Help me boost this IPA Kit !

[dbkdev]

So I picked up a 5 gallon CITRA Ipa kit to brew my first beer, I'm excited ! . I wanted to add a few more hops for flavor, so I picked up some Galaxy and a tiny bit of simcoe too. The store owner said the kit should produce about a 5.5% abv. I'd really like to boost this a little higher and was hoping to get some recommendations on raising the abv without making it too sweet, and when I should add the 2 oz of galaxy and 1 oz of simcoe I picked up. The kit, including the additional hops I grabbed consists of the following.

5 gallon kit
3 oz Citra Hops
2 oz Galaxy Hops (added)
1 oz Simcoe Hops (added)
3.3 lbs Briess Pilsen light LME
3.3 lbs Briess Golden light LME
8 oz crushed carawheat
8 oz crushed carapilz
5 oz dextrose
1 pack wyeast 1056 american ale
irish moss

(says to add 1 oz CITRA at 60, 30, 15)


Thanks for any help or additions you can recommend ! Hope this isn't too ambitious for a first beer.

 

[GASoline71]

I hope you like melon and gooseberries. That's what you'll get with Citra, and Galaxy...

If you "boost" the alcohol... you might get an unwanted alcohol back flavor. For your first beer... I'd just brew it with the Steeping grains and the extracts you have listed.

Gary

 

[sweed]

Corn sugar, boo ya! Haha

 

[dbkdev]

I hope you like melon and gooseberries. That's what you'll get with Citra, and Galaxy...

If you "boost" the alcohol... you might get an unwanted alcohol back flavor. For your first beer... I'd just brew it with the Steeping grains and the extracts you have listed.

Gary

No Citrus too? I expected the melon/gooseberries outa the galaxy and some from Citra, but was hoping to get a lil bit of citrus from the CITRA too.

 

[GASoline71]

I always get a funky melon/passionfruit flavor from Citra. I like it... but think that too much of it would kill your IPA.

Straight from Hopunions website: Strong citrus and tropical tones of grapefruit, melon, lime, gooseberry, passion fruit and lychee

The name "Citra" is kind of misleading if you ask me.

Gary

 

[Colorowdy]

Honey

 

[Conman13]

You could add 1lb of dextrose to your boil at about 10 minutes to go. This will raise your gravity and make the beer a little drier. Pliny the Elder uses dextrose in their IPA.

6oz is a lot of hops for a medium gravity IPA. I would use the galaxy and simcoe both for dry hopping or flameout additions. Say, 1 oz of galaxy at flameout, 1 oz galaxy and 1oz simcoe dry hop.

 

[cshamilton]

I'd skip the 30 min hop addition.

I'd recommend: 1 oz of citra at 60, 0.5 oz of citra and galaxy at 15, 10, 5' and 0 min. Use the rest for dry hopping.

As for abv - you could add 0.5 to 1lb of sugar to dry it out if that's what you want.

 

[AFAJ Brew Guy]

Why has no one mentioned the obvious here? I know what the OP is looking for, and quite honestly most of us new brewers have fallen victim to it, getting too excited to quick. I made the same mistake. When I first started out I thought I could do anything I wanted, the result? I almost quit brewing...

OP, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but brew the recipe as it was intended. Get a few batches under your belt, get your process down, then, only then go crazy. I know this is a great hobby, but slow down, like beer it only gets better with age!

Then again, that's is just my opinion, I could be wrong

Edit: words are hard