to get some input on whether this looks like it will hit the characteristics of an IPA and how it looks.

Bored at Work IPA

9 lbs. US 2-Row
1 lb. Vienna
0.5 lb. Cara-Pils
0.5 lb. Crystal 80

1 oz. Cascade (5.5%) @ 60
1 oz. Amarillo (8.5%) @ 20
0.5 oz. Cascade (5.5%) @ 20
0.5 oz. Amarillo (8.5%) @ 10
0.5 oz. Cascade (5.5%) @ 10

Dry hop with 1 oz. of each Cascade and Amarillo 5 days.

Safale US-05

Est. OG: 1.059
52.8 IBU

I would put 30(or less) IBUs at 60, then make the remaining 30 up between 15 and 0 min. additions. This will maximize your hop flavors and aroma. Amarillo/cascade is a wonderful combo. My last APA hop schedule looked like this and was awesome.

boil 60 mins .5 Magnum 11.6
boil 15 mins 1.5 cascade 4.5
boil 10 mins 1.0 Amarillo 7.0
boil 1 min 1.0 Cascade 4.5
boil 1 min 1.0 Chinook 13.0
dry hop 7 days 1.0 Amarillo 7.0

It looks good. When I am designing IPA recipes I try to shoot for a bittering unit ratio equal to or greater than the gravity units. So at OG of 1.059, I'd want at least 59IBU's. This comes from Ray Daniels' book "Designing Great Beers". It is often written BU:GU. Daniels lists common styles and their appropriate BU:GU in the book. It's really helpful.

Yeah I just heard about that BU:GU ratio, and knew going into posting this that it was a little bit on the low side for IBU, but wasn't sure if I could over-do it. Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll be brewing this probably tomorrow.

Yeah, try to get as much bitterness as possible from the last 15 minutes of the boil. I personally love the cascade/amarillo (sometimes a little simcoe) combo, gives a great grapefruity citrus bitterness to it. I think you should throw in a little amber, or maybe special roast, to add a toasty edge to it.

You really don't get much in the way of bitterness from the last 15 minutes of the boil with the hop additions. Lots of flavor, though!

I like a firm bitterness in my IPAs, so I usually do a 60 minute-15-5-0 type schedule. Sometimes even a 10 minute addition in there. The great thing about IPAs is they have enough malt to back up all those hops. I'm not a fan of much crystal malt in an IPA but a little is ok. I'm wild about amarillo hops, so I think that beer will be very good!

whats your proposed mash temp?

I was gonna shoot for 152.