attempt and an ipa

i am attempting a half batch tomorrow of an ipa. so here is what i have so far, and if anyone has any input please let me know. and if this is not even an ipa, please let me know as well. this recipe's base started off as a chico style american ale. and i am basing my experiments around it.

.5lb 2 row
.25lb c60L
.25lb honey malt
.25lb aromatic malt

4lbs DME

hops:
warrior(17.2% aa)
amarillo (7.5% aa)
crystal(2.8% aa)
perle (6.5% aa)
cascade (5.0%aa)

yeast- safale us-05

irish moss at 15min

i will be steeping the grain for 45 min, then removing the bags and starting the boil, then adding the malt and rolling the boil.. at this point i will start the 60 min timer and add the hop additions. the hop additions are what i am still trying to firgure out. i would like to use the warrior as a bittering hops. but as a half batch, i have 1.0oz size bags of pellets of all the hops. so i was wondering which hops make good bittering and which ones will add to the flavor and aroma better. my chart says these hops are all good for both bittering and flavor, aroma. i would also like to dry hop this.

the original recipe calls for 5.0 gal at 1.059og, og 8.4 srm, 43 ibus, 5.9%abv. i have upped the malt extract quite a bit from the original and adding over twice the hops. so i know the numbers will all change as well. any input would be awesome. thanks

oh. one more thing. what is a suggestion for the amount of water and exactly how to steep. i have been putting the bag in enough water to completely cover the gran bags and then some. and timing that at 45 min.. then when that is done. i just remove the bags and disgard. then i use that same pot for my boil. and add a little more water if it is too thick with the malt. because if the ratio of malt to water is too high, the water seems to expand too much during the boil, causeing an over flow. so this batch i am hoping to come out with about 2.5 to 3 gallons. so any suggestions on an exact steeping schedule and boil process would be awesome too.

Sorry, I can't get past the title. SORRY! I am a card carrying ASS.

You are just brewing 1 beer right? The title looks like you are attempting....something, and making an ipa.

It looks good, how long are you boiling the hops? Be careful of the warrior. at 60 minutes? HOLY CRAP its bitter!!!

The boil "overflow" is supposed to happen. that is why you have to watch CLOSE.

Any brew boiled properly would overflow if not watched.

im just brewing in small batched now to save money. i will be brewing every other week or so until i can get it how i like it. then ill go back to full batches. i have gotten extra fermentation buckets to allow for a more often process. and i was thinking of adding the warrior at the 60 min mark. would it make it less bitter if i added the warrior later and used the perle for the 60min?

Let me step back, Warrior should ONLY be used if you want it BITTER AS HELL.

I didn;t like the aroma and flavor I got from warrior, so I would boil it 60 minutes if I were you.

Beyond that, the rest could all be late additions for lots of flavor and aroma, because, believe me, you will have bitterness already.

as late additions do you mean 30-15-10-0 min additions? possibly dry hopped too?

I once boiled over wort I was boiling for a starter. 1 gallon in a 4 gallon pot. I have boiled 4 gallons in a 5 gallon pot and not boiled that over. Watch the pot and it won't boil over, don't watch it and it WILL boil over.

My procedure for steeping is as follows.
1) I steep grains in a smaller pot at 1-3 quarts of water per pound.(not gallon) I usually steep a pound in half a gallon of water.
2)With 20 minutes left in the steep start heating water in the boil pot. This way you cut out 20 minutes of your brew day while you wait for water to boil. By far the biggest non-brewing time sink in my brew day is waiting for water to heat up.
3)At the end of the steep dip your grain bag in your heating boil water then pour in steep water. I no longer use grain bags but a SS strainer instead. I just dump the grains straight into the smaller pot. I pour the grains and water through the strainer into the boil pot. Then I use water from the boil pot to rinse the grains.
4)Brew as normal.

The SS strainer is good because it leaves one more thing I don't have to remember when buying supplies.

I think most people put their hop additions at 60m, 20-15m and around 5m-flameout. They avoid anything longer than 20 minutes because it will boil off most of the flavor and not add much bitterness so it is kind of a waste.

kphipps06 said:

as late additions do you mean 30-15-10-0 min additions? possibly dry hopped too?

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I mean 10min-flameout (0) and dry hopped.

logan3825 said:

I once boiled over wort I was boiling for a starter. 1 gallon in a 4 gallon pot. I have boiled 4 gallons in a 5 gallon pot and not boiled that over. Watch the pot and it won't boil over, don't watch it and it WILL boil over.

My procedure for steeping is as follows.
1) I steep grains in a smaller pot at 1-3 quarts of water per gallon. I usually steep a pound in half a gallon of water.
2)With 20 minutes left in the steep start heating water in the boil pot. This way you cut out 20 minutes of your brew day while you wait for water to boil. By far the biggest non-brewing time sink in my brew day is waiting for water to heat up.
3)At the end of the steep dip your grain bag in your heating boil water then pour in steep water. I no longer use grain bags but a SS strainer instead. I just dump the grains straight into the smaller pot. I pour the grains and water through the strainer into the boil pot. Then I use water from the boil pot to rinse the grains.
4)Brew as normal.

The SS strainer is good because it leaves one more thing I don't have to remember when buying supplies.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I was feeling too lethargic for that much detail.

thanks guys. and just to make sure i have to whole process down. if i steep a few quarts in one pot. (if im going for about a 2.5 gallon batch) what would be the proper ratio of water to boil with? and then i just top it off with fresh water after the cooling process but before the yeast pitch?

You want to boil as much wort as you can, with as little top off as you can without boil over.

can you boil 2.5 gallons?

Boilovers usually occur right after hop additions or DME additions.

Steep in 1-3 quarts of water per pound of specialty grains. Boil as much as you can without boiling over.

I do partial boils. On the stovetop I have 3 gallons of water in the boil including the water I steeped with. So 3 gallons minus your steep water in your boil pot heating up while I steep. Depend on the size of your pot and how much you can heat. If I was doing full boils outside with 1 pound of steeping grains I would heat up 5.5 gallons in addition to the half gallon of water I was steeping in. I boil off right around one gallon an hour in the boil.

yeah i have the size pots to boil up to 5 gallons i believe. i just am saving money with the smaller batches. so i'd like to hald the 5 gallon recipe

awesome thanks. ill boil 2.5 gallons in addition to the steeping water. your guys all gave me some awesome insight

I guess you can save money with smaller batches. I just look at it as a 5 gallon batch being just as time consuming as a 2.5 gallon batch. The only real difference being the number of yeast cells you need to pitch. If you are using dry yeast you probably already have enough cells for a 5 gallon batch. I want to do half batches but lack a good fermentation vessel for half batches.

I didn't even think about adjusting the yeast amount. I threw the whole pouch of dry yeast in there. How will this effect the brew?

kphipps06 said:

I didn't even think about adjusting the yeast amount. I threw the whole pouch of dry yeast in there. How will this effect the brew?

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That'll be fine.

will it alter the flavor or change the abv?

what factors will it change?

kphipps06 said:

what factors will it change?

Click to expand...

None.

so in the future, what is the ratio of yeast to pitch per gallons of beer?

kphipps06 said:

so in the future, what is the ratio of yeast to pitch per gallons of beer?

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It really depends on the OG (original gravity) of the beer, as well as how many yeast cells are in a package. Some dry yeast packages are 5 grams, some are 11 grams, some liquid yeasts have 100 billion cells per package. Generally, in any beer over 1.040, you have to start thinking about yeast pitching rates.

Here's a great little calculator to help you know exactly how much yeast to pitch: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

If you overpitch by a little bit, there will be no problem. Underpitching is much more likely, and also will cause more problems. Stuck and/or incomplete fermentations, estery flavors, etc care common with underpitching.