Thoughts on imperial IPA

i was thinking about imperial IPA, likely to do one with all columbus soon and I was pondering the grain bill. I got to thinking, wouldnt just two ingredients , as far as fermentables go, make a nice imperial IPA? Two Row and Sugar? Keep the ratio the same and step up the recipe to get the gravity you want.

93% Two Row ( kick it up with golden promis, marris otter..etc..)
7% Sugar
Hops
Yeast ( WLP001,Pacman, WLP007,...etc..etc...)
Mash at 149

Let the hops shine.........


Just trying to start up a thread, bored today.

That will be a pretty light IPA no?

imperialipa said:

That will be a pretty light IPA no?

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Light in color yes, light in flavor no. IIPA is supposed to be easy drinking and not so full bodied, deceptively light bodied..like a tripel in that way. Also, the caramel/specialty malts can mask or subdue the hops. With OG from 1.070 to 1.090 I don't think maltiness will be a problem.......

If you use golden promise you would get a really nice color....I may have to try that.

I'm working on Imperial and double IPA's myself, this plan seems interesting.

I don't know if I would go with just 2-row...well maybe, but your choice of yeast could prove to be a little more critical.

What I have done is going with 100 percent vienna and 70ish ibus for a regular ipa. I could easily see such making a delicious imperial ipa as well.

Dang said:

I don't know if I would go with just 2-row...well maybe, but your choice of yeast could prove to be a little more critical.

What I have done is gone with 100 percent vienna and 70ish ibus for a regular ipa. I could easily see such making a delicious imperial ipa as well.

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Edit

Dang said:

I don't know if I would go with just 2-row...well maybe, but your choice of yeast could prove to be a little more critical.

What I have done is going with 100 percent vienna and 70ish ibus for a regular ipa. I could easily see such making a delicious imperial ipa as well.

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Sure vienna is a great choice, munich would even work but it would be darker and maltier. Personally I thought about it last night and golden promise would be awesome I think. My favorite imperial IPA's and IPA's in general have a minimum of caramel flavor and are not heavy and overly rich with caramel flavor.


17# Golden Promise
20oz dextrose
1 oz columbus FWH
2 oz columbus at 60
1 oz cascade at 30
1 oz columbus at 15
1 oz centennial at 15
1 oz centennial FO
1 oz columbus at FO

1 oz columbus, 1 oz cascade, 1 oz centennial all for dry hope
WLP007 and mash 149-151 degrees

I bet it would be TASTY!...don't ask me why but lately I have become a proponent of the old school 30 minute flavoring addition..

Subscribed, interested to hear how it turns out!

Heck a guy could use a blend of base malts, like :

%50 two row (MO, GP etc..etc..)
%25 Vienna
%10 Munich

I think I read in BYO that victory can even be used in very, very large quantities similar to a base malt.

A blend of base malts is the way to go...adding any type of crystal is only necessary to balance out some pretty intense hopping. In fact, I never use more than .5 lbs of crystal 10 in an IPA anymore. I don't touch darker crystals.

I wouldn't use more than 15-20 percent victory...its pretty similar to biscuit and 15-20 of that borders on the undrinkable.

BTW I just tapped a keg of an all columbus IPA with only 2-row and home toasted malt (toasted to somewhere between victory and biscuit). The hop flavor is awesome and while the toasted malt is interesting I think I'll stick to Vienna and Munich.

Dang said:

A blend of base malts is the way to go...adding any type of crystal is only necessary to balance out some pretty intense hopping. In fact, I never use more than .5 lbs of crystal 10 in an IPA anymore. I don't touch darker crystals.

I wouldn't use more than 15-20 percent victory...its pretty similar to biscuit and 15-20 of that borders on the undrinkable.

BTW I just tapped a keg of an all columbus IPA with only 2-row and home toasted malt (toasted to somewhere between victory and biscuit). The hop flavor is awesome and while the toasted malt is interesting I think I'll stick to Vienna and Munich.

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Right on, as soon as I stopped adding so much crystal and specialty malts my IPA's went from OK to awesome.

precisely

Dang said:

precisely

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In my five gallon batches of standard AIPA I have kind of settled on 1/2 pound of crystal and 1/2 pound victory in addition to my base malt and the results have been quite good. Sometimes I will throw in some vienna just to switch it up. With imperial I think crystal won't even be necassary with all the malt being used.

I've been thinking along these lines lately as well. Most of my past IPAs have had a small amount of crystal 40 (~5% usually) and/or vienna or munich. This time around I went with 100% Maris Otter, but pulled a quart of wort from the main boil and boiled it on the stove to get a little kettle carmelization. I'm hoping that it will be more subtle than using straight up crystal. It's in primary right now, so I guess I'll know in a month or so.

JuanKenobi said:

I've been thinking along these lines lately as well. Most of my past IPAs have had a small amount of crystal 40 (~5% usually) and/or vienna or munich. This time around I went with 100% Maris Otter, but pulled a quart of wort from the main boil and boiled it on the stove to get a little kettle carmelization. I'm hoping that it will be more subtle than using straight up crystal. It's in primary right now, so I guess I'll know in a month or so.

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That is a great idea as well. I may have to give that a shot. I came up with a recipe that uses goldem promise, vienna and honey. I will post it when I get back to my computer that has beersmith.

I will put this to the test sometime next month. I have 4# of whole leaf hops coming and when I open the bag I like to use the whole thing, so I am making an imperial IPA (10 gallon batch) with 10 oz of columbus in the boil and 6 oz of columbus dry hop. I bet it will be heavenly


26 pounds two row
2 pounds vienna
4 pounds honey or sugar
2 oz columbus FWH
1 oz columbus at 60
1 oz columbus at 45
1 oz columbus at 30
1 oz columbus at 15
1 oz columbus at 10
1 oz columbus at 5
2 oz columbus whirlpool
6 oz columbus dry hop
WLP007
Mash at 150
Ferment near 70
think it will be hoppy?

Dear God...

I follow the same plan. A blend of base malts and sugar, except I add just a touch of cara-pils. Heres my most recent IIPA...turned out nice

10lbs 2-row
2lbs maris otter
.75lb cara-pils
1lb table sugar

1oz Amarillo FWH
1oz Summit 60min
1oz Summit 30min
1oz Summit KO
1oz Chinook KO
3oz Citra KO

1oz Summit DH
1oz Chinook DH
3oz Citra DH

2packets s-04 @ 66-68

1.074 OG
1.013 FG
"143" IBUs
8ish% abv

dirty_martini said:

I follow the same plan. A blend of base malts and sugar, except I add just a touch of cara-pils. Heres my most recent IIPA...turned out nice

10lbs 2-row
2lbs maris otter
.75lb cara-pils
1lb table sugar

1oz Amarillo FWH
1oz Summit 60min
1oz Summit 30min
1oz Summit KO
1oz Chinook KO
3oz Citra KO

1oz Summit DH
1oz Chinook DH
3oz Citra DH

2packets s-04 @ 66-68

1.074 OG
1.013 FG
"143" IBUs
8ish% abv

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Citra, amarillo and Summit together...that does sound good. I bet there was a huge citrus flavor/aroma to the beer. I actually get a nice citrus note from columbus so I hope this works out.

I like to use 2 Row, 10% munich, 5% 20L or caravienne, for both my IPA and IIPA. However after I think on the next round I will be adding some Turbinado sugar to the iipa.

Hopwise, Summit, amarillo, and simcoe are awesome together in a dryhop or late additions. Soft tangerine citrus with strong grapefruit and pine all together.

dirty_martini said:

I follow the same plan. A blend of base malts and sugar, except I add just a touch of cara-pils. Heres my most recent IIPA...turned out nice

10lbs 2-row
2lbs maris otter
.75lb cara-pils
1lb table sugar

1oz Amarillo FWH
1oz Summit 60min
1oz Summit 30min
1oz Summit KO
1oz Chinook KO
3oz Citra KO

1oz Summit DH
1oz Chinook DH
3oz Citra DH

2packets s-04 @ 66-68

1.074 OG
1.013 FG
"143" IBUs
8ish% abv

Click to expand...

I'm looking to do something very similar to this recipe. How big of batch was this for?

I don't think the MO is really doing anything for you. you could probably replace it with 2 row. add a little biscuit malt. equal parts as cara pils? IMHO

I brew with almost strictly MO.

so that wasn't easy for me to say. just did an all MO and all centennial beer. awesome.

Philip_T said:

I'm looking to do something very similar to this recipe. How big of batch was this for?

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5gal.

hadabar said:

I don't think the MO is really doing anything for you. you could probably replace it with 2 row. add a little biscuit malt. equal parts as cara pils? IMHO

I brew with almost strictly MO.

so that wasn't easy for me to say. just did an all MO and all centennial beer. awesome.

Click to expand...

I've used Munich, Vienna, and MO as my secondary base malt. I liked what MO brought. A little more subtlety, but definitely there. I don't want it to be too malty as I like my hoppy beers to be about the hops with just enough malt for a backbone. The MO gives a little more oomph, but not overpowering.

Since it's a IIPA, I used less. In my standard IPA, its more like 6lb 2-row/5lb MO. With that, I use the MO to add malty notes since I use zero crystal.

permo said:

i was thinking about imperial IPA, likely to do one with all columbus soon and I was pondering the grain bill. I got to thinking, wouldnt just two ingredients , as far as fermentables go, make a nice imperial IPA? Two Row and Sugar? Keep the ratio the same and step up the recipe to get the gravity you want.

93% Two Row ( kick it up with golden promis, marris otter..etc..)
7% Sugar
Hops
Yeast ( WLP001,Pacman, WLP007,...etc..etc...)
Mash at 149

Let the hops shine.........


Just trying to start up a thread, bored today.

Click to expand...

Do it.
Make it a SMaSH IIPA. All Columbus.

Interested to know how this comes out.

I have a sack of Weyerman Pale Ale Malt coming in soon and I am going to dedicate a pound of hops and 11 gallons of IIPA to this process. I have no doubt that it will be delicious.

I will post after brew day and after first tasting. I plan on using 12 oz during the boil and two ounces in each keg for dry hop. I just have to decide if I want to use columbus, cascade, centennial, chinook or willamette. All sound interesting to me, but I am leaning towards columbus.

permo said:

I have a sack of Weyerman Pale Ale Malt coming in soon and I am going to dedicate a pound of hops and 11 gallons of IIPA to this process. I have no doubt that it will be delicious.

I will post after brew day and after first tasting. I plan on using 12 oz during the boil and two ounces in each keg for dry hop. I just have to decide if I want to use columbus, cascade, centennial, chinook or willamette. All sound interesting to me.

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I'd say columbus, but thats just because I'm curious to how it would come out, as I'm not familiar with columbus. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with all centennial!

chapa said:

I'd say columbus, but thats just because I'm curious to how it would come out, as I'm not familiar with columbus. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with all centennial!

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This is my reasoning exactly. I recently split a batch if IPA, dry hopped half with columbus and half with cascade and they are very ,very similar. I think columbus is a little "softer" then centennial, but all three are similar.

permo said:

This is my reasoning exactly. I recently split a batch if IPA, dry hopped half with columbus and half with cascade and they are very ,very similar. I think columbus is a little "softer" then centennial, but all three are similar.

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Yeah centennial packs a punch! Love it! Just got 1/2 lb of columbus and am excited to use it...might just have to make a pliny clone soon!