Recommend an IPA?

Hey guys. I bottled my first brew (lake pepin porter kit) and am ready to start my next batch. Want to do an IPA. What do you suggest? I was looking at the DFH 60 minute clone. Which one do you recommend? I have only done an extract brew and would like to stick with that for now.

Thanks for the help!

I did Yoopers extract 60 min IPA clone. It turned out awesome! Do it, you won't be dissapointed.

What hops do you like? Many many different IPA combos out there.


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wildwest450 said:

What hops do you like? Many many different IPA combos out there.

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Im not really sure. I have only tried a few IPAs. But I know I love the hop aroma and taste. Ive had a local brewpubs, harpoon, terrapin, and hop project. I can't find the dfh 60 min locally or I would have had that too.

What's a good IPA to start off with?

keep it simple. I would take a 1/2 lb of C-40 steep it. and then add 9 lbs of LME (light liquid malt extract). Use 1 oz of a fairly high alpha acid hop for your bittering hops. and then 1 oz for flavor and 1 oz for aroma. Then dry hop with one oz. I like to use centennial and amarillo. Even some cascade would be good too. Make sure you use safale US-05 yeast or WLP001. That muntons yeast sucks. Just chime back in with the type of hops you like to use or have researched and I am sure some one can come up with a good recipe.

beerjunky828 said:

keep it simple. I would take a 1/2 lb of C-40 steep it. and then add 9 lbs of LME (light liquid malt extract). Use 1 oz of a fairly high alpha acid hop for your bittering hops. and then 1 oz for flavor and 1 oz for aroma. Then dry hop with one oz. I like to use centennial and amarillo. Even some cascade would be good too. Make sure you use safale US-05 yeast or WLP001. That muntons yeast sucks. Just chime back in with the type of hops you like to use or have researched and I am sure some one can come up with a good recipe.

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Should I just stick with one type of hops for all of that? So I know what I like? What if I brew a batch with only one type of hops and don't like it? Is this the best way to learn?

Sorry so many questions. Very curious.

borovy3488 said:

Should I just stick with one type of hops for all of that? So I know what I like? What if I brew a batch with only one type of hops and don't like it? Is this the best way to learn?

Sorry so many questions. Very curious.

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I usually use a blend of hops - a very high acid one early in the boil to really bitter things up (I like Columbus for this but anything above 12% AA will be fine), and an aromatic one near the end for aroma (Amarillo is my favorite for this). And I usually use Cascade mid-boil since I have a few pounds (dry weight) of home grown Cascade in my freezer.

But it's perfectly legitimate to use a single hop for the whole thing - Weyerbacher makes an all-Simcoe IPA that is delicious.

Experiment - more than likely, you'll make more than one batch.

There are some free beer calculators to use to build recipes and see there IBU's and the ABV etc. Which lets you play and make recipes. You can sign up for free and save your recipes and build them to the specs of some of your favorite styles. If you define the style for the recipe wit will give you basic guidelines if you want them. One of them is here:

http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe


It' great to look up different hop profiles and see what flavors you like. Stick with Amarilla, Simcoe, and the C's (coumbus, chinook, cascade, centennial) to get a very american flavored IPA style.
Have fun!

Yes. An American IPA can vary widely in taste and aroma because of all of the hop varieties and variables. If you would want to use one style of hop then do it. It will give you a feel for every aspect that a certain hop can lend to a beer. Just remember that an IPA is brewed to showcase the hops. Stick with a simple malt bill and use a yeast that will dry the beer out and have very minimal flavor impact. You want to showcase the hops. if you really want to get a feel for how certain hops lend certain flavors to a beer, then make your next few batches an IPA and change nothing but the hop scheduling and type.

Here is an IPA that I recently made and i think it turned out great! I had small amounts of left over hops from previous brew sessions that I decided to add.


Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (2.2 SRM) Extract 86.49 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.70 %
2.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (Dry Hop 6 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 25.2 IBU
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (30 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (15 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
0.75 oz Williamette [5.30 %] (5 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.75 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (5 min) Hops 2.9 IBU




I used WLP002 and WLP041 for the yeast

Brewing will involve you taking risks and venturing out to unknown territory. If you brew a batch of beer and don't like it, then you know not to use it next time. If you want an American style IPA then do what the post above says and stick to the likes of Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, Willamette, Nugget, Chinook. I bought 10 lbs of hops with 6 different varieties and have become a knowledgeable individual involving the flavor and aroma profile that each hop will give to a beer. They say that you can take 1 pellet of a certain type of hop and a 12 oz. schwag beer, drop the pellet in there and let it dissolve for about 15 mins. Then drink and it can lend a certain flavor to the beer and it should showcase what kind of flavor it will lend to your final product. I have never done this though.