Help with my first recipe (IPA)

I'm getting ready to brew my first. Going with an extract IPA, no kit, making this recipe myself. If you need context, I got some good ideas from people in me other thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=568009

I need some help. My gravity is too high, for starters. Here is what I have come up with. Looking for help getting the gravity down a bit, and I wouldn't mind bringing the ABV down a bit as well.

Extract:
10# Light LME
1# Wheat DME
1.5# Corn sugar

Hops: [all pellet]
1 oz. Warrior [60 min]
0.5 oz. Citra [15 min]
0.5 oz. Cascade [15 min]
0.5 oz. Centennial [15 min]
1 oz. Citra [Flameout]
0.5 oz. Cascade [Flameout]
0.5 oz. Centennial [Flameout]
0.5 oz. Citra [Hopstand (when wort ~180)]
0.5 oz. Cascade [Hopstand (when wort ~180)]
0.5 oz. Centennial [Hopstand (when wort ~180)]

0.5 oz. Citra [Dry hop (one week before racking)]
0.5 oz. Cascade [Dry hop (one week before racking)]
0.5 oz. Centennial [Dry hop (one week before racking)]
0.5 oz. Citra [Dry hop (3-4 days before racking)]
0.5 oz. Cascade [Dry hop (3-4 days before racking)]
0.5 oz. Centennial [Dry hop (3-4 days before racking)]

I plugged it all into a beer calc and came up with the following...
OG = 1.091
FG = 1.023
IBU = 96
SRM = 5
ABV = 8.8

So what do I need to adjust? For starters, I wasn't shooting for an eight percenter. I love a good high ABV IPA/IIPA, but wasn't specifically shooting for that with this. Also, what about the OG? Do I need to get that down some? I am open to any and all suggestions! FWIW...my hop schedule (including DH and hopstand) were modeled after some of @m00ps practices and methods. Thanks.

Then I tweaked it by dropping the Light LME to 8#, kept everything else the same:
OG: 1.077
FG: 1.019
IBU: 104 (!!!!)
SRM: 4
ABC: 7.5

As you have already noticed dropping the amount of fermentable sugar is going to lower your OG.

Your OG is the amount of sugar in solution available to the yeast FG is the amount of sugar left after the yeast has done it's job. ABV is determined by a simple equation ABV% = (OG - FG)*131 you could also just plug the numbers into a online calculator to get your ABV like this one http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

So to lower your ABV you need to lower your OG which is also going to alter your IBUs. Any of the fermentable sugars can be reduced to achieve this I would probably reduce the light DME and/or cut the sugar since the sugar will give you nothing but a higher OG and there for a higher ABV.

Also just for ease I would simplify the hop schedule by moving all the 15 min additions and 180 additions to a flame out addition and let them steep in the hot wort for 20 minutes or so (hopstand). KISS

When I do a hopstand I do not chill the wort at all just cut the flame, add the hops and let them steep for 20 minutes of so with great results.

Also your dry hop additions they all say before racking... Are you planning a secondary or are you referring to racking to the bottling bucket?

mkyl428 said:

As you have already noticed dropping the amount of fermentable sugar is going to lower your OG.

Your OG is the amount of sugar in solution available to the yeast FG is the amount of sugar left after the yeast has done it's job. ABV is determined by a simple equation ABV% = (OG - FG)*131 you could also just plug the numbers into a online calculator to get your ABV like this one http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

So to lower your ABV you need to lower your OG which is also going to alter your IBUs. Any of the fermentable sugars can be reduced to achieve this I would probably reduce the light DME and/or cut the sugar since the sugar will give you nothing but a higher OG and there for a higher ABV.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the guidance. I think one thing that surprised/threw me off was what it did to the IBUs when I dropped fermentables. I guess logically it makes sense, I just hadn't thought about it. I'm going to tweak some things today and see what happens. I don't know if I want to completely cut out the sugar. My thoughts (based on some great advice from another on here) on the corn sugar was to cut down on some of the sweet maltiness (don't like malty beers much, particularly IPAs) and give it a dryer foundation for the hops to jump off of.

mkyl428 said:

Also just for ease I would simplify the hop schedule by moving all the 15 min additions and 180 additions to a flame out addition and let them steep in the hot wort for 20 minutes or so (hopstand). KISS

When I do a hopstand I do not chill the wort at all just cut the flame, add the hops and let them steep for 20 minutes of so with great results.

Also your dry hop additions they all say before racking... Are you planning a secondary or are you referring to racking to the bottling bucket?

Click to expand...

Great advice. I got the idea to split the two hopstand additions from @m00ps. Just so I'm clear, you're saying to move all the boil (except the warrior for bittering) and hopstand hops to flameout? Meaning that the only hop that would be a full wort boil is my bittering hop? I'd be down to give that a go. Just wanted to make sure I was clear on what you were suggesting. Also, not doing a secondary, I'm kegging this one. Finishing up my kegerator now, got a buddy in town who kegs all of his stuff and he's going to help me get it kegged up. Didn't want to have to clean, sanitize, fill and cap all those bottles!

Thanks!

Also, a quick random, elementary question...
When I put my values into the calculator, I put my batch size at 5 gallons and my boil size at 3 gallons. Nothing wrong with that, right? Didn't want that to be throwing my values off and I not know why.

Alright, so I did some tweaking. I changed my fermentables to:
6.5# Light LME
1.5# Wheat DME
1# Corn sugar

That gave me:
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.017
IBU: 110
SRM: 3
ABV: 6.5

Now my questions are...
1. Is that FG too high? The high end threshold on the calculator was 1.016, so I'm just one tiny point over.
2. I wouldn't mind getting the IBUs down a touch. I tried bumping the warrior down to 0.5 oz. but that only bumped the IBUs down to 97.
3. SRM at 3 is low. How important is that when it comes to flavor and body? Or is it just color? I think I am confused about SRM.

TravelingLight said:

Alright, so I did some tweaking. I changed my fermentables to:
6.5# Light LME
1.5# Wheat DME
1# Corn sugar

That gave me:
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.017
IBU: 110
SRM: 3
ABV: 6.5

Now my questions are...
1. Is that FG too high? The high end threshold on the calculator was 1.016, so I'm just one tiny point over.
2. I wouldn't mind getting the IBUs down a touch. I tried bumping the warrior down to 0.5 oz. but that only bumped the IBUs down to 97.
3. SRM at 3 is low. How important is that when it comes to flavor and body? Or is it just color? I think I am confused about SRM.

Click to expand...

1) I think reducing the O.G. was a good move. Your F.G. will be dependent on the yeast you use and it's attenuation. Based on my calculator, you have 75% attenuation factored in, which using an American style yeast, is generally pretty low in my experience. For example, when I use US-05, I regularly get 80-82% attenuation, which would drop your F.G. down to 1.012-1.013. Higher attentuating yeast will also mean more alcohol in the final product.

2) If you want your IBU a bit lower, don't boil for the full 60 minutes. Since you're using extract, there's no real benefit to 60 minute boils other than extracting bitterness from the bittering hop addition. I almost always just do a 30 minute boil with 1-2oz of high alpha acid hop. Play around with boil times/early hop additions in your brewing software and get it to where you want it to be. Again, malt extract does not have to be boiled for 60 minutes. (I add most of my extract at flame out)

3) SRM is only color. 3 is pretty light. If you want it a little darker, you could steep an ounce or two of dark grain (Midnight Wheat, Carafa, Roast Barley, Black Patent, etc) for some color without much (if any) flavor contribution.

Hope this helps!

for a single IPA 1.065 is right in the neighborhood of where you want to be. try to finish lower though, around 1.012. to do that you can use a bit more sugar. I'd stick with your previous 1.5# of sugar (and table sugar is fine, no need to buy expensive corn sugar for a primary fermentable...its just makes finer bubbles if you use it for bottling).
I'd aim for a 75-85 IBUs, try cutting your 60 min addition. also, at 180 your flameout hops may give some bitterness, so account for maybe 5-7IBUs or drop to 170F if you're just looking for aroma/flavor.
also, you can do a steeping grain of some crystal 40L for color. I'd aim for ~4-6SRM for a single IPA

Patrick87 said:

1) I think reducing the O.G. was a good move. Your F.G. will be dependent on the yeast you use and it's attenuation. Based on my calculator, you have 75% attenuation factored in, which using an American style yeast, is generally pretty low in my experience. For example, when I use US-05, I regularly get 80-82% attenuation, which would drop your F.G. down to 1.012-1.013. Higher attentuating yeast will also mean more alcohol in the final product.

2) If you want your IBU a bit lower, don't boil for the full 60 minutes. Since you're using extract, there's no real benefit to 60 minute boils other than extracting bitterness from the bittering hop addition. I almost always just do a 30 minute boil with 1-2oz of high alpha acid hop. Play around with boil times/early hop additions in your brewing software and get it to where you want it to be. Again, malt extract does not have to be boiled for 60 minutes. (I add most of my extract at flame out)

3) SRM is only color. 3 is pretty light. If you want it a little darker, you could steep an ounce or two of dark grain (Midnight Wheat, Carafa, Roast Barley, Black Patent, etc) for some color without much (if any) flavor contribution.

Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Awesome!
1. I'm glad you brought up attenuation. You're right, it was at 75%. And TBH, I wasn't real familiar with that. I'm going to look at bumping that up to 80% and see what happens. I haven't even selected a yeast yet. Honestly I hadn't even thought about it other than "whatever works for an IPA" type yeast.

2. I forgot to add. I'm not doing a full 60 minutes with all of that. I was planning on doing half of it to start the boil, then the rest at the end. So that could change some things. Hadn't thought about that.

3. I've decided I'm not too worried about the color. I honestly don't give much of a damn about color unless I was trying to make a BIPA or something dark. So the light color doesn't bother me. Just didn't want it to affect body/flavor.

bkboiler said:

for a single IPA 1.065 is right in the neighborhood of where you want to be. try to finish lower though, around 1.012. to do that you can use a bit more sugar. I'd stick with your previous 1.5# of sugar (and table sugar is fine, no need to buy expensive corn sugar for a primary fermentable...its just makes finer bubbles if you use it for bottling).
I'd aim for a 75-85 IBUs, try cutting your 60 min addition. also, at 180 your flameout hops may give some bitterness, so account for maybe 5-7IBUs or drop to 170F if you're just looking for aroma/flavor.
also, you can do a steeping grain of some crystal 40L for color. I'd aim for ~4-6SRM for a single IPA

Click to expand...

Good call on the table sugar! I wondered about that. So I can just use plain old white sugar from the grocery store, huh? That is fantastic information.

Thanks everyone for continuing to help out. I think I've bout got this thing ironed out. Gonna work on the brew pot this weekend. Got an old turkey pot I'm going to use. Gonna put the wire cup brush on the drill and grind some old **** off the bottom inside and see if it'll work. Don't want to buy a new pot, if I have to I will, but gonna see if this one will work first. Then I'm adding a ball valve for ease.

TravelingLight said:

Also, a quick random, elementary question...
When I put my values into the calculator, I put my batch size at 5 gallons and my boil size at 3 gallons. Nothing wrong with that, right? Didn't want that to be throwing my values off and I not know why.

Click to expand...

yep, that's the way to program it.
don't forget to pick up at least 6 gallons of RO water or bottled if that's what you're using. tap water usually has chlorine/chloramine which causes off flavors. you'll need 5.5 for brewing the beer (boil-off evaporation) and it's nice to have extra for some
brewing purposes.
for yeast, you can't go wrong with safale US-05. just chill the whole wort to 65 or less before pitch and keep it in the low 60s for the first 3-4 days. you can raise it to 67 or so if you like for day 5-8 while you throw in some dry hops. that way you encourage it to fully attenuate. it's a pretty quick finisher, so usually just a quick check on the FG and then into the keg!

TravelingLight said:

Great advice. I got the idea to split the two hopstand additions from @m00ps. Just so I'm clear, you're saying to move all the boil (except the warrior for bittering) and hopstand hops to flameout? Meaning that the only hop that would be a full wort boil is my bittering hop? I'd be down to give that a go. Just wanted to make sure I was clear on what you were suggesting. Also, not doing a secondary, I'm kegging this one. Finishing up my kegerator now, got a buddy in town who kegs all of his stuff and he's going to help me get it kegged up. Didn't want to have to clean, sanitize, fill and cap all those bottles!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yes that's exactly what I am suggesting, put all but the bittering hops in at flame out and let them steep in the hot wort for 20 minutes or so. I have had great success doing it that way and it seems a lot more simple. Not to say that the other way wouldn't work I just like to keep it simple where I can it makes for a more enjoyable brew day.

Okay sounds good then, congrats on the kegging you won't regret it!!

How did it come out? Pics/reviews?

billspudley said:

How did it come out? Pics/reviews?

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Holy thread bump, Batman. It turned out pretty well, for my first beer, and an extract. I don't have my notes with me, but I went to all grain shortly after that beer and have almost forgotten my extract beers I did earlier this year. Just brewed my 8th beer at the end of December, only two of those were extracts.