IPA Recipe (or: when will he stop writing his own recipes already?)

The Brew Builder at Brewmasters Warehouse is a little too much fun. He really oughta charge to use it, then I'd feel guilty enough to stop screwing around and get back to work.

OK, so my IPA last year turned out to be... problematic. It tasted great, but the 13 ounces of whole hops I used in the boil and dry hopping wound up sucking up way too much of the beer, I got 0 efficiency from the partial mash, all of the gravity came from extract, and it was impossible to siphon because it was so damn thick.

Anyhow, I'm going for a much less ambitious one this time around, striving instead for some balance while still attempting to maintain a unique flavor profile.

2# Gambrinus Dark Munich
6# Briess Pilsner
1# Weyermann Cara Hell
2# Weyermann Rye Malt

Single infusion mash, 149F

Galena Plugs - 1 oz @60
Horizon Plugs - 1 oz @20
Ahtanum Plugs - 1 oz Dry Hop

White Labs California Ale, WLP001 (5-day starter)

Primary 3 weeks
Dry hop 2 weeks
Age an additional 2 weeks before bottling/kegging

Anyone want to make a critique, advice, or suggestion? Or just say "that looks yummy" so I at least have feedback?

Get back to work

I'd drop the Dark Munich to 1# and the crystal to 1/2# and add more Pils to get in the 1.070 neighborhood. I'd also add some Ahtanum aroma or flavor additions. Might want to try and FWH the Horizon or swap it for a better flavor hop.

Maybe something like this:
10 lbs Pilsner 74.07 %
2 lbs Rye Malt 14.81 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 20L 7.41 %
8.0 oz Carahell 3.70 %

0.75 oz Horizon [11.60 %] (60 min) (FWH)
0.75 oz Galena [13.00 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] (20 min)
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] (10 min)
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] (0 min)

Hmm. I worry about the SRM being too light with that little cara and munich. Then again, the last bmw kit I did ended up being much darker than the numbers indicated.

What's the problem with Horizon as a flavor hop? Plugs come in .5 oz increments so I'd like to keep the additions in those proportions.

Pilsner needs a 90 min boil to drive off DMS right?

Horizon is a great for first wort hopping because of it's low cohumulone levels. You will get some flavor that way also. While I have never used it late in the boil I have read it's not that great there but YMMV.

My vote is to keep the dryhop

Boy, I really butchered this one. Had a sample and it was nas-tay. Cloying bouquet, punch-in-the-face bitter, stale hop finish.

I'm guessing it's likely the 2-week willamette dry hop I ended up doing that really did me in.

I, personally, don't care to dry hop with any German/English (noble or Hybrids) varieties for longer than 5 to 7 days. Any longer, and I get stale, cheesy, grassy characters from them.

The only hops I can tolerate DH'ing for more than a week are the "Noble" American C's. They just seem to have more punch to tolerate a long soak.

Lesson learned. Was trying to experiment and see what would happen if I used something other than a C-hop. I pulled it off the hop, guess I'll leave this to mellow out for a month or two and see if it mellows out any. Maybe I could throw 2 ounces of centennial in there and try to hide the willamette.