Extract IPA Recipe - Need help!

[MarkIafrate]

Hey everyone,

So I've been putting this recipe together for a while and I think may LDME may not be enough - I've seen some recipes with 12 pounds. Anyone have advice on that? Any thoughts on the amount of hops or hop schedule? Thanks!

Ingredients:
6 lbs Light DME
.5 lbs Specialty Grains - Crystal 20L
.5 lbs Specialty Grains - Crystal 40L
1 Whirfloc Tablet
1.5 oz. Chinook pellot hops (Bittering)
1.0 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (Aroma)
1.0 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (Aroma)
0.5 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (Aroma)
0.5 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (Aroma)

Directions:

1. Heat 2.5 gallons of water to a boil
2. Let cool to 160 degrees
4. Add muslin bag of specialty malts to the water, hold temperature for 30 minutes.
5. Remove muslin bag and ring it all out into the pot
6. Dissolve 6 lbs of LDME in the water
7. Stir until it is fully dissolved
8. Bring to a boil (60 Minute Boil)
9. Add 1.5 oz Centennial bittering pellot hops (60 minutes)
10. Add 1.0 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (45 minutes)
11. Add 1.0 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (30 minutes)
12. Add 0.5 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (15 minutes)
13. Add 1 whirfloc tablet
14. Add 0.5 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (5 minutes)
15. Filter into carboy
16. Top-off with bags of ice until temperature hits 75 degrees
17. Top-off with necessary tap water
18. Aerate
19. Pitch yeast

I was thinking 4 weeks primary and then bottle, no dry hopping.

Thoughts? Thanks so much!

Best,
Mark

 

[Yooper]

I've never done jalapenos, so I can't comment on that. But I make IPAs every other batch, about 26 batches of IPA a year, so I can give some pointers on the recipe.

First, remember that IPAs are all about the hops, with enough malt to support it. You need to target an OG of 1.055-1.075 with IBUs of 40-70 or so. You're a little light on malt so another pound of two would be better, but you can get by with 6 pounds if you have to.

Hops added to the boil prior to about 20 minutes left in the boil all give bitterness, but little flavor or aroma, so you'll want to move more hops to the end at 15 minutes or left so you get lots of flavor and aroma and not such an intense bitterness.

I don't use much crystal malt in my IPAs for the most part, but you could keep the whole pound in there if you really like a sweetness to your IPAs.

I'd go something more like this, with those ingredients:

2 lbs Light DME
4 lbs light DME (flame out)

.5 lbs Specialty Grains - Crystal 20L
.5 lbs Specialty Grains - Crystal 40L


1.5 oz. Chinook pellot hops (Bittering) 60 minutes
1.0 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (Aroma) 15 minutes
1 Whirfloc Tablet 15 minutes
1.0 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (Aroma) 10 minutes
1 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (Aroma) 5 minutes
1 oz. Cascade whole leaf hops (Aroma) 0 minutes

0.5 lbs Jalapeno peppers (with seeds, vein) (don't know- this sure seems like a lot, but I don't like peppers in my beer so someone else will have to help with that).

 

[MarkIafrate]

Thanks so much! This is exactly the kind of help I needed. And forget the jalapenos, that was a remnant from my Jalapeno Pale Ale (which is bottled!) that got copied over accidentally.

How important is using exactly 2 pounds and then 4 pounds? I don't have a scale to measure and I'm not sure if I could get the package in separate quantities.

Can you explain why you don't use crystal malt? Is that a malt whose characteristic is sweeter in general? Any suggestions for changing the malt?

And is there a reason for the order of the hops you have in that schedule? And minute 0 is right when I take it off the heat, so how long does it need to be in there if I typically filter right into a carboy and add ice? Should I let it sit in the wort for another 5 or 10 minutes?

And should I be adding whole and mixing these as I add or use bags?

Sorry for all the questions but this is helping so much!

Best,
Mark

 

[Yooper]

How important is using exactly 2 pounds and then 4 pounds? I don't have a scale to measure and I'm not sure if I could get the package in separate quantities.

Can you explain why you don't use crystal malt? Is that a malt whose characteristic is sweeter in general? Any suggestions for changing the malt?

And is there a reason for the order of the hops you have in that schedule? And minute 0 is right when I take it off the heat, so how long does it need to be in there if I typically filter right into a carboy and add ice? Should I let it sit in the wort for another 5 or 10 minutes?

And should I be adding whole and mixing these as I add or use bags?

Sorry for all the questions but this is helping so much!

Best,
Mark

Using 2 pounds and then four pounds is just a good guestimate- if you have 6 pounds, using about half and half is ok too. I like to add the majority of the extract late, as to preserve the light color and have less "cooked extract" taste in the final beer. Using 2.5 + 3.5 is fine too, and so a guess is fine.

I just don't like more than about .5 pounds of crystal malt in a 5 gallon batch of IPA, as the sweetness of crystal sort of interferes with the quaffability (is that a word?) of an IPA that should finish a bit dry and almost crisp in the swallow.

The times are from 60 minutes to 0, which is flame out. I'd put the flame out hops in, turn off the flame and let it sit a couple of minutes before cooling.

I'd cool in the pot to under 90 degrees in an ice bath in the sink, and then add ice/water to get you to the mid 60s. If you add ice to the hot wort, you may not get it cool enough at first and then end up with too much hot wort to cool easily.

I mix my hops right in the wort, but you can use hops bags if you want. Or you can use a sanitized strainer when you move it to the fermenter. It really doesn't matter, as long as the hops bags aren't tightly packed so they can be in full contact with the wort to give you good hops utilization. Some people have "hops spiders"- one big huge hops bag held over the pot with some big bolts for adding lots of hops like for IPAs. It's all good, once you find something that will work for you.

 

[BrettFitz]

Excellent questions and answers! Makes me want to stop working and brew right now.

 

[MarkIafrate]

You rock man, thanks for the information.

1. So is it safe to say the more LDME I use at flamout and the less I use in the beginning the lighter, crisper the IPA will be?

2. I can cut down to .5 pounds of 40L (should I do 20L? 60L? What's the real difference). What do you think about the other .5 pound? Suggestions for good IPA malts?

3. I'll do the same with flamout hops - good to know.

4. Well the last time I did just over a 2 gallon boil and then added two bags of ice. The temperature dropped to 40 or 50 degrees and I actually had to finish topping to (just over) 5 gallons with boiling water to raise the temperature it pitch the yeast, so I don't think that would be a problem. Any reasons I should not do that?

5. I think I'm going to add them into the boil as-is and then strain out when I add to the carboy. Also, those hop-spiders sound interesting I may have to look into them down the road.

Thanks again!
Mark

 

[MarkIafrate]

Excellent questions and answers! Makes me want to stop working and brew right now.

So true.

 

[Yooper]

You rock man, thanks for the information.

1. So is it safe to say the more LDME I use at flamout and the less I use in the beginning the lighter, crisper the IPA will be?

2. I can cut down to .5 pounds of 40L (should I do 20L? 60L? What's the real difference). What do you think about the other .5 pound? Suggestions for good IPA malts?

3. I'll do the same with flamout hops - good to know.

4. Well the last time I did just over a 2 gallon boil and then added two bags of ice. The temperature dropped to 40 or 50 degrees and I actually had to finish topping to (just over) 5 gallons with boiling water to raise the temperature it pitch the yeast, so I don't think that would be a problem. Any reasons I should not do that?

5. I think I'm going to add them into the boil as-is and then strain out when I add to the carboy. Also, those hop-spiders sound interesting I may have to look into them down the road.

Thanks again!
Mark

1. As a very general generalization, yes. You want firm bitterness, fresh malt flavor, and a nice dry finish. That comes from several things- yeast strain, ingredients, etc, but keeping the "cooked extract taste" light does help.

2. Each crystal malt is a little different than the other. 10L is caramel sweet, while 120L is raisiny, so there is a big difference in 10L vs 120L, but not much difference in 40L vs. 60L. I really like 40L or 60L in APAs and IPAs as it's not too caramel flavored, nor too toffee flavored. Other good malts in IPAs are victory malt (nutty, toasty), aromatic malt (malty aroma and flavor), biscuit malt (nutty, toasty, breadcrust like), etc. But usually "less is more" applies for IPAs. You don't need much complexity, as it's more of a showcase for hops.

3. ok

4. Well, you can do whatever works for you. I'd rather see a more definite "pitch at 65 degrees" type of procedure, so I'd cool first, and then simply top up with water to 65 degrees and pitch the yeast. But you can do your ice procedure if it works for you.

 

[MarkIafrate]

@Yooper - Just want to say thanks for your help! I'm brewing as I type and I'm excited to see how it tastes. I've made some alterations but your guidance made a significant impact on my ingredient list and process. Thanks!

Mark

 

[Yooper]

@Yooper - Just want to say thanks for your help! I'm brewing as I type and I'm excited to see how it tastes. I've made some alterations but your guidance made a significant impact on my ingredient list and process. Thanks!

Mark

Good luck with it, and let us know how it turns out!