Help! New brewer needs steeping grains idea for IPA.

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rhkates

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Hello All!

Long time lurker and finally have a question worth posting. Most other questions have been answered by sifting through the forums which has been awesome for a new brewer. Looking to make my 3rd extract 5 gallon batch and have most of what I need for an IPA but need help in which steeping grains to purchase. Below is what I have on hand and I'm willing to use all ingredients I have in the right recipe but don't necessarily have to. Looking for a hoppy beer that drinks like a low IBU session but has a high ABV. Hope this helps and willing to answer or clarify anything that'll help. Any suggestions would be great and look forward to hearing them. Thanks in advance!

6.6 lbs Muntons Light LME
2 lbs CBW Golden Light DME
2 lbs CBW Bavarian Wheat DME
5 oz Simcoe
3 oz Columbus
2 oz Apollo
2 oz Amarillo
2 oz Centennial
2 oz Apollo
1 oz Warrior
Safale US-05, 11.5 grams
Brewers Best Priming Sugar, 5 oz
 
Do you use beer smith or any of those recipe tools? Keep your hops for later addition to minimize IBU contributions. Warrior hops are for straight up bittering so be conservative with them. 8.6 pounds of malts aren't going to do much for abv in a 5 gallon batch so you'll have to add something else for the yeast to ferment. More DME or whatever kind of sugar you can come up with. Steeping grains aren't going to do much for fermentable contribution. They're adding mostly flavor.
 
I recommend no steeping grains. Zero.

With the extract listed you will have enough poorly fermentable sugars already. More than you need in an IPA.
 
I recommend no steeping grains. Zero.

With the extract listed you will have enough poorly fermentable sugars already. More than you need in an IPA.

+1

And i recommend replace one pound of the golden light with a half or a full pound of sugar. All extract ends up being more malty than I'd want for an IPA.

Once every couple months I do a lazy IPA. one 4# can of Alexander's pale malt and a quarter pound of sugar for a 3 gallon batch. All flameout hops. I do it cuz it's super fast and easy, and tasty... And I steal some unhopped wort to feed my bug collection carboy.
 
I think your finished product may turn out too malty, even without adding grains. I used amounts of extract like that on some of my early brews (shooting for high ABV), and even with pitching double yeast, they all turned out too sweet and malty. Anyway, I just completed my first year of extract brewing. 150+ gallons including 10 IPA recipes. Every batch had steeping grains, until recently. I got a little burned out on brewing time and cost, so I bought some hops by the pound and decided to do four extract-only IPA batches. In each, I used 6# of DME, 1# dextrose or belgian candy syrup, plus a little bit of rice syrup solids and maltodexterin (0.25# each I think). I used 2 packs of various dry yeast in each one and dry hopped. I was surprised how easy/fast they were to brew and how good they all turned out. They weren't malty at all, and came in around 6-7% abv. My IPA friends really like them and I prefer them over my favorite IPAs from my local breweries.
Back to your real question. One of my favorite IPAs is Lunch by Maine Beer Co. On their site, they list the grains they use in it. For a couple of my previous batches, I guessed and experimented with a mix of DME and those grains, and came out with some really delicious beer, quite similar to Lunch. I recommend looking up your favorite commercial IPAs (or top rated ones) and see if they post info about the ingredients and give it a try. Good luck!
 
It would be helpful to know your "hop schedule"...meaning at what timepoint will they be added. The same hop added at 60min will contribute much differently than the same hop at flameout.
 
Keep it simple and stick to one type of DME for a base. Muntons Light is perfect. That hop selection, minus the Warrior, is stellar. So maybe add the Warrior to a full-rolling boil at boil start, and then pound out the rest of your hops at flameout and dryhop. You could even cut back on 2 oz. Apollo and 1.5 oz Columbus; save those hops for another recipe.

I also agree with steeping no grains. You will have a better beer by keeping it simple when brewing extract -- Extract already contains a portion of crystal malt and/or carapils, so doubling up would be redundant.
 
Thanks everyone for chiming in with some suggestions. Been slammed with work lately and life in general so apologize for not posting sooner. I've taken into consideration the amount of malt extract and think I will drop the Bavarian wheat to either 1 lb. or not at all. I downloaded BeerSmith mobile which was helpful in crafting the recipe and got my numbers where I want. Below is my brew schedule that will answer some of the questions posted. Thanks again for the input and plan on brewing this in the next couple of days. Cheers!

2 lbs. Golden Light DME at :60
1 oz. Warrior at :60
6.6 lbs. Light LME at :15

Flameout:
2 oz Simcoe
1 of Columbus
.5 oz Apollo

Hop Stand (Wort at 180 degrees)
1 oz Columbus
1 oz Simcoe
1 oz Amarillo
.5 oz Centennial
.5 oz Apollo

Dry Hopping (split evenly between primary and secondary)
2 oz Simcoe
1 oz Columbus
1 oz Amarillo
1 oz Centennial
.5 oz Apollo

6.22% ABV
35.1 IBU's
7.8 SRM
 
Don't use a secondary. The pro's don't outweigh the con's and you could ruin your beer unless extremely careful.

You'll want some boil hops for an IPA of that gravity. The bitterness will help to balance out the malt sweetness. 1 oz. Warrior at 60 min should work. Split the rest of the hops at Hop Stand and Dry Hop. Don't do a flameout here since you'll have enough IBUs from the Warrior hops at boil start. If you have leftover hops then save them for another recipe.

How does the final gravity look? If it's too high, you could replace say 6-8% of DME with sucrose or corn sugar. The result will be a drier beer, which is good for an IPA, especially an extract IPA.

Edit: Simcoe, Amarillo & Centennial should be the most fragrant of the bunch. I would save those for the dryhop, where you will get most of your aroma.
 
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