Honey Wheat IPA Critique

[permo]

I have been brewing a few beers with raw wheat recently with great success. No I am going to take it up a few notches and go for a big Wheat IPA boosted by a big dose of fresh North Dakota Clover honey. Please take a look..this a quite a beer and I am open to suggestions. I am using WLP002 (4 liter starter) and I plan to mash high since I am using honey and zero crystal malts in this beer. I want to retain some body here. I will pitch at 65 degrees and ferement in 60 degrees ambient. I have quite a hop schedule going here in an effort to firmly plant some serious hop flavor and aroma in this beer...


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 17.00 gal
Boil Size: 19.18 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 17.68 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 16.50 gal
Efficiency: 75.00 %


20 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 45.5 %
15 lbs Wheat, Raw (1.7 SRM) Grain 2 34.1 %
4 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.1 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Mash 60.0 min Hop 4 1.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Mash 60.0 min Hop 5 2.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Mash 60.0 min Hop 6 2.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 17.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Galena [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 13.8 IBUs
3.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 23.0 IBUs
3.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 6.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11 5.2 IBUs
3.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
3.00 oz Crystal [6.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml] Yeast 15 -
5 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 16 11.4 %
3.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
3.00 oz Crystal [6.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
3.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs


Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.068 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.7 %
Bitterness: 72.4 IBUs
Est Color: 5.3 SRM


Mash Step Add 5.00 gal of water at 146.8 F 125.0 F 40 min
Mash In Add 5.00 gal of water at 195.4 F 154.0 F 45 min

Sparge with 13.5 gallons

 

[Double_D]

Maybe substitute honey malt for Munich?

I like Munich, I use it a lot.

It doesn't seem necessary in the recipe. Especially if it's a honey wheat ipa. Honey will leave a tiny amount residual sugar and flavor. Honey malt will help to fill out the honey profile by adding a little aroma and a honey like grain flavor.....so fwiw.☺

 

[hezagenius]

That's a lot of hops at the beginning. It will be quite bitter. If you want aroma and flavor, I'd scale down the early hops and scale up the whirlpool/dry hops.

 

[Calder]

5 lbs of honey in 17 gallons is not much. Same amount of sugar as 1.2 lbs of plain sugar in 5 gallons.

154 will leave it sweet. I'd go sub 150. I like IPAs dry.

Don't swap out your Munich for Honey malt. 4 lbs Honey Malt is a lot. 1 lb if you must.

That hop schedule is just muddled. I can't figure out what you are going for, and to my mind, they don't all go together.

Maybe it will be a great beer, and this is how you like it, but my initial impression from the recipe is that it will be sweet, with no real hop definition.

 

[permo]

I brewed it up as posted but I did a step mash with a protein rest. I held the mash at 125 degrees for an hour and then 152-153 for an hour. Due to all the wheat a very thick mash I ended up missing OG a little. Ended up at 1.063 and am hoping for 1.012-1.014 FG but I have a feeling with my healthy and large yeast starter, extended mash, simple sugars and no xtal malts this beer will finish very dry. Likely below 1.010.

However with the mash hops, FW hops and 14 oz of hops in the final 10 minutes it ended up very aromatic...the CO2 exiting the fermenter smells amazing and the samples I tasted left me with "hop burps" for a quite a while.

I think the 10 oz dry hop should really set this ale off. If the recipe is a success, as I believe it will be I will post it and the results in the recipes sections.

I wish I had access to honey malt, but I did not for this recipe.

 

[permo]

That hop schedule is just muddled. I can't figure out what you are going for, and to my mind, they don't all go together.

Maybe it will be a great beer, and this is how you like it, but my initial impression from the recipe is that it will be sweet, with no real hop definition.

To follow up on the recipe design, I basically wanted a way to use up a lot of hops that I had taking up space in my freezer. In my weird brewing mind I think this is going to work....or I will have three kegs on insipid beer....

 

[m00ps]

Well most of the hops will work together. Cascade, nugget, columbus and chinook will all provide a "classic" grapefruity piney american hop character. Not what I go for in my IPAs, but it is a time proven combo that works

Crystal and willamette have no place in that though. They will be absolutely steamrolled by the assertive IPA hops. Save those for a belgian and a porter or something.

That is a lot of bittering additions though, even for a 17gal batch

 

[permo]

That is a lot of bittering additions though, even for a 17gal batch

3 oz of it is mash hops which really don't provide a whole lot of IBU, then 1 oz is FWH and 1 oz at 60. For 17 gallons I didn't think it was a whole lot, but maybe the beersmith mash hop calcs are wrong but altogether its about 35 IBU from bittering and 35 IBU from late hopping.

I really appreciate and enjoy all the feedback and the suspense in not knowing what is going to happen.

One of my favorite IPA pairs simcoe with crystal and it amazing...that is where the crystal and willamette additions came from. I will ditch the willamette in the dry hop though as I do believe it will get lost.

 

[permo]

To provide an update. 4 days later we are at 1.019 and still chugging away. Sample tasted and smelled pretty darned good. Very bitter, but the aroma and flavor where nice. I am guessing 1.010 or so will be the landing spot.

 

[permo]

1.012 and delicious! Gonna dry hop very soon. Fermenter never went over 65 degrees. This yeast is very robust

 

[permo]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448382754.347538.jpg

yummy