Trouble With My IPA

Ok, so I really love the 90-minute and 120-minute IPA from Dogfish Head Brewery. I would like to try and simulate the taste as much as possible, but the IPA I recently made came out more like hop tea and I don't even want to drink it. I was really disappointed. I did want a very strong hop character, and while I got that, it didn't have the well balanced malt flavor of the Dogfish Head. So here is my recipee. I hope that you all might offer some advice to a beginner.

Grains
1.25 lbs Crystal Malt 45L (steeped 45 min @ 140-150 degrees F)

Malts
6.00 lbs Light LME (American)
2.00 lbs Amber LME (British)

Hops
3.00 Oz Galina Hops (Pellets 12% AA) 60 min
2.00 Oz Centennial Hops (Pellets 9.6% AA) 45 min
1.00 Oz Centennial Hops (Whole 10.4% AA) Aroma

Yeast
California Ale Yeast - Liquid

Boil Volume: 2.00 gallons
Final Volume: 5.00 gallons

SG 1.054
FG 1.012

** The brew was in the primary fermenter for 8 days. I then racked into another carboy over 3 Oz of Centennial Hops, which, in hind-sight was probably excessive. The brew was in the second carboy for 7 days before it was kegged.

Ultimately, I think it tastes horrible. Things I have considered changing are the amount of malts, my boil volumle, and my hops. As to the hops, I think I would like to use Amrillo and Hercules if I can ever get them at the Homebrew Store here in Tallahassee. Well, that is about it. PLEASE HELP.

holy cow. I'm not an expert, but dryhopping 3oz of a 9.6% hop in a carboy is probably where you recipe really hit the bricks. I think 1oz of a 5% hop is plenty to dryhop with, and you've tripled the quantity with double the AA%.

Thats probably pretty harsh. Sorry dude, maybe you could cook with it?

You have to many hops bittering hops and and then another addition at 15 minutes. It's no wonder that thing is bitter. When I input those additions into Promash at 5 gallons I get 227 IBU's. I don't know the specifics of Dogfish Head but it can't be that high.

Looks to me like you have way to much hops and not enough boil volume. According to ProMash you have a calculated OG of 1.066 and 114.5 IBUs based on a 2 gallon boil. If I were you I would add a pound of light LME, reduce bittering hops to 2.5oz, reduce flavor hops to 1.5oz, and reduce dry hopping amount to 1.5oz.

Less hops, or less bittering hops and some more grains maybe? That's a ton of bittering hops at 60 minutes!


Dan

The recipator only calculated 70 something IBUs, and, to be honest with you, the beer was not bitter. The problem as someone mentioned is probably the dry hopping. It just completely overpowered the beer. To address the bitterness once again, though, to me it actually tastes less bitter than the Anchor Steam IPA.

Denubis,

Yup, lots of hops.
I am, as I type, brewing 8 Lbs of DME in 5 gallons of water.
I will add 3/4 oz bittering hops,
and 1/2 oz each of flavoring and aroma hops.
I tried 3/4 oz and up to as much as 1 oz of flavoring and aroma hops,
{Fuggles and Hallertau}
and as much as 1 oz of bittering hops, {warrior}.
for the same recipe,
and now am going back down to a sweeter ale.
Hops are alright but too much is 'dry' and too little is 'sweet'.

3 oz of hops in one batch of 8 Lb hammer is plenty for my tastes.

Half of that tastes better however.
I like to mix them up however.

There ain't no rule it depends on your own tastes,
the tastes of the brewer.
Thats what they tell me at the Homebrew Headquarters.


Tschuess
Das Messer

Let it age a bit. In a couple months it may be just what you wanted.

Thank you all for your advice and I will definately consider everything you've said. Incidentally, I made a imperial stout recently that came out pretty good. So, I have something to be happy about.

There is a recipe out there at beertools.com called Sandshark IPA. It is supposed to be close to DFH 90 min. I just did it (with some modifications) and it smells great, i know that it doesnt mean anything yet but its a start.

I'm a noobie but I noticed your OG was 1.054 while DF-90 is ~1.090. If you used a similar amount of hops then the hops in your beer is going to seem much stronger. It appears to me if you want to target Dogfish Head 90-min IPA you need alot more malt.
Craig

I agree with CBBaron. DFH 90min is 9% ABV. You're going to get about 5% with your recipe. Also, without any crystal or munich or other specialty grains, you're not going to get that residual malty sweetness to balance the hops. I would guess the beer is a bit on the dry side, hence the hop tea flavor.

I agree. My first AG, an IPA is beginning to mellow a bit but it's definitely way too dry. The hops are dominating a bit too much. I used crystal, carared and melanoiden as 20% of my grain bill but I mashed at a lower temp than originally planned. I was going for 155 but ended up closer to 150.

If it doesn't mellow a bit more, I may have to consider adding a bit of lactose to the keg. What I have been doing is mixing it will half oktoberfest from another keg which turns it into a very nice hoppy amber.

My first brew, a whole 4 months ago, tasted horrible initially: really bitter and too hoppy. I added the dry hops into the pot and boiled them away. Total newbie mistake.

BUT.....

After a bit of time it is actually pretty tasty. In fact after a few other beers it's
REALLY TASTY.

Ain't AGE GRAND!!!!

Dry hops aren't the problem, and AA% doesn't matter on dry hopping. It was the hops at 60 and 45 min that were the problem. The 3 oz of galena alone were probably too much for bittering. I would have moved the 2 oz of cascade to the last 15 min, say 1 oz at 15 and 1 oz at 5, and go with the rest as you did.

Here's a better version of the same recipe:

Same extract and hops

0.75 oz Galena 60 min
1 oz Centennial 15 min
1 oz Centennial 5 min
1 oz Centennial 0 min

Dry hop 2 oz Centennial

That would be a nice hoppy IPA with nice Centennial flavor and aroma

Wow, I was hoping for so many responses. In response to brewsmith's post, and I mean no offense, the brew did not end up tasting bitter at all. I thought that if anything was going to be off in the taste that it would be that. However, the taste is more watered-down, a bit dry and off-the-charts hoppy. I do think I will let it age a bit. In fact, I haven't tried since I started this post. Maybe this weekend I will give it a go.

I just ordered an American IPA from AHB and your recipe is about the same minus the dry hopping. Like you i love the hop thing but i would think that with all of the three different hops added during the boil, the dry hop is unnecessary. although from what i understand about the dry hopping it is not supposed too add any bittering unless it is boiled. The recipe that i have says that it need to condition in the bottle for at least three weeks. Hopefully it will turn out, lord know that wasted beer is a sin!

cheers

The dry hop is all for aroma and it's icing on the cake.

So what don't you like about it? I have heard several times that the DFH120 and 90 are very difficult to brew and most throw their attempts away. Don't be discouraged by that, just remember that you are taking on a very challenging project. I think the 120 is around 18-20 %ABV, which beer yeast don't do naturally.

I've got a 90min DFH clone in the secondary right now. I should be bottling it in two weeks. I'm not sure (the recipe is at home in my BYO 150 book), but I think mine had two more lbs of DME. It also had 3oz I think of bittering hops and 3oz dry.

The key, I believe, w/ the DFH is the continous addition of bittering hops. I, of course, had a 90 min boil after a 45 min steep. At 60 min, I started adding my bittering hops, equal amounts every 7.5minutes. It was definately a pretty intensive brew for only my 4th brew. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm pretty sure, it'll do the job. OG was 1.090.