Critique my first IPA recipe (extract +special)

[BrainBeerBrewer]

I am shooting for a less bitter, but hoppy IPA (APA?), maybe even a little on the sweeter side. I want to do an IPA because I love the style, but most of the people who will be drinking the beer don't like bitter beers.

This is my first own formulated recipe, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Malts:
4oz Gambrinus Honey Malt (steeped)
12 oz crystal 20l Steeped
3.3 lbs Briess Light LME (60 min boil)
3.3 lbs Briess Light LME (15 min boil)

Hops:
1oz cascade, (60min)
1oz K.G. (10min)
1oz Cascade (10min
1oz KG (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1oz Cascade (0Min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (0 Min)
1 oz K.g. Dry hopped

yeast:
Safale Us-05 (1 packet)

Let me know what you think, I know its a lot of hops, but hopefully since they are all added late, it will be more flavor, less bitter.

 

[unionrdr]

That's about half the hops I used in mine. Cascade will give the usual grapefruit flavor. The Kent Golding has a lemon grass with earthy herbal flavors. But I think the Cascade will be stronger,but the KG dry hop may help that a little. And 9.9lbs of malt tells me you should use more hops like I did,since you have about 2.75lbs more malt than I used. I was planning on adding 1 more pound of malt to mine,so as to preserve more of the toasty/biscuity malt flavor.

 

[Yooper]

I''m not understanding the hopping- it's one ounce of cascades AND EKGs, at 30, 15, 0?

I usually use bittering hops at 60 minutes, but you can do them for only 30 minutes if you use enough of them.

I think you've got about .75 pounds too much of honey malt, though!

 

[BrainBeerBrewer]

I am actually thinking about cutting malts down to 6.6 (two cans). What is another hop that might be added that compliments these?


I would rather have it be a bit maltier than excessively bitter. Beer calculus has the IBUS at 36.9, which is about where I was thinking (bitter, but not overwhelming).

Yes, It is basically 2 oz of hops at each of the three timepoints for a total of 6oz.

I was reading a thread on here about "hop bursting", for a low ibu hoppy beer (ie not using bittering hops, but using more at later times in boil)


I had no idea how much of the honey malts to use, I am glad you brought it up, can you give me an idea what different levels of that would give me? or would you just suggest 1/4 lb?

 

[eltorrente]

Looks like it'll taste pretty good, though it looks more like a Pale Ale than an IPA.

With that much of an OG, I think you could use some more IBU's to balance it out. See how it turns out, and maybe bump the hops up a bit when you brew it again.

Edit: If you cut down on the extract used, definetley lower the honey malt or it'll be too much. Maybe 1/2lb honey malt, and another 1/2 or another malt for color or another character.

 

[Yooper]

I am actually thinking about cutting malts down to 6.6 (two cans). What is another hop that might be added that compliments these?


I would rather have it be a bit maltier than excessively bitter. Beer calculus has the IBUS at 36.9, which is about where I was thinking (bitter, but not overwhelming).

Yes, It is basically 2 oz of hops at each of the three timepoints for a total of 6oz.

I was reading a thread on here about "hop bursting", for a low ibu hoppy beer (ie not using bittering hops, but using more at later times in boil)


I had no idea how much of the honey malts to use, I am glad you brought it up, can you give me an idea what different levels of that would give me? or would you just suggest 1/4 lb?

Yes, hopsbursting is a good technique for lots of hoppy flavor but with additions at 30 minutes, you won't get hops flavor from that. Anything added before about 20 minutes from the end of the boil is going to give more bittering than hops flavor. If you want to do hopsbursting, you'll want to add all of the hops with 20 minutes or less left in the boil and increase them.

Your recipe shows an OG of 1.071. With only IBUs of 37, that'll be a darn sweet beer.

I'd probably do something more like this:

6 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
3 lbs 4.8 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.46 %

1.50 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 19.6 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.20 %] (10 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.20 %] (0 min) Hops -

Dryhop as desired.


If you cut down to two cans, then you'd be more in an APA range than an IPA range, so you could cut down the bittering hops to an ounce in the above example.

 

[BrainBeerBrewer]

Recipe changed, thanks for advice!

I am not overly concerned about staying within a particular style. Just want something delicious and drinkable.

 

[eltorrente]

Recipe changed, thanks for advice!

I am not overly concerned about staying within a particular style. Just want something delicious and drinkable.

New recipe looks pretty good to me! Brew it up, enjoy, and make little changes where needed.

 

[bjl110]

Kinda reminds me of Commodore Perry from Great Lakes, with EKG instead of fuggles. Should be very tasty. I love that beer.

 

[BrainBeerBrewer]

Kinda reminds me of Commodore Perry from Great Lakes, with EKG instead of fuggles. Should be very tasty. I love that beer.

Love commodore perry! If it tastes like that, I will be extremely happy. Placed the order, now I just have to wait for my primary to free up.

 

[bjl110]

It won't taste EXACTLY like it or anything. They use darker crystal, but you used honey malt, so that may be a "push". They also use some kind of English yeast (1028? 1098?), so if you went dry, I wold use 04 instead of 05. But the prominent flavor of an ipa is the hops (obviously). Your English/American blend should be rather close to theirs. Maybe a little more floral and less woody? Anyway, it should be reminiscent of CP. That whole across the pond blending thing, you know. Either way it looks tasty.

 

[BrainBeerBrewer]

Bottled this today, and the hydrometer sample was simply amazing. Sweet with cascade-grapefruit overtones, and a deeper spicy complexity and a not too bitter finish. If the carbed version tastes as good as it does flat, I am in for a treat.

 

[HomebrewMTB]

I've also been on a hop-forward APA kick lately instead of my normal IPAs. Enjoy! Next time you could pick a higher AA bittering hop and do a short boil brew. Makes for a real quick brew day.