First IIPA recipe, thoughts...

I made a few great ipas in the past and wanted to try something that really stood out so giving this a try in the next day or so, let me know your thoughts thanks

IIPA

Style: Imperial IPA OG: 1.091
Type: Extract FG: 1.024
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 8.78 %
Calories: 298 IBU's: 102.89
Efficiency: 70 % Boil Size: 6.09 Gal
Color: 12.3 SRM Batch Size: 5.50 Gal
Preboil OG: 1.086 Boil Time: 60 minutes
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Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 10 days @ 68.0°F
Secondary 7 days @ 68.0°F

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
10.00 lbs 74.07 % Light Dry Extract 60 mins 1.044
2.00 lbs 14.81 % Rahr 2-Row 60 mins 1.035
8.00 ozs 3.70 % Briess 6-Row Carapils 60 mins 1.034
8.00 ozs 3.70 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 60 mins 1.034
8.00 ozs 3.70 % Munich Malt 60 mins 1.037

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
2.50 ozs 38.53 Cascade 60 mins 6.80
1.50 ozs 47.26 Columbus (Tomahawk) 60 mins 13.90
2.50 ozs 7.68 Cascade 5 mins 6.80
1.50 ozs 9.42 Columbus (Tomahawk) 5 mins 13.90
2.00 ozs Cascade 7 days 6.80
2.00 ozs Columbus (Tomahawk) 7 days 13.90

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.00 pkg American Ale II Wyeast Labs 1272

You don't really have any flavor hop additions. I'd move half (or more) of the the hops at 60 mins to 20 or 15 minutes. I like to get about half of my total IBUs at 60, then the rest from the late additions. Results in big hop flavor and a smoother bitterness.

strambo said:

You don't really have any flavor hop additions. I'd move half (or more) of the the hops at 60 mins to 20 or 15 minutes. I like to get about half of my total IBUs at 60, then the rest from the late additions. Results in big hop flavor and a smoother bitterness.

Click to expand...

Agreed! I'd definitely change up the hopping. I'd also cut the crystal/caramel malt (a pound is a lot in an IIPA) and consider swapping out a pound or two of the base malt for a pound of corn sugar to keep the body light. 8 ounces of Munich malt isn't doing anything in there, but you can keep it in if you already have it. Otherwise, eliminate it.

For hopping, I'd do something more like this:

1.5 oz columbus 60 minutes
1 oz cascade 2o minutes
1 oz columbus 15 minutes
1 oz cascade 10 minutes
1 oz cascade 5 minutes
.5 oz columbus 0 minutes
1 oz cascade 0 minutes

dryhop with 1 ounce each of cascade and columbus

Is your goal to have high alcohol and high residual sweetness IIPA with resiny grapefruit notes? That is what you will have if you follow the original recipe.

Are you sure the boiloff amount and wort lost to trub is only about 0.59 gallons over the course of 60 minutes?

What is the purpose of the 2-row in your recipe? 14.81% won't do much in the way of gravity, character, or dryness...even if mashed below 150 F. The extract will rule out. I guess it doesn't hurt to try... Mash the 2-row and Munich at 147-148 F for an hour.

Are you also adding half of your extract late in the boil? This is a good practice to avoid excess wort darkening and improve hop utilization. Also, I find a bit of corn sugar during late boil helps with beers like this... 5-8% should do.

I prefer Columbus for bittering. It makes sense since it's higher in alpha % so you'll be wasting less to achieve the same goal but with better flavor.

Are you making a yeast starter with that 1 pack of 1272? I hope so.

That's a really high finishing gravity. I'd go with 8 lbs dme and a pound of corn sugar. That'll be plenty if you're doing a partial mash with a couple lbs of 2 row... Everything else being equal. Move a portion of those late hops to the 15 or 20 mark. A quarter lb of carapils will be plenty for head retention. You'll have plenty of body with that much dme in there