Any tips for Hop Head DIPA?

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GrantH

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I am going to be brewing a Hop Head DIPA in the next couple weeks and I am looking for some help on how to go about it perfectly. Are my temperatures correct for this style beer...or should I be somewhere else?


EDIT: This is my new schedule

As of right now, I have as follows:

- Mash at 152 (1 hour)
-1.25 water/grain ratio
-15 pounds of grain (14lbs 2 row, 4oz aromatic, 12oz caramel 60)
-18.8 quarts at 164 degrees

Set for an hour and get strike water ready.

- Mash out/Batch Sparge (10-15 minutes)
-8.3 qts @ 210 degrees

- Boil for 60 minutes
-Hop Additions as scheduled

This allows for 5.3 gallon first runnings, and 8.3 (or 2.125 gallons roughly) for batch sparging/mashing out. Given I lose a 1-1.5qt at mash out, I will have a second running of 6.8-7.3 qts addition to the hopeful 5.3 gallon first runnings. That = 5.3 + 1.5-1.75 gallons total, so 6.8 - 7 gallons at boil.

Here is my question though, the calculator I am using is setting it up as a 7.4 gallon boil. This can't happen. I don't know why the boil is larger...but it is. How do I downsize to a 5 gallon batch?

I am using this calculator.
http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/all_grain_how_to.htm (Step 3)

There may be some place on the calculator to account for this...but I am missing it. Can somone possibly look it over for me?

PS: It's quite possible that these are made to be a slightly larger batch than the extract kits, but I don't remember that being the case.
 
158 is awfully high. I think for a DIPA, you want to make sure that the body ends up being pretty lean and that it ferments to be fairly dry and crisp - otherwise you're going to end up with something with a high FG that is going to be like an American barleywine.

Here's what I did on my second to last brew, which just happens to be a DIPA. I kegged this after 10 days and my early samples of it have been phenomenal. I'm trying it again tonight to see how the carbonation is coming along.

14 lbs 2-row
12 oz caramunich
1 lb honey @ flameout - this will dry it out, corn sugar will have a similar effect

My mash was 152° and my mash out/sparge was the same temp as yours

The 7.4 gallon boil isn't TOO crazy, depending on your burner. I actually probably started off with 7.4 gallons preboil, but it was because I switched to basically a BIAB method mid-sparge-disaster and collected more wort than I intended. Due to this, I ended up with more like 5.5 gallons post-boil and my OG was a little low. My system reliably boils off 2 gallons in an hour, so I start with 7.
 
Also, I know you didn't get into your hop schedule on this post, but I am digging the combo of Warrior for bittering + Amarillo & Simcoe late in the boil. I shot for 90ish IBUs.
 
My concern is that I only have a 7 gallon turkey fryer pot. Therefore...literally not enough room. Is there some way to effectively top off in the carboy after boiling with all-grain like there is extract? I may can source a larger pot as well, but i'm looking for options to keep it manageable in what I have on hand.
 
You could do a couple things. Start your boil, with the wort you've collected before you sparge, then after you've boiled off enough, top off with the wort from the sparge. Don't start your timer until you're 60 min away from your targeted final volume, based on your boil off rate. Or, you could split the batch and do most of it in your 7 gal kettle, and the rest in a 2 gal pot on the stove. I'm all about keeping it to what is on hand.
 
My concern is that I only have a 7 gallon turkey fryer pot. Therefore...literally not enough room. Is there some way to effectively top off in the carboy after boiling with all-grain like there is extract? I may can source a larger pot as well, but i'm looking for options to keep it manageable in what I have on hand.

Sure, that won't hurt anything. If you could get 6 gallons in there, maybe try out Fermcap to keep the foam down, and use a little top off water at the end, you'll be fine.
 
I'm drinking a small glass of my DIPA right now and it's a hop bomb... I think it will actually get a bit more intense though, as I've got 6 oz of leaf hops in the keg & it's only been kegged for a week. It's at serving temperatures too, so it's extracting the goodness slowly. I'm nursing and babying this keg so it lasts a while... so tasty though. My burps taste like hop resin!
 
I will re-look at everything so I can get my temps and all correct. I will also edit the original post to show that.

As far as the sparge water, can I really get away with boiling that seperately without a hop schedule? I'm guessing this will all join together during fermentation just fine...but I wanted to ask in case. I can boil the 5.3 expected from the first runnings and a seperate pot with the 3 gallons of sparge water (given it all drains out to begin with).
 
No, that's not what I meant. Treat it exactly like you would an extract batch as far as topping off goes. Mash normally, then sparge until you've reached the maximum pre-boil volume that you're comfortable trying to fit in your 7 gallon kettle. So like probably 3 gallons of 1st runnings, 2-3 gallons of second runnings. Combine and boil that for an hour. Then top up to 5 gallons when you're all done - that top off water can be boiled, but it could also just be bottled water or something equally sanitary.
 
What Burgs said sounds good. I have split a batch that was too big for my kettle, and just split the hops accordingly, so if I had 4 gal in one pot and 4 in the other, and 2 oz at 60 min, I just put 1 oz in each, or if I had 6 gal in one and 2 gal in the other, 1.5 oz and 0.5 oz.
 
Oh, okay. Do I adjust my mash or anything to only get so much, or simply mash and drain to what I need and then boil, transfer to carboy, and continue to drain to the kettle? Sorry for the questions, i've never looked into this what so ever and seems like I will need to pretty soon so I want to know exactly how to do it correctly.
 
I think we're talking about 2 different things. I said you could mash and sparge according to your original plan which said you would get 7.4 gallons, which you would then split into two kettles, boil, and then combine into the fermenter. I think Burgs was saying, just sparge with enough to fill your 7 gallon kettle, boil, then top off in the fermenter if you don't have enough volume. Does that make sense?
 
Oh, okay. Do I adjust my mash or anything to only get so much, or simply mash and drain to what I need and then boil, transfer to carboy, and continue to drain to the kettle? Sorry for the questions, i've never looked into this what so ever and seems like I will need to pretty soon so I want to know exactly how to do it correctly.

No problem, that's what we're here for! I think there are a handful of ways you can go about doing this, and you'll still end up with great beer. But since it's going to be your first stab at it, let's make it easy.

What would help me to know is if you have an additional pot besides the 7 gallon turkey fryer one or not. Do you have a cooler at all (even unmodified)? Do you have a grain bag?

Let us know and we can lead you in the right direction.

Without knowing all that off the bat, here's what I'd do:

-- Mash your 15 lbs of grain with 1.5 qts of water/lb
-- (15 * 1.5)/4 = 5.625 gallons 1st runnings
-- You will lose some to absorption
-- If you're doing BIAB: it will be something like 0.08 gal/lb absorbed
-- If you're using a traditional MLT, more like 0.125 gal/lb absorbed
-- So, you're going to lose 1.2-1.8 gal to absorption
-- This will net you a little bit over 4 gallons

Now, if you have a second, smaller pot - depending on what it will hold (taking into account the grains too)

-- Fill it with a couple of gallons of sparge water
-- If you have a grain bag, teabag/dunk it into this water when the main mash is done, then combine both runnings
-- If when you're pouring the second runnings into the bigger pot and it's getting up to the top, stop - just collect as much as you feel comfortable getting up to a boil
-- Boil for 1 hour
-- Measure what your final volume is
-- Top up to 5 gallons using cold, filtered, sanitary water
 
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