Brewing tomorrow. Any and all critiques/advice welcome.

Brewing this one tomorrow. First time Dry hopping and first time using one of the rv hose water filters. Happy to not buy bottled water, but haven’t checked my water profile yet.

Any and all critiques/advice welcome.


Golden Talon Double IPA
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 4/17/2011
Style: Imperial IPA
Brewer: GryphonBrew
Assistant Brewer: Dad

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 8.21 gal Boil Time: 120 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %

Brewing Steps Check Time Step
4/17/2011 Clean and prepare equipment.
-- Measure ingredients, crush grains.
-- Prepare 10.75 gal water for brewing
-- Prepare Ingredients for Mash

Amount Item Type
4.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct
13 lbs 2.7 oz Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs 12.2 oz Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain

Mash In: Add 20.23 qt of water at 171.3 F
90 min - Hold mash at 155.0 F for 90 min
-- Drain Mash Tun
-- Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 5.70 gal of 168.0 F water.
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 8.21 gal
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.062 SG with all grains/extracts added

Boil for 120 min Boil Ingredients
Boil Amount Item Type
90 min 3.00 oz Warrior [16.00 %] (90 min) Hops
40 min 2.00 oz Magnum [14.40 %] (40 min) Hops
10 min 2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.20 %] (10 min) Hops
5 min 1.00 oz Centennial [10.30 %] (5 min) Hops

-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature
-- Add water (as needed) to achieve volume of 5.50 gal
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter

Amount Item Type
1 Pkgs Scottish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1728) Yeast-Ale

14 days Ferment in primary for 14 days at 68.0 F
5/1/2011 Transfer to Secondary Fermenter
7 days Ferment in secondary for 7 days at 68.0 F

-- Dry Hop
Amount Item Type
2.00 oz Warrior [15.80 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops
2.00 oz Centennial [10.30 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops

Have you worked out the estimated or target OG and IBUs? Those are two key numbers for me when I am looking at or working on a recipe.

Also, I think its an interesting experiment to use all Pilsner as your base malt for an imperial IPA, a different approach and am curious about how it turns out.

Dough in at acid rest temp with a low grist to grain ratio then check ph. If could contiue on to sac rest. If not contiue to wait until the ph gets where you need it.

If this is an IIPA, you probably want to have more than one smack pack or hopefully you made a starter. That yeast will be stressed with the lower pitching rate and could lead you to a stuck fermentation. Maybe it would work though, I've never used that particular strain.

Pappers_ said:

Have you worked out the estimated or target OG and IBUs? Those are two key numbers for me when I am looking at or working on a recipe.

Also, I think its an interesting experiment to use all Pilsner as your base malt for an imperial IPA, a different approach and am curious about how it turns out.

Click to expand...

Yes, sorry I didnt put it in there. OG estimate/target of 1.078 with a FG of 1.021. Then the IBUs calculated out to 250.9 on BeerSmith... doubting how accurate that is, but that's what it said.

Yeah, I thought the Pilsner was an odd/interesting choice too, but Blue Dot Double IPA from Hair of the Dog Brewing uses a very similar grain bill so i thought I'd give it a try. They also use double the amount of hops as this with Amarillo instead of Centenial. (LHBS didnt have any Amarillo)

Do you think I'll have any issues with useing the Pilsner?

itoriapt said:

Dough in at acid rest temp with a low grist to grain ratio then check ph. If could contiue on to sac rest. If not contiue to wait until the ph gets where you need it.

Click to expand...

Never dne that before, and not quit sure what you mean. I'll have to do some research.

I hope this goes well for you! Based on your other threads, is it safe to assume this is your first AG batch? I'm hazarding a guess, constructively, that a 1.078 beer with 250 IBU's is going to either be a waste of money on hops because of the maximum level of IBU's a human can taste OR it will simply be undrinkable due to major overhopping. I wouldn't want to deter you, but I'd think you'd need around an 1.100 OG to make that much hopping bearable.

KAMMEE said:

If this is an IIPA, you probably want to have more than one smack pack or hopefully you made a starter. That yeast will be stressed with the lower pitching rate and could lead you to a stuck fermentation. Maybe it would work though, I've never used that particular strain.

Click to expand...

Good catch!!! I always use 2 smack packs and yeast nutrient out of both paranoia and too lazy/busy to make a starter, but thanks for looking out on that one.

mhenry41h said:

I hope this goes well for you! Based on your other threads, is it safe to assume this is your first AG batch? I'm hazarding a guess, constructively, that a 1.078 beer with 250 IBU's is going to either be a waste of money on hops because of the maximum level of IBU's a human can taste OR it will simply be undrinkable due to major overhopping. I wouldn't want to deter you, but I'd think you'd need around an 1.100 OG to make that much hopping bearable.

Click to expand...

Close, only my 2nd all grain.

I have some extra DME laying around. do you think I should toss it in to up my gravity?

When I put the original recipe into BeerSmith witht he same hop count as the Blue Dot recipe it came out to 450+ IBUs so I cut it in half not wanting to waste it. Still think it's too much? Deffinetly don't want to wate $$$, but I'm ok with a rediculous amount of hops. First time I had Stone Ruination and Maharaja I thought "Huh, I thought this would be more hoppy.".

Ruination, for example, rates in at 100 IBU's and has an ABV of 7.7 percent. Your ABV is likely less with 2.5 times the IBU's. I'd personally scale your bittering
hops way back until you get to 100 or slightly more if you want an atomic hop bomb. Your beer looks like it has some good malt backbone and residual sweetness to balance mega hops. I'd look at your BU/SG ratio on Beersmith and keep it under 1.250 on the max end.

I'd avoid the DME if you have the mash tun space and just scale your recipe up to 1.090 or so and then use the BU/SG calc.

mhenry41h said:

Ruination, for example, rates in at 100 IBU's and has an ABV of 7.7 percent. Your ABV is likely less with 2.5 times the IBU's. I'd personally scale your bittering
hops way back until you get to 100 or slightly more if you want an atomic hop bomb. Your beer looks like it has some good malt backbone and residual sweetness to balance mega hops. I'd look at your BU/SG ratio on Beersmith and keep it under 1.250 on the max end.

I'd avoid the DME if you have the mash tun space and just scale your recipe up to 1.090 or so and then use the BU/SG calc.

Click to expand...

I should come in around 7.46% ABV with this recipe, but I'll probably scale the hops back more add some extra grain. I don’t want to waste the hops when they could be used for another brew.

Any suggestions on another grain addition or just up the amount of the same grains?

I like your grist bill. I'd maybe just scale up your base and crystal malt and leave your rye where it is. Rye has a distinct bite and you wouldn't want it to clash with your hops. Many IIPA's use a little sugar to help with alcohol content and attenuation. Id personally keep it at or under 5 percent. God knows I'm no pro, but I hated to see you spend all that money on hops and have something you hated!

mhenry41h said:

I like your grist bill. I'd maybe just scale up your base and crystal malt and leave your rye where it is. Rye has a distinct bite and you wouldn't want it to clash with your hops. Many IIPA's use a little sugar to help with alcohol content and attenuation. Id personally keep it at or under 5 percent. God knows I'm no pro, but I hated to see you spend all that money on hops and have something you hated!

Click to expand...

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the input. I almost thought about putting in a pound of Victory or Vienna malt that my dad has left over from last weekend since my LHBS is about 45 minutes away one way.

Which would you recomend? Or both?

I dig victory in PA's and IPA's! My APA uses pilsner, 2-row, Munich, victory, and a touch of golden naked oats. It's a crowd pleaser around here.

mhenry41h said:

I dig victory in PA's and IPA's! My APA uses pilsner, 2-row, Munich, victory, and a touch of golden naked oats. It's a crowd pleaser around here.

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Victory it is then! Thanks again!!!

Never heard of golden naked oats. SOunds interesting.

A quick guess might be

59 pct Pils
25 pct Vienna
8 pct crystal 10
5 pct rye
5 pct sugar
3 pct victory

GryphonBrew said:

Victory it is then! Thanks again!!!

Never heard of golden naked oats. SOunds interesting.

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Well, it was an experiment that worked out. It has a berry-ish nutty flavor and adds a bit of creamy mouthfeel. Glad I could help and I hope I steered you in the right direction. I'd love to know how it turns out!!!

mhenry41h said:

Well, it was an experiment that worked out. It has a berry-ish nutty flavor and adds a bit of creamy mouthfeel. Glad I could help and I hope I steered you in the right direction. I'd love to know how it turns out!!!

Click to expand...

Much appreciated. I'll let ya know in a few weeks!

-Measured FG on 5/2/11 and it was 1.016 with an OG of 1.078 = 8.11%abv!!!
-Taste is a little sweet upfront, but not in a bad way then nice and bitter in the middle/end. Very smooth and clear. Not a lot of aroma, but without carbonation or the dry hopping I'm not surprised. Going to leave in primary for another week or so before moving to secondary.