Chinese IPA

Looking to brew up a "Chinese" IPA in two weeks. Below is the recipe I put together off the top of my head. Suggestions for the hop schedule is welcome. We are currently limited in grains as our supplier has only Pale Malt until the 19th of April (waiting on the boat to come in) so my brew partner is going to bring back 2# of crystal 60 (or another if you have a good suggestion and reason!)


Recipe Info
OG 1.066
Yeast Safale S-04
FG 1.016
IBU's 76.64

BU/GU Ratio 1.11
Batch Size 10.00
Boil Size 11.73
ABV 6.46
Mash Temp 170
Mash Time 60
Boil Time 80
1st Gravity 1.069
2nd Gravity 1.035

Ingredients
Malts Mashed Amount % Max Pts. Color
Pale 22 88% 34.00 3.50
Crystal 60 2 8% 34.00 60.00

Other Fermentables Amount % Max Pts. Color
Brown Sugar 1 4% 46.00 8.00

Total 25 100% 862.00 20.50

Hops/Additions Amount Time AA% IBU's
Nugget 1 80 13.0% 22.31
Nugget 1 60 13.0% 21.15
Nugget 1 40 13.0% 18.56
Qingdao Flower 1 20 6.0% 5.91
Qingdao Flower 2 10 6.0% 7.08
Cascade 1 5 5.0% 1.62
Cascade 1 0 5.0% 0.00
Total 7 76.64

Fermentation Schedule
Primary 10
Secondary 10

Should use some rice

MSG too

Great feedback, guys! Thanks!
The pale malt is 100% domestic as are the qingdoa fower hops - that should be enough to consider it a Chinese IPA.
Any other insight - hop schedule, additional speciality grains?

If it was me: I would use only the Chinese hops for flavor and aroma additions. Use whatever for bittering, but I would want to really highlight the hops that make it a Chinese beer.

Brooklyn-Brewtality said:

If it was me: I would use only the Chinese hops for flavor and aroma additions. Use whatever for bittering, but I would want to really highlight the hops that make it a Chinese beer.

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Good point - I'll make sure we use only qingdao flower hops for aroma and I'll keep the nugget as the bittering hop. Might need to up the QDF hops quantity to ensure a proper level of hoppiness.
Thanks Brooklyn!

out of curiosity what is the profile of the Qingdao Flower? is it a hop or is it a flower that you are incorporating?

terrapinj said:

out of curiosity what is the profile of the Qingdao Flower? is it a hop or is it a flower that you are incorporating?

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It is a hop - it is called Qingdao Flower Hop, or Tsingdao Flower Hop - AA% around 6. Nice floral aroma. Brewed our celebration ale with them as the main hop a couple of weeks ago. My brew partner racked it to the secondary last night and he said the hop aroma was a bit weak, so they are not an overly strong hop (we threw in an once of whole cascade into the secondary to pick up the aroma of the CA). We'll still use nugget to bitter this beer, then throw in a ton of the Qingdao as aroma.

is it the same hops that Tsingtao uses in their beer or is named because of the Region it comes from?

terrapinj said:

is it the same hops that Tsingtao uses in their beer or is named because of the Region it comes from?

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Yes and yes! They use the hops in Tsingtao beer and they are from that region as well - at least I believe they are...

Not saying you have to use it but would throw a twist. I recently did an Asia themed beer with Sorachi Ace hops (Japan), Lemongrass (Thailand) and Black Rice (China).

The black rice turned the beer purple/maroon pre-fermentation. It ended up having a brownish maroonish color which was really unique. I simply boiled the rice, brought temp down to normal saccharification range and added amylase enzymes. Ended up getting .015 extra OG points out of the pound or so of black rice.

Just thought I'd share and good luck with the beer!

cstarner - what style was the beer? I guess it is hard to say, but were you able to tell what kind of flavors the rice added to the beer? How did you add the rice? After you boiled it did you add it to the mash tun?

I think the rice is a good idea because many IPA brewers replace a portion of the malt with fully fermentable sugars to dry out the beer and give more emphasis on the hops. Plus it goes so well with the theme.

Rice will contribute very little if any flavor to your beer.

airdusters said:

I think the rice is a good idea because many IPA brewers replace a portion of the malt with fully fermentable sugars to dry out the beer and give more emphasis on the hops. Plus it goes so well with the theme.

Rice will contribute very little if any flavor to your beer.

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The only rice I have found over here, save for specialty "Western" rice at the high end supermarkets, is white rice. How exactly would we go about adding rice to the mix? I guess I could look it up, but figured I would ask first!

Why are you mashing at 170? That's what most people hit for their mash-out temp. Is that also part of what makes it a Chinese IPA?

I was making an experimental gluten free ale so it didn't fall in any particular category. I boiled it then mashed and added it to my boil kettle which ended up having sorghum and brown rice extract. In addition to lemongrass I also had some coriander and black pepper and fermented with Safbrew T-58 so it came out bitter, peppery and with a lemon twang. It definitely doesn't compare to any real style so it's hard for me to say what it contributed in flavor. I do know that any type of regular rice or brown rice syrup does little for flavor.

Slowfro said:

Why are you mashing at 170? That's what most people hit for their mash-out temp. Is that also part of what makes it a Chinese IPA?

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I was converting from C to F and I must have entered it in wrong - we'll mash at 70c (158f) then raise up to 77c or so before we dump into the LT.

Cstar - thanks for the details.

OK, 158°F makes more sense for a mash temp but still seems quite high. You'll probably end up with a lot of unfermentables and a sweeter beer, but that might be what you're looking for. I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

So, based on comments here and additional reading, we have changed the recipe a bit. Again, your insight is always appreciated.

Recipe:
OG - 1.072
FG - 1.018
Batch Size: 10g
Mash Temp: 151
Yeast: Safale s-05
IBU's 70.35
ABV: 7.03
Mash Time: 60
Boil Time: 60

Ingredients:
Pale - 22lbs 83%
Crystal 60 - 2lbs 8%
Oats - .5lbs 2%
Brown Sugar - 1lbs 8%

Hops:
Nugget - .05 @ 60
Nugget - 3 @ 10
Qingdao Flower - 3 @10
Qingdao Flower - 3 @ 5
Qingdao Flower - 3 @ 2
Qingdao Flower - 2 @ FO

Fermentation:
Primary 21 days

cstarner said:

The black rice turned the beer purple/maroon pre-fermentation. It ended up having a brownish maroonish color which was really unique.

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How big was the batch and what other grains did you use? I am trying to gauge how much purple a given amount of black rice might add.