American IPA

[JohnSmith]

Hi everyone, the following recipe is one I just made, it has finished fermenting and will be bottled this weekend. The hygrometer sample tastes amazing already, I cannot wait to taste after a few weeks to a months conditioning.

Taken straight from Beer smith:

Batch Size: 6.60 gal

Boil Time: 60 min

Mash time: 90 min

Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage - 7 days

Equipment: Pot and Cooler


Ingredients

6 lbs 9.6 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
4 lbs 6.4 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2 lbs 3.2 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
2 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)

0.70 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 16.6 IBUs
0.35 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 4.2 IBUs
0.35 oz Mosaic (HBC 369) [12.25 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.7 IBUs
0.35 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 3.9 IBUs
0.70 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 4.0 IBUs


1.0 pkg Safale American #US-05


Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.4 %
Bitterness: 32.3 IBUs
Est Color: 12.4 SRM

Measured Original Gravity: 1.068 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG


I know the IBU on this a pretty low for an IPA but I find in this case (so far anyway) the bitterness is just nice, I could handle a little more bitterness but I will experiment in future batches with more. In this batch I am also not dry hopping, I will make a future batch and dry hop for 7 days with:

10g Simcoe
10g citra
10g Galaxy
10g mosaic

Just taking small steps to find out exactly where I hit my limit and over power things Theres a great bar called Bent Spoke here that makes great beer and they are nice enough to list the hops they use on their beer menu, it really helps when I need ideas to spend some time there.

Cheers

 

[m00ps]

That looks a lot more like an English IPA to me. Its got far too much crystal for an American style one and not enough hops. English IPAs are typically sweeter than American style ones and have a much less assertive hop character. I know you are trying to take small steps but next time I would honestly try tripling all those hop additions aside from the initial bittering one and maybe moving some to flameout

 

[eauclairedan]

I bet it will be fantastic! With the "overly-hopped" trend everywhere lately I sometimes enjoy having some malt-forward IPA bottles on hand. Sometimes a malt-bill such as yours brings out different hop characteristics as well. Enjoy!

 

[ConorO]

The addition of wheat malt seems very interesting to me . . . How do you think it affects the IPA? As for the hop additions, I recently brewed a IIPA and used 9 oz of hops . . . granted, 2 oz of those were for a dry hop. However, I used Pale Malt as the base with a bit of Biscuit and Crystal 60. I mashed high to get a bit of residual sweetness. The result was a bold, hop-forward beer with a nice mouthfeel and smooth finish. Some like their IPAs drier, but if you're looking for a sweeter IPA, it's most certainly possible.

 

[m00ps]

I use 20 to 30%wheat in every one of my ipas. It helps with body ,head retention, and Can bring out a juicy flavor in the hops

I wrote in depth about it in that ipa article on the homepage

 

[JohnSmith]

Thanks for the encouragement and input guys. Honestly looking forward to making a few more batches to experiment. Once this has aged a little while I'll post an update.

Thanks again.

 

[Ungoliant]

Silly question...What do you mean by "weeks to months?"
Not to nitpick, but I wouldn't age an IPA much past it's required time for bottling. You can lose hop character that way, from what I understand.

 

[JohnSmith]

Silly question...What do you mean by "weeks to months?"
Not to nitpick, but I wouldn't age an IPA much past it's required time for bottling. You can lose hop character that way, from what I understand.

All good mate, I meant age for 3 weeks up to one month. Ive drank an IPA after 2 weeks in the bottle and as I kept kept drinking the batch I really liked the flavors that were coming out and changing up to 6 weeks later, your right, some of the aromatic qualities do disappear quickly.