Soft bitterness IIPA recipe.

Hi I am looking an Imperial IPA recipe with a balanced profile. Something where the bitterness doesn't kick you in the face but just enough to balance a soft sweetness with a medium hop aroma. I can almost taste it in my head but my brewing ability has not yet got to the point where can take it outa my head and into the glass, getting there though!
Thanks

If you are wanting a softer bitterness, there are a handful of techniques you can untilize.

FWH-First Wort Hopping. Instead of adding your bittering hop into the beginning of your boil, add it to your kettle when you start your mash-out. It tempers the bitterness, can't really remember the chemistry behind it at the moment.

More late additions- and I don't necessarily mean 1lb of cascade at flameout, but if you more more of your hops to the 25-15min mark, you will increase flavor and decrease bitterness while still extracting enough IBUs.

Keep your BU:OG ratio in mind. the bittering unit to OG ratio is important, it is, as you imagine the ratio of IBUs to points of gravity in your post-boil OG. For IPA's, many have found that a ratio of 1-1.2 is a really great sweet spot for IPAs. (example, a 1.080 wort should have between 80 and 95ish IBU)

Counter the bitterness with a slightly higher mash temp or increased crystal malts. It you give yourself a slightly maltier IPA, it will help hide the hop bitterness which will give you that soft sweetness, light crystal malts can help a lot here though personally I love crystal 120 in my IPAs.

water chemistry. Using softer water will pull out the malty soft characteristics while water with more calcium and sulfate will emphasize bitterness.

Yeast- certain yeast like WLP001 and Wyeast1056 will emphasize bitterness and understate the malt character. If you want a softness to the IPA, consider a different yeast strain, maybe an English or London Ale strain.

If you do some searches on brewing Northeast Style IPAs, it should give you a good start since Northeast IPAs are all about the soft bitterness.

Thanks K

Sorry, I realized I didn't actually add a recipe. This is a prototypical IIPA with a much more mild bitterness and softer mouthfeel that isn't too puching that I have enjoyed in the past.

14# 2row
1# Vienna
0.5# Crystal 120

0.5oz Columbus 60min (26IBU)
1.0oz Centennial 20min (14IBU)
1.5oz Cascade 10min (8IBU)
1.0oz Amarillo 5min (5IBU)
1.0oz Centennial 5min (7IBU)
1.0oz Cascade 5min (4IBU)
1.0oz Amarillo Flameout/Whirlpool (5IBU)
1.0oz Cascade Flameout/Whirlpool (4IBU)
1.0oz Centennial Flameout/Whirlpool (6IBU)

1.5oz Amarillo Dry-hop 5-7days
1.5oz Cascade Dry-hop 5-7days
1.0oz Centennial Dry-hop 5-7 days

Yeast- WLP001 or a London Ale. your choice.

Mash Temp: 152
OG- 1.078
FG-1.013
ABV-~9%
IBU- ~80
SRM 10

Ferment at 68F
You want about 40ppm Calcium and about 130-150ppm SO4. (look at your cities water profile).

If you're wanting a softer bitterness, I'd sub the 60 minute Columbus addition for something with a less harsh bitterness like Magnum or Warrior.

just do a 60min/fwh hop addition, then wait till 0min and load up on flameout additions followed by a hopstand to extract flavor. You can easily use upwards of 8oz and barely get any bitterness at all. it works every time

Agree. I am a huge fan of the "Northeast" IPA. I think the key is yeast and hop schedule.

I use wyeast London Ale III, white labs Dry English Ale yeast or Conan.

I buy spring water and add 1tsp gypsum to my HLT (7.5 gal).

I do a 60 minute hop addition (0.5oz Columbus in my IPA) and add the rest at 5 min, 0 min and huge dry hop.

Keep your grist bill simple (2 row and a touch victory). You don't need much or any caramel malts as you won't need to balance harsh bitterness.

Oh, if you really want to smooth out mouthfeel, add up to 20% oats and/or lactose. Be kind and add rice hulls...trust me.

I mash around 152 and ferment cool 66-68.

This will almost assuredly churn out some really great NE inspired brews!!!

Good luck.