Dry IPA Recipe

I have decided on the grains I want to use for my IPA but I need help in putting them together. Heres what im thinking.
Grain Bill
- 2 row pale 12lb
- Cara pills .5lb
- Crystal 40 and 60 .5 lb each
adjuncts
- light candy sugar .5 lb
Hops
- ctz - 60 min
- all the citrus hops available at my local home brew store. Probably lots of Amarillo, Cascade, citra and simcoe if im lucky. (15 min, 10 min, 5 min and 0 min)
Ill use at least 5 oz in the boil and then probably 4 or 5 for dryhop.

Please let me know what you think of the grain bill. I'm all about this IPA being very dry and hop forward. Do you think I should use .5lb candy sugar or 1lb?

My efficiency is around 70%.

if you are looking for dry, why not just swap the candi sugar to dextrose and save some money

For dry, mash between 148-151 F for 60 min. You might also want to toss out the C40 and C60 completely and use 4-5% total C10 or C20 instead, of which approx. 0.60 lbs. of total crystal malt should be used. 1 lb. would be a bit much if dry is the goal.

I also agree on the above corn sugar recommendation. Get yourself a high attenuating, clean Cali ale yeast strain and make an appropriate sized, healthy yeast starter.

With your 5 oz. hops in the boil, bitter to 30-45 IBUs, then blast with late additions, and add 2 oz. for a whirlpool/warm aroma steep. Proceed with 4 oz. dryhop for 7 days.

bobbrews said:

For dry, mash between 148-151 F for 60 min. You might also want to toss out the C40 and C60 completely and use 4-5% total C10 or C20 instead, of which approx. 0.60 lbs. of total crystal malt should be used. 1 lb. would be a bit much if dry is the goal.

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Or, instead of using ANY crystal at all, sub it out with a different malt- say .5 pound of victory, or .35 pound of amber malt.

Like this:
12 pounds two-row
1 pound wheat malt (for head retention)
.5 pound victory (or .35 pound amber malt)
1 pound corn sugar (if desired to reach OG)

That would be a nice, dry finishing IPA grainbill. And I agree with bob's hopping!

I'm all for removing crystal malt entirely in an IPA build. But since I'm a fan of the pale, dry, bright, hop forward selections from breweries such as Maine Beer Co. and Kern River, I'd rather not sub it with a deep, toasty, nutty malt like Victory. I'd sub it with something more pale and less sweet, but still with having some character, like wheat or light munich. Some people prefer the maltier selections like HopDevil and Dogfish 60. If that's the case, then adding some Amber, Aromatic, or Victory malt would be nice.

I'd rather do massive late hop additions for flavoring and aroma than dry hop. I find it works better at managing potentially grassy flavors in an IPA.

As a tip, you might try mashing at 145f. Stone brewing uses this mash temperature religiously on their IPA's. They claim it produces a much cleaner, crisper IPA.

Thanks guys,

I think I'm going to go with:
Grain bill--
American 2 row - 11 lb
Cara Pils (for body) -1 lb ( I prefer it over wheat)
Crystal 10 - .5 lb
Crystal 20 - .25 lb
Dextrose - 1 lb
Hops - all pellets
CTZ - 1 oz (60 min)
Amarillo, Cascade, Cirta, Centennial, all at 15, 10 and 5 and dry hop for 7 days.

so just tested 2 bottles, 1 yesterday, 1 tonight. Good hop aroma, but it has a major popcorn aroma/ flavor. Bummer. It has only been in bottles for about 8 days. Ended up being about 7% abv. Has anyone had this before?

How long was it in primary? Diacetyl can remain in your beer if the primary isn't long enough for the yeast to clean it up.

I'm not sure if there is much of a way to clean up that flavor now that it is out of fermentation. Maybe try letting the bottles gradually heat up and see if the little yeast in the bottles can clean it up over time?

It was in primary for 2 weeks.

Odd, that should usually be long enough. Hopefully it will fade with time.

aiptasia said:

I'd rather do massive late hop additions for flavoring and aroma than dry hop. I find it works better at managing potentially grassy flavors in an IPA.

As a tip, you might try mashing at 145f. Stone brewing uses this mash temperature religiously on their IPA's. They claim it produces a much cleaner, crisper IPA.

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Wow, someone who agrees with me.