Can someone critique my recipe idea? New to recipe designing. Any input appreciated

[sledgewinston]

Here's what I have come up with:

Style: American IPA

6.00 Gallon batch Single Step Mash at 150F for 60 mins

Malts: 8lbs Pale 2-Row (American)
3lbs Pilsner 2-Row (German)
1lb Crystal 40L
1lb Carapils/Dextrine
0.75lb Flaked Wheat

Hops:
0.5oz Apollo 60 min
0.25 Simcoe 15 min
0.25 Galaxy 15min
0.25 Centennial 15 min
0.25 Amarillo 15 min
0.25 Simcoe 5 min
0.25 Galaxy 5min
0.25 Centennial 5 min
0.25 Amarillo 5 min
0.25 Simcoe Hopestand at flameout
0.25 Galaxy Hopstand at flameout
0.25 Centennial Hopstand at flameout
0.25 Amarillo Hopstand at flameout
Also considering dry hopping with same additions

Yeast: Vermont IPA (Giga Yeast #GY054) w/ yeast starter

Misc: Yeast nutrient 1 tsp 10 min boil 5.2 Stabilizer 1 tbsp Mash 60 min

 

[Redlantern]

cut crystal and carapils a little. you are over 14% with the two put together. add that to the flaked wheat and you may just have shaving cream. Good body for sure, but maybe a bit more than required. That is my personal preference as I HATE cutting through foam to get to get at an IPA.

Good bet is that you can drop that carapils and add that to the 2-row.

Yeast nutrient and 5.2 may not really be all that necessary. Read the forums for that stuff.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

1. Cut the crystal malt by at least half. That's way too much

2. Not enough late addition hops. Only 2.5oz. That's pale ale territory. Up that to at least 5-6 ounces.

3. 5.2 stabilizer is a scam, throw it out

4. mash temp looks good. what is your water profile?

 

[behindthetimes]

For an IPA I'd probably use twice as much hops as you've listed, and put them in at 5 & flameout. I'd move the 15 min hops to 5 min or flameout. I'd half the crystal, drop the carapils and change .75 flaked wheat to 1lb wheat malt. I would NOT use 5.2 (ever). But in this beer, surely it would have a negative impact on flavor. If you're worried about mash pH: if you have moderately or highly hard water, I wouldn't worry about it for this recipe (although I'd still look into learning water chemistry and bringing it into range for future brews). If you're using softer water, replace a bit of your 2-row with acid malt, maybe 3-5% of the grain bill. I like the hops combo, sounds tasty.

 

[jurgenph]

would like to know why you're adding pilsner malt to the bill, instead of just using all us 2-row? won't it just get lost in there?


J.

 

[sledgewinston]

This is from my local brew shop.. again I'm pretty new to this so I'm not sure how to accurately read this profile and know what to do with it. Other than 5.2 (which I've heard isn't always a good thing to use) I've yet to learn alternate ways to change the water profile.

 

[sledgewinston]

would like to know why you're adding pilsner malt to the bill, instead of just using all us 2-row? won't it just get lost in there?


J.

To be honest, I don't have any good reason other than I've noticed in the grain bills in beers that I really enjoy sometimes they use pilsner alongside 2-row. At this point I'm just trying to gather what I can and learn from brewers and beers that I like and take what I can from them. On the other hand, I've also read pilsner is only really useful when it's by itself which totally makes sense.

 

[sledgewinston]

1. Cut the crystal malt by at least half. That's way too much

2. Not enough late addition hops. Only 2.5oz. That's pale ale territory. Up that to at least 5-6 ounces.

3. 5.2 stabilizer is a scam, throw it out

4. mash temp looks good. what is your water profile?

I posted the water profile from my city above^
Not quite sure how to read it/what to take from it.
Any help with that would be appreciated!

 

[behindthetimes]

I'm guessing your in PDX, I'm right across the river in Vancouver and am jealous of your water. For the purposes of homebrewing, you can essentially work with it like you'd work with distilled. Basically what the water report tells you is that you have almost negligible ionic content. For your IPA, I'd replace enough of your base malt with acid malt, so that acid malt is 5% of your total grain bill. That will keep your mash pH reasonably in check. I've been building my own water profiles for many years of brewing, I'll PM you something I wrote for someone else as a primer on the subject. There are good primers on this forum as well. Ironically, with such pristine water, you really will need to know about this stuff... harder water can actually be a bit easier to work with for many beer styles. Also, I like your 2-row / pilsner split, I've done that a bunch of times, especially good results with American wheats but also appropriate here.

 

[sledgewinston]

I'm guessing your in PDX, I'm right across the river in Vancouver and am jealous of your water. For the purposes of homebrewing, you can essentially work with it like you'd work with distilled. Basically what the water report tells you is that you have almost negligible ionic content. For your IPA, I'd replace enough of your base malt with acid malt, so that acid malt is 5% of your total grain bill. That will keep your mash pH reasonably in check. I've been building my own water profiles for many years of brewing, I'll PM you something I wrote for someone else as a primer on the subject. There are good primers on this forum as well. Ironically, with such pristine water, you really will need to know about this stuff... harder water can actually be a bit easier to work with for many beer styles. Also, I like your 2-row / pilsner split, I've done that a bunch of times, especially good results with American wheats but also appropriate here.

Actually, I'm in Portland, Maine. So I'm assuming that means my water is extremely soft? Would replacing some of my base malts with a little acid malt be something I'd always want to use when making ale types? I've read that darker malts help with the pH balance so if I were to make a darker beer I wouldnt need to use acids, yeah? Also thanks for the water PM, ill look into it when i get out of work

 

[slym2none]

I agree with people who say cut/remove the Crystal & Carapils.

Also, more hops better good.

 

[behindthetimes]

I went ahead and ran your recipe through Brewers Friend water calculator, which is what I use. I used your water profile and no mineral additions. Your mash pH was going to be 5.7. Not horrible, but not ideal. Using your recipe as posted, if I replace a 1/2lb of your base malt with 1/2lb of acid malt, your mash pH is 5.3. Perfect for this brew in my opinion. When I calculate one of my stout recipes against your water profile, I get a mash pH of 5.45, which I'd actually brew with. If you wanted it lower, I only need 1/5lb of acid malt to bring it to 5.3. Looks like you might be OK using acid malt instead of really needing to directly add acid. Hopefully that gives you something to go on.

 

[Kent88]

When you ask for a recipe critique, please include the style in the thread title. That way you wont have a bunch of people who usually make stouts and lagers looking in on your IPA recipe.

 

[sledgewinston]

I went ahead and ran your recipe through Brewers Friend water calculator, which is what I use. I used your water profile and no mineral additions. Your mash pH was going to be 5.7. Not horrible, but not ideal. Using your recipe as posted, if I replace a 1/2lb of your base malt with 1/2lb of acid malt, your mash pH is 5.3. Perfect for this brew in my opinion. When I calculate one of my stout recipes against your water profile, I get a mash pH of 5.45, which I'd actually brew with. If you wanted it lower, I only need 1/5lb of acid malt to bring it to 5.3. Looks like you might be OK using acid malt instead of really needing to directly add acid. Hopefully that gives you something to go on.

Thank you, that is very useful information. I went onto Brewer's Friend water calculator and couldn't figure out where I can actually enter a beer recipe, only the water profile. Any way you can direct me to what you were using?

 

[sledgewinston]

When you ask for a recipe critique, please include the style in the thread title.

Thanks, new to this forum. Duly noted