Brewing two IPAs this weekend

[Birdskull]

I'm brewing a "regular" IPA and a double IPA this weekend as my 2nd and 3rd brews. As I'm pretty darn new at this, I hoped some of ye olde brewers would have a look at my recipes and comment on anything that might be "off" with them.

NB! Everything is listed in metrics

Green Bastard IPA
Yeast: US-05
OG: 1,065 - FG: 1,013
0,25 kg Caramalt 10L
2,6 kg Light DME
0,75 kg Amber DME
0,2 kg sugar

Hops
60 - 30g Columbus
30 - 20g Columbus
15g Ahtanum
10 - 20g Ahtanum
5 - 10g Ahtanum
Dry hop - 45g Ahtanum


Imperial Idiot IPA
Yeast: US-05
OG: 1,079 - FG: 1,012
0,8 kg Caramalt 10L
3 kg Light DME
0,5 kg Amber DME
0,5 kg Sugar

Hops
60 - 50g Columbus
20 - 15g Citra
15g Simcoe
10 - 20g Cascade
20g Simcoe
5 - 20g Simcoe
10g Citra
Dry hop - 20g Cascade, 20g Simcoe, 10g Citra

I also want to add a small-ish amount of honey to the IIPA (about 0,3kg), and I'm thinking it should be added to secondary, due to the boil will remove a lot of the taste... right...?

 

[Slainte-brew]

If you want honey taste use honey malt. Honey will ferment out and leave a dryer finish, and you are already adding sugar. Why not just up the extract rather than add the sugar?

Also your hops look good but you could cut out the 30 and 20 minute additions and take them to flameout.

The 05 is a good yeast. Always had good experience with it.

 

[Birdskull]

I'm using sugar to dry out the beer. I have a suspicion the amber DME I'm using isn't as fermentable as I want it to be. :/ I don't want these ones to end up 7 points away from the est. FG, like my 1st brew.

Alas, I can't get my hands on any honey malt in time, and I haven't really found any in the norwegian shops either. Would it all ferment out if I add it to secondary? I would have thought the yeast would be tired enough to leave it alone at that point.

 

[Slainte-brew]

Yeah, honey is almost 100% fermentable. It is a more simple sugar for them to digest so they will go eat that right away.

You should start looking into partial mash or Brew In A Bag (BIAB) if you arent confident in your extracts.

 

[rhamilton]

Get a standard hop schedule and stick to it -- it'll make life easier and the recipes will be easier to tweak down the line. Personally I'd move everything into either full boil (60 min), flavor (15min), and aroma (5min-0min) so ditch the random 20 min addition.

Keep adjunct sugars to <20% by weight and you'll be fine. Honey or table sugar -- no real difference in terms of sugar points. Honey will of course have more 'character'.

 

[Birdskull]

You should start looking into partial mash or Brew In A Bag (BIAB) if you arent confident in your extracts.

It's not that I'm not confident in extract brewing, I'm just not very confident in that particular DME. Moving over to using only light and extra light as a basis, and using cara/crystal for colour and malty taste.

 

[Birdskull]

Measured SG on these on monday. The IPA have (probably) stopped at 1.024, and the DIPA (that was brewed 6 days later) have reached 1.016! I'm VERY happy about this, and the fact that the honey in the DIPA is coming through very nicely in the aroma.

Both have been fermenting at temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees celsius.

Taste is good on both, but I think we should have used more flavouring hops in the regular IPA. We'll see as time goes by how it'll develop.. Oh well, time to dry hop them pretty soon.

The cascade, simcoe, and citra blend in the DIPA seemed to be pretty good, giving a pleasant hop-taste. The Ahtanum in the IPA I'm not so sure about. I'll have to see after the brew is actually done.

 

[Birdskull]

Both done, both tasted. Not too big a fan of the regular IPA. Too dank for me, but those that have tasted it seem to like it. I think I would have preferred a floral/citrusy hop to the willamette/ahtanum I ended up using.

I ended up adding 300 grams of honey to the DIPA after 3 days in the primary, and it's real easy to pick that aroma and taste out when you drink it. I've read a lot of people saying the taste would be almost eradicated after fermentation. Needless to say, I don't believe that any longer. All in all very satisfied with these IPA's, even if the regular IPA wasn't my cup of... beer..

If anyone is interested, I can put up both recipes here in the morning (the ones up top aren't the ones I brewed).