Hop suggestions for this malt bill

[kgg_033]

Hi!
I have the following grain bill for a partial mash. I am going from memory, so it isn't exact. (my recipe is home)..but i still may make mild tweaks anyways.
1.5 lb bisuit malt
0.5 lb crystal 20
0.5 lb crystal 40
4 lbs base malt (american 2 row)
probably 55-60 % mash efficiency, due to a)relative inexperience with mash, and b) 20 qt brew pot restricting the amount of sparging.
Depending on how my efficiency goes, I will add the appropriate amount of light DME after the mash to have 3.75 gallons of wort at 1.086 (which I will bring up after the boil to 5.5 gal, thus an OG of 1.058.)
much of this information is overkill, but i figured i would provide it anyways....
At the end of the day, i am going for a doughy or biscuity flavor, with mild honey and caramel flavor as well. I am brewing an IPA style, but not 'in your face' hops like is common. My question is, what type of hops would work well for this malt? I would love to hear some suggested hop varieties as well, but at this point I am more looking for feedback on spicy, vs citrus, vs floral, vs earthy.
All help is much appreciated!

 

[Pratzie]

Citra would give the citrus that ur looking for but ive heard people say to add it late, around the 30 minute mark since a 60 minute can give it a weird flavor.

I have experience with Cascade as well and its a nice neutral bitterness that works well for my light brews.

 

[kgg_033]

Sorry, I may have unclear in how I phrased my question.
I am not sure i want citrusy. But i might. LOL
I guess what i am asking is, based on a doughy biscuity flavor malt with mild honey and caramel hints of sweetness, which of the 4 basic hop flavor 'groups' would compliment that malt the best:
Citrus, or Earthy, or floral, or or Spicy?

 

[Rottnme]

I would think that you would want he hops to be more subtle in order to allow those flavors to come out of the malt. Truthfully, IMO, IPA might not be what you want to be shooting for but since you are I would suggest looking into warrior hops or maybe northern brewer or a combination thereof. Both are describes as having a mild or clean aroma and due to their high AAU you would not need to use much. I would tend to think along the lines of an English IPA rather than the American flora/spicy examples.

 

[kgg_033]

Thanks.
So I am not married to the Idea of 'going for a certain style' per se. Based on the ranges by style, for OG, SRM, IBU, ABV and FG, I guess my numbers fit an IPA....so i called it that in my post. that being said, I'd rather just brew something I think would taste good.
So i will go with your suggestion of mild and clean hop varieties, and i appreciate your input!

 

[stpug]

Efficiency improvement: After sparging your grains, squeeze your grain bag to get the rest of the liquid/sugars out that you can. I have done this several times on partial mashes and never experienced any negative result from it; just make sure your bag holds back the grains. An alternative would be to double/triple mill your grains like many BIABers and get significantly increased efficiency without much squeezing.

With 1.5lb of biscuit I don't foresee you having any problem getting that 'biscuity' flavor and aroma you're after. "Doughy" maybe not so much but biscuity definitely. Just don't overwhelm the nose with too many big hops otherwise you'll dull the biscuit. I have found biscuit and victory to take a little longer than other grains to really meld into the brew. In other words, I frequently find that I can easily distinguish the biscuit in a recipe early on in the conditioning/aging period, but after several weeks it blends much better and stands out less pronounced (still very present, just not like a sore thumb ).

Honey and caramel notes: With your light choices of crystal/caramel malts I would say you're in range for the lighter "cooked sugar" flavors (caramel yes; maybe honey but you might be stretching it there). You should definitely get some residual sweetness from 1lb of steeped crystal plus your DME. I would suggest mashing lowish rather than highish so you don't end up with too sweet of a final product (150F maybe up to 152F, suggestion).

Hop selection: I would go with spicy, earthy, and floral without much citrus. I would focus on a decent (1/2-3/4 of your IBUs) bittering charge (perhaps with a nice FWH variety) with the remainder coming from late addition hops (20, 10, 5mins). I would probably not plan on dry hopping, but I like to play this by ear (i.e. after FG is reached, take a 2 oz sample and give a good critique with lots of smelling, and then decide if I think dry hops are in order). Some hop varieties I would look at are tettnanger or variant, east kent golding or variant, and challenger at FWH to 20 minutes. IBUs maybe in the 40-50 IBU (tinseth) range would balance well.

Food for thought anyways.
Cheers!