Imperial IPA First Recipe - Feedback and critique

I'm big into REALLY hoppy beers right now... so what better to brew than an imperial ipa.

I'm new to homebrewing... and having a great time doing so. I thought I'd try my very own first recipe with this one and was hoping for a little feedback/critique. Below is the print out from Beer Alchemy. Any help you can give is appreciated.

Fermentables
UK Caramalt 1.25 lb 11.2 % 3.5 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 60L Malt 0.75 lb 6.7 % 9.0 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Pilsen Light Liquid Extract 9.15 lb 82.0 % 4.0 Start Of Boil


Hops
US Summit 18.0 % 1.00 oz 28.2 Loose Pellet Hops All Of Boil
US Magnum 14.0 % 1.00 oz 21.9 Loose Pellet Hops All Of Boil
US Warrior 15.5 % 1.00 oz 22.7 Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
US Centennial 8.5 % 1.00 oz 9.6 Loose Pellet Hops 30 Min From End
US Centennial 8.5 % 1.00 oz 4.5 Loose Pellet Hops 10 Min From End
US Cascade 5.8 % 1.00 oz 0.0 Loose Pellet Hops At turn off
US Cascade 4.5 % 2.00 oz 0.0 Loose Pellet Hops Dry-Hopped

I was planning on a 90 minute boil and steeping the grains for 60 minutes at 150.

Thanks for the help.

IPA's to me are almost a personal preference. They're hard to screw up, but balance is the key. That being said, if I were brewing an IPA, I would cut back on your bittering hops a bit. Maybe lose the Summit hops and replace them with an extra ounce of cascade at flameout.. This is just my opinion though...I prefer more aroma and flavor over bitterness.

Too much crystal/carmel. Never more than 10%. I use 3.5% (.4 lbs crystal 40L) in my IIPA and it is just right. Otherwise you will have a very sweet beer. Hops look OK to me.
You might want to google pliny the elder to look at a classic grain bill for this style.
Good luck

Too many bittering hops and not enough late additions.

Technique:
You don't need to steep your Crystal/Caramel grains that long. There's no conversion going on anymore in those grains, so just a soak in warm (~140-150^F) water to disolve the sugars will do the trick.
Sweetness:
As has been stated, I'd drop the Crystal/Caramel malts to no more than one pound. Also, I see you're using alot of extract. Depending on your typical finishing gravities using this extract, you may want to add up to one pound of corn sugar to help dry this beer out.
Hops:
This is a total preference thing, but I'd probably throw your Summit in sometime during the last 20 minutes of the boil to keep some of its flavor (and less of its bitterness) in your beer.
Yeast:
If you don't already have your yeast selected, Fermentis US-05 dry yeast is an AWESOME yeast for this type of beer- and cheap.

Mmmmmm......I think it's time to brew another IPA.

Thanks for the feedback... this helps a ton.

I've been tweaking the recipe a bit based on your feedback and looking at a couple of other recipes... But I'm hoping someone can help me with the IBUs. In BeerAlchemy, it had me at about 90 IBUs, so I was confused when everyone said it would be way too bitter. I downloaded BeerTools and plugged the exact same recipe in and it gave me 190+ (give or take) IBUs.

Anyone have a good/reliable IBU calculator that I can trust?

jjacobs said:

Thanks for the feedback... this helps a ton.

I've been tweaking the recipe a bit based on your feedback and looking at a couple of other recipes... But I'm hoping someone can help me with the IBUs. In BeerAlchemy, it had me at about 90 IBUs, so I was confused when everyone said it would be way too bitter. I downloaded BeerTools and plugged the exact same recipe in and it gave me 190+ (give or take) IBUs.

Anyone have a good/reliable IBU calculator that I can trust?

Click to expand...

I use the formula from Designing Great Beers..

weight x utilization% x Alpha Acid% x 7489/Batch Size=IBU's.

You can also correct for Higher Gravity worts. But I don't bother, it only seems to change the IBU's by a couple points, and calculating IBU's is really just a reference point IMO. There are so many things that effect the perceived bitterness/flavor/aroma that you just can't figure out using a formula. But calculating your IBU's is a great starting point.

I would also agree that you should move some of bittering additions to late additions, and cut way back on the crystal malts, maybe throw a little carapils in there, 1/4lb or so.