Please critique my IIPA recipe

This is my first crack at creating a recipe for an IIPA. Going for a piny/citrus/pineapple hop character and a touch of nuttyness and caramel sweetness to go with the mostly pale malt background. I do want it to finish pretty dry and crisp.

I'm open to suggestions, so please leave comments. According to BeerSmith, this is what I have:

Type: All Grain Date: 4/28/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Brewer: thisoneguy
Boil Size: 8.02 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: thisoneguy Pot and Rectangle Cooler ( 5 Gal/19 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 7.02 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 73.6 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage (65-68*F)

Mash at 147*f for 75 minutes. Mashout at 168*F for 10 minutes. Batch sparge.

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (CMC) (3.4 SRM) Grain 1 68.4 %
5 lbs Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.7 SRM) Grain 2 25.3 %
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.5 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.5 %
4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.3 %
1.00 oz Warrior [16.70 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 6 44.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 9.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 12.9 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.75 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 5.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11 2.6 IBUs
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 12 -
0.75 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 3.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [13.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 14 3.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [13.40 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Bell's House Ale (House #H002) Yeast 17 -
1.00 oz Chinook [11.80 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [13.40 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
0.55 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs

Est Original Gravity: 1.080 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.2 %
Bitterness: 81.0 IBUs
Est Color: 8.7 SRM

What do you think? Seriously, all advice is appreciated, so thanks in advance!

I made an IIPA a while back but used German noble hops. I was affraid that the american hops in that amount would overwhelm the palette and possibly give it a robust cat piss flavor. However if you balance the hops right i don't think this would be a problem. What is the main flavor you are looking for in the hops?

Chinook hops should give you a piney and grapefruit flavors. I think the grapefruit flavors would contend with the pineapple flavors of the citra and wash it out. I would probably substitute the chinook with simcoe. Simcoe delivers a distinct piney flavor, but take care not to overdue it with the simcoe as it can start to taste cat pissy.
Also, i would probably cut out the flameout additions of hops since you will be dry hopping.

As far as your grain bill i think it looks pretty solid. Possibly slightly increase caramel malt. What made you decide to go with the brewers malt.

You know what they say though, you never know until you try. If you don't like how the beer turns out you can always tweek the recipe in the future.

OG and IBUs look good.

Just out of curiosity, why are you using 5 lbs of two row brewers malt with your other 2 row base grain?

Sounds like you want a drier Surly Abrasive with added nuttiness. I would look into more malt diversificaiton. You're at 94% 2-row as is. The amount of crystal and victory is good. But if you're mashing at 147 F, bump up the carapils a bit to combat a possible thin mouthfeel. Look into other base grains like Golden Promise or Maris Otter, or some Red Wheat, all of which will help to accentuate the malt backbone without going too overboard. Replacing 5% base malt with corn sugar will also aid dryness.

Lastly, I would boost your flameout (3 oz.) and dryhop additions (4 oz.) and combine the 5 minute addition at 10 minutes. You can also add a small bittering addition (1/2 oz). Don't worry about having 100+ IBUs for a beer like this - It's "almost" mandatory for a true hophead. See Abrasive, Pliny, etc. For the flavor profile you want, Chinook works best from 20-10, Centennial from 10-0, and Citra from 0-DH.

At 9.2% I'd bump the IBU's up a bit...but thats me.

I actually thought about the Chinook conflicting with the others. The more I think about it, I will probably leave out the piny hops and go for more of a big juicy/citrus/fruit hop character (probably replacing the Chinook with Amarillo or more Citra).

The brewer's malt is in there for two reasons: to keep the color a little lighter and to use up some of the stuff I have in my inventory. I know that it's not going to be much lighter than using all pale malt, but we're going to see how it goes. I still might change my mind and use all pale, anyway.

I hadn't thought about ending up too "thin"... maybe I'll also bump the mash temp to 149 to combat that a little, but still keep the wort very fermentable.

I'd like to use ingredients I have on hand, too, so that rules out the MO, GP, and red wheat. Good suggestion, though; I'll probably pick up a sack of MO or GP next time I buy base grains so I can try something with a little more character.

Chinook won't conflict with the others. All of these Pacific NW hops work excellently together in American IPAs. With Chinook, you'll get more grapefruit with a spicy pine backnote... not mostly pine and minimal grapefruit. Amarillo will give you a unique, pleasant fruity & floral citrus base, but the citrus is not as bright as Cascade. Citra will give you a potent melony fruitiness. Be careful with Citra... a little bit goes a long way. Amarillo and Citra are great as a pair though. Don't overlook Centennial either... it has a little bit of everything mentioned here.

brewski08 said:

OG and IBUs look good.

Just out of curiosity, why are you using 5 lbs of two row brewers malt with your other 2 row base grain?

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. I am a fan of simple recipes though and IMHO I would simplify the hop bill to 2 varieties for flavor and aroma. Centennial and Amarillo would get what you are looking for without too much complexity and then I would dry hop with the simcoe and amarillo instead of using it in the boil. this is the only way I've found to ensure no cat pee smell when using simcoe. This is simply nit picking though as the numbers look like a good recipe.

Thanks, guys. I probably won't be able to brew this weekend like I'd hoped, so I have another week or so to decide exactly what I want to do.

Bring mash temp to 149-150 for 75 minutes...no point at 147 unless you want to wait 2 hours to convert.

Bring C40 to .75 - 1 lb. - .5 not enough caramel in all that two row
Bring Dextrin to .5 lb. - will add body in a beer you want dry
drop some two row and add sugar, this will dry it out....or ferment 80% of the way and then add a concentrated sugar syrup (pasteurized of course).
Make a big 1.5-2 liter starter or it will finish sweet for sure. Or use 3-4 packages of that yeast. Make sure to aerate wort after pitching.

IBUs should be at least 90 for that ABV. Ferment at 68 firm. Dry hopping 10 days can lead to grassy tones, 7 is ample at 68 degrees.

Hops look good, Chinook and Citra blend fine. What I get from my nose is

Chinook - Pine dominates in a mix
Amarillo - Mango dominates
Citra - Grapefruit dominates
Centennial - Citrus fruit tones/spice dominates....I'd combine the citra 50/50 with Amarillo maybe, and add some Simcoe around 10-15 minutes for 'dank' flavoring which could bump your IBUS to 90.