Hop Nog IIPA Recipe

I bought a kit from Brewer's Best called the "Hop Nog".

Ingredients:
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2 lbs. 20L Caramel malt (steeped 30 minutes @150)
1 lbs. Pilsen malt extract
6.6 lbs. Briess Pilsen UNhopped liquid malt extract
1.25 oz. Pacific Jade hops (12.9%) - bitter
1 oz. Cluster hops (7.9%) - flavor
1 oz. Cluster hops (7.9%) - aroma
1 packet SafAle US-05 yeast

I wanted to convert this into an IIPA, so I added the following:
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2.0 lbs. Extra Light DME
1 lb. table sugar
1 lb. light Karo syrup
2 oz. Simcoe hops (11.9%)
4 oz. Cascade hops (8.7% - plugs)
2 oz. Cascade leaf hops (7.2% and 6.0%) for dry-hopping
extra packet SafAle US-05 yeast

So, final recipe is:
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2.0 lb. 20L Caramel/Crystal malt (steeped @ 150F for 30 minutes)
6.6 lb. Pilsen UNhopped liquid malt extract
2.0 lb. Extra Light DME
1.0 lb. Pilsen DME
1.0 lb. light Karo syrup
1.0 lb. table sugar
1.25 oz. Pacific Jade pellet hops (12.9% @ 75 min)
2.00 oz. Simcoe pellet hops (11.9% @ 75 min)
2.00 oz. Cascade plug hops (8.7% @ 15 min)
1.00 oz. Cluster pellet hops (7.9% @ 15 min)
1 packet Irish Moss (15 min)
1 Whirlifloc table (15 min)
2.00 oz. Cascade plug hops (8.7% @ 5 min)
1.00 oz. Cluster pellet hops (7.9% @ 5 min)
Water to make 5.5 gallons
2 packets SafAle US-05 dry yeast (re-hydrated)
1.00 oz. Cascade leaf hops (6.0%) dry-hopping in seconary
1.00 oz. Cascade leaf hops (7.2%) dry-hopping in keg

Beer Smith puts my estimated OG at 1.091 (slightly higher than the IIPA style limits). I'm expecting an FG of about 1.023. Estimated color is 9.8 SRM. IBUs calculated to be 110.1. ABV expected is 8.90%.

How does this look? I want an IIPA, NOT a barleywine. What do you think?

Thanks!!!

First, your IBUs will probably max out at 100 (especially if you're not doing a full boil). After that point, alpha acid starts to drop out of solution. Also, why are you using table sugar AND Karo? Why not scrap them both for corn sugar if you're going to use a sugar? Any reason you're using both irish moss and whirlfloc? Personally, I would scrap both of them and rehydrate a tablespoon of gelatin into your beer a couple of days before bottling.

Well, done is done, but here are my reasons:

1. per pound cost of table sugar (or karo) is much less than corn sugar. Karo syrup is also made from corn sugar, so it's pretty much a pound for pound substitution. I would have used 2 lbs. table sugar, but had already started and only had 1 lb. on hand.
2. Since there's a lot of crap in solution from the hops and all the malt, I just thought I'd make sure to have enough of the Irish Moss products. I've been told that (within reason) you can't really have too much, so I used the Irish Moss included in the kit and added a Whirlifloc tablet to make sure I had good enough coverage.

Also, I had to make one minor modification:
I dropped the first packet of US-05 on the floor and didn't have another spare, so I ended up pitching 1 packet of US-05 and 1 of Nottingham.

Thanks for looking!

Watch out with Karo. It's not just corn sugar and water, but also has sodium. In fact, it has 454 mg of sodium in 1 lb of syrup. Also, a 16 oz bottle ($2.99) has 1 lb of pure corn sugar. At midwest supplies, the 1 lb pack goes for $2.00, but why would you buy that when you can get the 4 lb pack at $1.24 per lb? The cheap table sugar is $0.75 per lb, but you'll get cidery off-flavors if you use too much.

And yes, you can add too much Irish Moss. It can end up tasting like seaweed. Try the gelatin on one batch and it'll be so clear you'll wonder why irish moss was ever used for beer.

Karo syrup is a standard ingredient used to boost the alcohol percentage without adding body. I don't know why you're ragging it. It's also known as Lyle's Golden Syrup (that's the British version).

Again, look at my ingredients list and you'll see that I've used 1 lb. of each. They don't add a whole lot to the overall brew. The malt in the brew will provide the flavor; the simpler sugars will not.

MBM30075 said:

Karo syrup is a standard ingredient used to boost the alcohol percentage without adding body. I don't know why you're ragging it. It's also known as Lyle's Golden Syrup (that's the British version).

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Who's standards? Most people use pure cane or corn sugar without all that extra crap in there. In addition, Lyles is inverted cane sugar (no corn) and is nothing like Karo.

Thanks for telling me. My LHBS worker is an idiot. Sorry for being so sure about something that was wrong. I guess that's how we learn, eh?

MBM30075 said:

Thanks for telling me. My LHBS worker is an idiot. Sorry for being so sure about something that was wrong. I guess that's how we learn, eh?

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Yeah. You know, I think most LHBSs are stupid. There's usually the one guy who's the brewer and actually can give good advice, but the rest almost certainly know less than you.

Well, I've definitely seen some good advice from my LHBS, and the person I was quoting above has steered me right almost every time (I think ), but I've also seen some definite iffy advice.

For example, the real brewer there (the owner) told me that it is not possible to simply brew a beer using only a primary. He very strongly said that it would result in autolysis. Now, I've seen some people on here who agree with him, but I've also read some stories of people who almost never use secondary and their beer is fine, too. Makes me wonder what other "facts" from the store are useless.

Oh, well, I guess that's how we live and learn.

Thanks!

Just an extra piece of information about Karo syrup is that unlike Lyle's Golden syrup, Karo contains vanilla to go along with the salt. It'll alter your flavor a fair amount. Unless you want a vanilla flavored beer, I wouldn't use it.

Yeah, I noticed that, but here's what I thought

Small amount of vanilla flavoring in karo syrup + Small amount of karo syrup in batch = not a whole lot of vanilla flavoring in the beer. Plus, with 100+ IBUs calculated and 1.096 OG, I'm assuming the vanilla will be overpowered.