Imperial Rye Ipa

I'm a noob looking for some tips and tweaks.
Really wanna go to town on this one.
This is the first recipe that I put together with beer smith.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This is all extract with Rye and Crystal 10L steeping grains.
Thinking About using Rogue Pacman yeast.

Imperial Rye Ipa
Brew Type: Extract Date: 1/20/2012
Style: Imperial IPA Brewer: James
Batch Size: 5.00 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 5.72 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
11.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 55.7 %
4.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 21.5 %
2.50 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 12.7 %
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00%] (60 min) Hops 31.0 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00%] (60 min) Hops 23.9 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (30 min) Hops 15.6 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 10.1 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (15 min) Hops 5.7 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops -
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Amylase Enzyme (Primary 3.0 days) Misc
4.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
2.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 10.1 %

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.104 SG (1.075-1.095 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.026 SG (1.012-1.020 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Color: 14.8 SRM (8.0-15.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 86.2 IBU (60.0-110.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 8.4 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 10.2 % (7.5-10.0 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 0.6 %
Actual Calories: 43 cal/pint

Looks good- you are going to have yourself a heavy beer. I don't know what your primary set-up looks like but you should think about making a starter and using a blowoff so your airlock doesn't get clogged and blow through the roof.

I don't know what your plans are but I see that you have the amylase enzyme in your primary for three days. I would also recommend letting your beer sit a little longer than 3 days in your primary. You want to let as much fermentation happen as possible before you jostle it to your secondary. I would go as far to say 7-14 days would be fine in your primary before you racked to secondary. With high gravity beers time is on your side.

Why did you add the 2lbs of corn sugar to the recipe?

You probably won't need that much corn sugar, unless you REALLY want to put it through the roof, it will dry the beer out some which is good, but you already have 11 lbs of extract and another 6.75 lbs of grain. I would hesitate before adding more fermentables because it will already be plenty strong.

I am brewing a similar style beer that can be seen here:

Good luck with your brew!
-Ben

I've only done one extract brew so my impute should be suspect, but I've done a lot of rye Ipa all grain.

I would add some mato dextrin, I think that recipe is going to be thin bodied.

Also I would do something like one pound of Crystal 30-50 insted of the crystal 10, you want the rye and hops to shine through. One more thing, your doing a high gravity Ipa. It's going to take some time for that to age,(not have a sharp bit). As an IPA ages it losses some of its bitterness and flavor. I would double the nugget and triple the Hallertaue at a 3 minuet schedule.

What ever you do rye IPA is good stuff.

Oh it was my first time using beersmith so I am not great with it yet, I plan on keeping it in the primary at least 10 days and the secondary for 10-14. Im using a 6.5 gallon ale pale as my fermenter with a standard airlock. Do you think it would be better to use my 5 gallon pete carboy with a blow off? I really wanted this to be around 10% abv without it it would be 8.4

Buba, 10% is getting into no mans land with a rye IPA. A 10% beer is going to take time to age, an IPA losses bitterness as it ages.

You need to step back and rethink this one because your about to make rocket fuel. 10% beer is not something a new guy should invest in, done it, did it, want a bottle?

7% high hops, high rye mmmmm good.

you should back WAY down on the crystal 21% is ridic high esp for an IIPA, plus most extract has some crystal malt in it as well

rye should be mashed, it will convert itself so just do an extended steep ~ 150-155° for 45-60min.

you shouldn't need amylase at all - it should be a last resort for a stuck fermentation; Pacman should have no problem getting your FG down

you should move the 30min additions later in the boil, you need way more late additions (20min or less) and some flameout additions would be ideal as well

your hop schedule seems a little odd as far as choices, you use citrusy american hops for flavor and some hallertauer but then dry hop with delicate flavored noble hops

there's nothing wrong with adding some dextrose to help keep the body light on an IIPA - 2lbs may be a little overkill if you cut back some of the crystal

I think Maltodextrin is out of place for this style as well IMHO

ok so this recipe obviously needs some tweeking, thanks for all your input. Gonna be cutting out the amylase. cutting back the crystal. Does one pound of corn syrup sound more reasonable? I'll do the extended steep, should i steep the crystal with the rye or separately? Anyone have a suggestion on the type of yeast to use? I havn't done a starter yet but I am planning to with this brew or maybe using wyeast, and i'll be messing around with the hops/ hop schedule later but I don't have time to at the moment.

you can steep/mash them together

1lb dextrose should be good

you may also want to consider upping the % of Rye if you want more noticeable impact, 20% is a pretty common amount

i think pacman is a good call for the yeast - you def want to have a large starter for whatever yeast you use unless you decide to go with dry yeast

I like to check out the recipe database to help with recipe formulation: India Pale Ale

take a look at some of the other IIPAs and get an idea of what their hopping schedules are

jamesr625 said:

Im using a 6.5 gallon ale pale as my fermenter with a standard airlock. Do you think it would be better to use my 5 gallon pete carboy with a blow off?

Click to expand...

I would definitely use the larger fermenter. You should be fine if you keep the water level at 5 gallons but I would keep a close eye on it. If you see krausen in the airlock then you might want to change to a blow-off.

I had one bad experience and now I generally start with a blow-off (especially for higher gravity beers) to be safe and then switch to an airlock after a couple of days when things seem to be settling down.