help w/ New England IPA recipe, Calcium Choride amount?

[domdom]

Hello,
I'm planning to try my hand at a new england ipa. to be honest, i don't think i've had one being in the midwest, but isn't brewing something you can't normally get part of the fun of homebrewing? from what i've read, the keys are lots of whirlpool hops, aggressive dry hopping during and after fermentation, and a healthy dose of Calcium Chloride. Here is the recipe i'm planning on:

MALT
13 lb pale 2 row
1.5 lb flaked oats
1 lb honey malt
0.5 lb carapils

HOPS
0.25 oz Citra, FWH
2 oz Citra, 0 min, whirlpooled for 20 min
1 oz Galaxy, 0 min, whirlpooled for 20 min
1 oz Amarillo, 0 min, whirlpooled for 20 min
1 oz of each, Citra, Galaxy, Amarillo at 2-3 days into fermentation, for 4 days
1 oz of each, Citra, Galaxy, Amarillo after 8 days into fermentation/end of fermentation, 7 days

Yeast
Wyeast 1318-London Ale III

I was also wanting to add a little calcium chloride as well. my most recent city water report has the 23.7 mg/L. i've never done water treatment before but saw recommendations for getting the level to 250 mgl as optimal. can anyone explain who i can figure out how much to add? I'd rather undershoot than overshoot. Also, do i add it to mash water before mashing, during the boil, or some other time?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lilbova3]

Batch size? Six gallons I'm guessing? That'll put you at about a 7% beer.

I really like the grains you're using. I would back down the honey malt though. To only about 2% and up the Carapils to 5%. That's what I do for my NE styles and find it to be the sweet spot for me. I'd recommend mashing high as well - around 156*.

Great hops selection. If the batch size is six gallons you could add more to the WP and DH. Assuming a six gallon batch, you're at 1.66 oz hops per gallon. I usually try to get my hop levels close to two for these beers. With more being even merrier. I WP at 175*, not at flameout, and WP for an hour. You will add some bitterness if you throw it in at 0. I find you get bitterness when thrown in the WP as well. I swear by the hour WP. 20 minutes is good but if you can go longer I'd recommend it.

Great choice for yeast! My absolute favorite!

Without knowing you're exact water profile we can't help much here. I would recommend CaCl levels no higher than 150 and Sulfate (SO4) levels no higher than 75. If you can afford to brew with all distilled water, I'd recommend trying that. Just look for it at the store. Distilled water will have no minerals in it so you can build your water however you'd like. There are a few water calculators out there like EZ Water, Bru'N and I believe BrewersFriend has one as well. It'll take some playing around with them but you'll get the hang of it.

 

[domdom]

Batch size? Six gallons I'm guessing?

only 5 gallon. i'm only getting around 65 efficiency but am working out the kinks on my new grainfather. might dial it down if i get better efficiency the next couple batches.

city water report has sodium listed at 38.5 mg/L and sulfate at 130 mg/L. here is the link for the full report. again, don't have any experience w/ water treatment for homebrew (well, other than adding gypsum to a one of my first 10 batches years ago). http://www.stlwater.com/ccr.pdf

 

[lilbova3]

Input those water numbers where needed in EZ Water, Bru'N or BrewersFriend to get an idea of what you need to do.

I have poor efficiency too because I BIAB. But the beer still comes out delish!

 

[Braufessor]

+1 on backing off on that Honey Malt - that is a lot in my opinion. It can be an overpowering malt. Personally, I would go 4-8 ounces.....

Not used to talking mineral amounts in mg/L..... I would recommend something like this though:
Calcium = 80-110 ppm
Sulfate = 70-100 ppm
Chloride = 100-140 ppm

Somewhere in that range. A simple way to go about it is this:
100% RO water for both mash and sparge.
Per 5 gallons of mash water: 1 tsp of CaCl + 1/2 tsp Gypsum
Per 5 gallons of sparge water: 1 tsp of CaCl + 1/2 tsp Gypsum

This should bring you in around 140 Chloride and 80 Sulfate.

 

[domdom]

i'm cutting the honey malt back to 4 oz. and thinking about possibly subbing it w/ the same amount of special b instead. i used a little w/ a recent ipa and it really made some of the fruity hops really pop.

found out that mg/L is the same as ppm so that should help. i'll try crunching the numbers through one of the calculators to see.

 

[Dan_K]

There's a monstrous thread that Braufessor started about brewing NE style IPAs. You should read that.

 

[bucketnative]

Not used to talking mineral amounts in mg/L..... I would recommend something like this though:
Calcium = 80-110 ppm
Sulfate = 70-100 ppm
Chloride = 100-140 ppm

FYI - mg/L = ppm (when talking liquid solutions... does not apply in gas phase)

 

[brockseals]

Scratch the special b which is not for the style. You really are trying to keep the SRM as low as possible. Preferably in the 4s or low 5s. Any darker and your neipa looses its fresh juice color and moves into the cloudy browns. If you feel the need to add more grain. I would suggest some high protein malt like wheat malt or white wheat or torrified wheat and mix up the oats what's up malted wheat I usually will split up

 

[brockseals]

Split up the 13 lb 2row to like 6 lb 2 row and 7 lb pilsener. You can take the carapilz or carabody or carafoam up to 2lb no prob. I totally agree no more than 4 oz honey malt in a 5-gallon batch and I agree you got to hit it with some more hops you looking to get your ibus from your Whirlpool or flame out Edition somewhere around 25 to 45 ibus is what you are shooting for which is like 3 or 4 ounces. Then another 4 or 5 ounces for dryhop in two dry hop schedules For me 60 IBU is when I start to notice bitterness and it can't be bitter. Low ibis makes the beer crushable too.

This is one of my 11 gallon batches that turned out really good
2 Two Clowns NEIPA 5-22-2020 Final 5-28-2020 ( Specialty IPA: White IPA )

Batch Size: 11 gal
Boil volume: 12.7 gal
Boil time: 60 min.
15 g calcium
6 gypsum
OG SG: 1.062
OG Bx: 9.75
IBU: 29

SRM: 4.4
FG: 1.012
Apparent Attenuation: 73.0 %
ABV: 6.1%
Mash effciency : % 77.0
System efficiency: % 78


FERMENTABILES:
40.9 % Pilsner lb 10 ( In Mash )
24.6 % Pale Ale lb 6 ( In Mash )
4.1 % ~ Carafoam lb 1 ( Late addiction )
12.3 % ~ White Wheat Raw Briess lb 3 ( Late addiction )
0.8 % ~ Honey Malt lb 0.19 ( Late addiction )
1 % ~ Torrified Red Wheat lb 0.25 ( Late addiction )
8.2 % ~ Oat Flakes lb 2 ( Late addiction )
1.5 % Acid Malt lb 0.38 ( In Mash )
4.6 % Wheat Flakes lb 1.12 ( In Mash )
1 % Invert sugar lb 0.25 ( In Boil )
1 % Corn syrup lb 0.25 ( In Boil )

HOPS:
60 min oz 0.1 Motueka (6.7%)
Boil Pellet Free
oz 1 Amarillo (8.5%)
Flameout +30 min Pellet Free
oz 1 El Dorado (15.0%)
Flameout +30 min Pellet Free
oz 1 Mosaic (12.6%)
Flameout +30 min Pellet Free
oz 1 Motueka (6.7%)
Flameout +30 min Pellet Free
oz 1 Citra (12.0%)
Dry Hop Pellet Hop Bag
oz 2 Mosaic (12.6%)
Dry Hop Pellet Hop Bag
oz 1 Amarillo (8.5%)
Dry Hop Pellet Hop Bag
oz 1 El Dorado (15.0%)
Dry Hop Pellet Hop Bag
oz 1 Motueka (6.7%)
Dry Hop Pellet Hop Bag

Mashed at 156:

Other:
60 min oz 0.0 ~ 3 Dat Starter
Boil
60 min oz 0.0 ~ 90 Minute Mash
Boil
60 min oz 0.0 ~ Cold Crash
Boil
60 min oz 0.0 ~ Keg # 4 Two Clowns
Boil
60 min oz 0.0 ~ 5 Stars ΔΔΔΔΔ
Boil
60 min oz 0.0 ~ Beer Was Crushable
Boil

YEAST:
3 Wyeast 1318 London Ale III