Critique my first recipe

[Mueltrain54]

So I have a grand total of one extract brew under my belt, but I brew together with an experienced Brewer. We are planning to do an IPA for our second beer together and planning to do a partial mash.

I threw together this recipe and wanted to put it out here for advice before I brought it to my friend to finalize our recipe. Thanks for any advice, and sorry if I'm no where close.

5# light DME
3# pale 2 row
.5# crystal 40L
1# cane sugar

1oz simcoe 60min
.5oz simcoe 20min
1oz mosaic 20min
.5oz simcoe 0min
1oz mosaic 0min
2oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

 

[m00ps]

Grain bill looks fine to me. Needs a lot more hops though at the end and look into doing a hopstand/whirlpool. That may have the stylistically required IBUs for an IPA, but I assure you that you wont be happy with the hop character if that's what your after

 

[porterpounder]

Depending on the AA% of the hops, but assuming Simcoe and Mosaic sitting somewhere around 11-13% the bitterness will be good. If you want hop juice, then you will want to double up the end and dry-hop, but the hopping you have is balanced and is good for a normal well-balanced American IPA. That being said I'd drop the table sugar and keep the OG around 1.060 instead of 1.070.

 

[ecobb]

Depending on the AA% of the hops, but assuming Simcoe and Mosaic sitting somewhere around 11-13% the bitterness will be good. If you want hop juice, then you will want to double up the end and dry-hop, but the hopping you have is balanced and is good for a normal well-balanced American IPA. That being said I'd drop the table sugar and keep the OG around 1.060 instead of 1.070.

+1


and if you're keeping the amount of hops listed try this instead
1oz simcoe First Wort Hopped
.5oz mosaic 10 min
.5oz mosaic 5 min
1oz simcoe 0 min + hopstand
1oz mosaic 0 min + hopstand
2oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

 

[Mueltrain54]

5# light DME
3# pale 2 row
.5# crystal 40L
1# cane sugar

1oz simcoe 60min
1oz simcoe 20min
1oz mosaic 20min
1oz simcoe 0min +hopstand
2oz mosaic 0min +hopstand
4oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

Does this look better? I have a pound each of the two hop varieties so I have plenty to work with. Im definitely a hop head so im not after a run of the mill balanced IPA but rather that delicious hop juice factor.

 

[radwizard]

That looks better to me.
For my tastes I would push those 20 min additions to 10. 3 oz of Mosaic would be good for the dry hop. I'd consider throwing that extra oz from the dry hop into whirlpool. That's just my 2 cents. As the recipes stands I am sure it'll taste great if executed properly.

 

[m00ps]

Im definitely a hop head so im not after a run of the mill balanced IPA but rather that delicious hop juice factor.

Then definitely concentrate on your whirlpool and dry hop and get rid of that damn crystal. You don't need it. Want a "balanced" IPA? Then add some crystal. Want an over the top hop juice cocktail? Take it out and whirlpool the crap outta it

 

[rhys333]

5# light DME
3# pale 2 row
.5# crystal 40L
1# cane sugar

1oz simcoe 60min
1oz simcoe 20min
1oz mosaic 20min
1oz simcoe 0min +hopstand
2oz mosaic 0min +hopstand
4oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

Does this look better? I have a pound each of the two hop varieties so I have plenty to work with. Im definitely a hop head so im not after a run of the mill balanced IPA but rather that delicious hop juice factor.

I second moving your 20 minute additions to 10 mins. Also, you're above 10% table sugar there, which is a lot. For all-grain I would omit any sugar and just mash really low, but since you're doing a mini mash here and DME can come across fuller, perhaps go with 4-5% sugar and then add another pound of 2 Row to compensate. As for Crystal, I prefer my IPAs without but you'll be good either way. I think because you're including 5 lbs DME here, the Crystal will help bolster the grain character a bit.

 

[Mueltrain54]

This is what we went with for the final recipe:

5# light DME
4# pale 2 row
.5# crystal 40L
1#marris otter


1oz simcoe 60min
1oz simcoe 10min
1oz mosaic 10min
1oz simcoe 0min +hopstand
3oz mosaic 0min +hopstand
3oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

We brewed this 8 days days ago,and just did our first gravity reading. Im Happy to report this beer smells amazing and tastes even better. I've got a couple last minute questions though. If I'm perfectly happy with the taste and aroma at this point would it make sense to forego the dry hop? If I do decide to dry hop, I have mosaic pellets, what's the best method? Straight in primary, or in secondary? In a bag, or loose?

 

[m00ps]

definitely do not secondary. Either right in or put them in a bag. I toss them in without a bag and use a filtering mesh on my racking cane to not pick up material when I keg/bottle it

 

[Mueltrain54]

This is what we went with for the final recipe:

5# light DME
4# pale 2 row
.5# crystal 40L
1#marris otter


1oz simcoe 60min
1oz simcoe 10min
1oz mosaic 10min
1oz simcoe 0min +hopstand
3oz mosaic 0min +hopstand
3oz mosaic dry hop 7 days

I am looking to re-brew this recipe, I was very pleased with how it turned out as listed above, but I would like to scale it up to a 10 gallon recipe and convert it to AG. I'm guessing just doubling the hop additions should get me close, and then just drop the DME and up the base malts to a similar OG? I'm thinking I would need to have something like a 4:1 ratio of 2-row to MO to keep a similar malt character. Any thoughts?

 

[jjeffers09]

You got it. I would consider adding 3-5oz of biscuit/aromatic/Melanoidin malt, and a touch of darker crystal to match the DME