Recipe Review: Double IPA

Hey folks!

So thanks to the acres of information here my first brew (a nice easy American IPA kit for MoreBeer!) turned out *fantastic*. That 5 gallons disappeared faster than I would have thought possible. Time for beer #2, and probably #3 too if I can talk the wife into a second keg

Anyhow, still bein new at this I wanna see what people think. One of the best beers I ever had was a double-ipa that a friend of mine brewed with a big kick of amarillo and citra for a great spicy/citrus IPA. I started out with a combination of a couple Hopfather Clone (From Russian River) recipes, and tweaked the hop additions a bit based on my own gut and my buddy's memory of his recipe.

1lb 20L Crystal (Steeping grain)
12lbs Pale LME
60m Boil - 1oz Columbus
1oz Magnum
30m Boil - .5oz Amarillo
.5oz Citra
.5oz Columbus
0m Boil - 3.5oz Amarillo
3.5oz Columbus
2oz Citra
1oz Willamette

Wyeast #1056 (American Ale) - Probably 2 smack packs?

7 Day Dry Hop - 5oz Amarillo
.5oz Columbus
.25oz Chinook
3 Day Dry Hop - 3oz Citra
.75oz Chinook

Beersmith puts me bang on in the "style" of Imperial IPA. 1.087 OG, 123 IBUs. I know Hopfather had a good Piney/Floral thing goin on front and center with grapefruit/citrus going on in the back. I wanna keep some of that earthiness but really bring forward the Tropical/Orange/Grapefruit flavor and aroma.

Brew date is scheduled for 2-3 weeks out, still waitin on my pound of Citra/Amarillo in the mail. Also about to start building my Fermentation chamber so I can keep the temps on this guy where I want em.

Anyhow... Feedback is seriously appreciated!

Looks good but i would recommend a tweak to your hop schedule. If it were me i would hop 1 oz @ 60 and the rest in the last 20 mins (hop bursting). It will give you a brighter hop character. Also hopping @ 30 is a waste with such nice flavor/aroma hops like citra. You wont get alot of flavor and it will be overly bitter. Try a few combos in an online ibu calculator to get where you want to be bitterness-wise. Also, F.O. Hops add more to aroma then flavor. If you want hoppy flavor get them in between 20 and 5. Also, dry hop with a few oz 7-10 days before cold crashing or bottling, Cheers.

Oh and us-05 will be the same strain of yeast for far less money. Unless you want to make a starter from the wyeast. Cheers again.

Your 0 minute additions and dry hop additions are very, very big.Take a look at the Pliny the Elder recipe This will give you a good template to hop from. I also think the willamette will just get lost in that hop bill. I would just save the Willamette for another brew.

Great info basilcheff! That's exactly what I was looking for! I didn't know exactly where the changeover was from bitterness to aroma/flavor. Ill change the addition timing and update tonight.

Yeast wise... I've never used dry yeast before. I realize it can't be that different but still. I was either gonna be lazy and buy 2-3 smack packs, or buy one and be brave, try a starter. I "know" dry yeast has a higher cell count but I thought they weren't as... Active?

Here is the recipe for hopfather I looked at..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/hopfather-iipa-163952/#post1896323

So the willamette came straight from there which is why I left it in. Think the big citra/Amarillo additions will drown it out? Better to drop it or increase it? That's Also where I got the big flameout additions, and basically just matched it up.

Had another question.

So the Hopfather recipe originally called for a 90 minute boil.

This is where my inexperience kinda shows through. While playing with the numbers in Beersmith, I didn't notice anything change a lot when dropping from a 90 to a 60 minute boil. IBU's for instance, the thing I expected to spike (assuming more boil = more bitter) only changed by 3.

Is there another reason I don't know/am not seeing for that 90 minute boil?

Heres a link to answer a few questions. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/90-minute-vs-60-minute-boil-89019/

Also you can see the red line sorta just plato's, thats your utilization rate. Cheers

EXACTLY what I was looking for!! Thanks basilchef!

Albadia said:

One of the best beers I ever had was a double-ipa that a friend of mine brewed with a big kick of amarillo and citra for a great spicy/citrus IPA.

Click to expand...

This combo shouldn't really give you spicy/citrusy... more like fruity/tropical.

When used late, especially:

Citra gives huge tropical, lychee notes
Amarillo gives peachy, floral, grapefruit notes
Columbus gives dank resin, green herbaceous piney qualities
Willamette is more spicy, mild, earthy, vegetal
Chinook is musty herbal grapefruit, some spice

But when used in combination with one another, these flavors can mutate...

Citra and Amarillo is a classic pairing. While the tropical fruit of Citra takes over the show, you can still taste some mild grapefruit and peach from the Amarillo in the background. Much of the floral notes are lost though. However, if you did an IPA with just Amarillo and Cascade, you'd get a floral grapefruit bomb without much fruit or tropical traits. A combo of Columbus, Willamette, and Chinook (without and Citra or Amarillo) will give you more of a vegetal, piney, earthy, spicy, bitter grapefruit IPA --which can still be good if executed properly.

I would remove the Columbus at 60 and swap it with the Amarillo at 30. Move all of your planned 30 min. additions to 10 minutes left in the boil. The flameout addition is way too large. Shift some of that to 10 minutes to increase that addition. For a regular 5 gallon IPA, you should really remove about 5-6 oz. of total hops from this recipe. If you're doing an IIPA of the same size however, then you could even still remove 2-3 oz. of total hops. It's up to you. But in my opinion, 14 total oz. is pushing it since you're using very high alpha and very characterful American Pacific Northwest hops, whereupon a little goes a long way. That's not to say be a lush. Just keep the potency of these hops in mind when dealing with a very basic recipe of just DME and C20. You don't want to be left with fruity beer juice.

Lastly, instead of pitching two smack packs, I recommend making a big yeast starter. If you want added dryness, add about 8-12% corn sugar at flameout in place of some of your extract.