Imperial IPA Feedback

[Wort_Cleaver]

I've been working on an Imperial IPA recipe and I'm fishing for some feedback.

I tried to put together a relatively simple grain bill - Mostly 2-row with some Maris Otter for a little added complexity. There's a good amount of Vienna for some maltiness and color - shooting for a nice, bright orange. Also a touch of honey malt for sweetness and acidulated malt for mash pH. Will add a pound of dextrose to the boil to help dry it out. Planning to mash around 152 F.

Hops include Warrior for bittering at 60 minutes, then all late additions (15,10,5,0) and 4oz of dryhops using Galaxy, Mosaic, Amarillo, and Citra. Going for fruity/citrusy flavor, minimal dankness, and a tropical/floral/citrusy aroma. Total of 13 oz of hops. Pitching 2 packs of Safale US-05.

I'll also be building my water from distilled to get the following water profile:
Ca: 105
Mg: 10
Na: 15
Cl: 54
SO4: 200
Bicarbonate: 103
Total Hardness: 343 Alkalinity: 85

Questions - Suggestions for grain bill/amounts? Should I consider adding some light crystal malt to bump up the residual sweetness, or should the maltiness from the MO, Vienna, honey malt be enough to balance the hops? Does the hop schedule/selection sound good? How does this water profile look? Any other suggestions?

The recipe (with 70% efficiency for 5.5 gallon batch):
OG: 1.082 FG: 1.013
IBU: 100.8
Color: 6.1 SRM
ABV: 9.1%

Grain Bill:
10 lb 2-row
4 lb Maris Otter
2 lb Vienna
6 oz Honey Malt
4 oz Acidulated Malt
1 lb Dextrose

Hop Schedule:
60 minutes - 1 oz Warrior (15% AA)
15 minutes - 1 oz each - Galaxy (13% AA), Mosaic (12% AA)
0.5 oz each - Amarillo (9% AA), Citra (14% AA)
10 minutes - 0.5 oz each - Amarillo, Citra
5 minutes - 0.5 oz each - Amarillo, Citra
Flameout - 1 oz each - Galaxy, Mosaic
0.5 oz each - Amarillo, Citra
Dryhop - 1 oz each - Galaxy, Mosaic, Amarillo, Citra (5-7 days)

Yeast: 2 pkgs Safale US-05, plan to ferment starting around 65 F and ramp it up slowly to 70 F as fermentation progresses.

 

[sptaylor70]

You might think about settling on just Maris Otter, instead of pale and MO. You could swap the Vienna for Munich - make the toasted flavor more noticeable. 'Course that would probably nix your orange color.

A full pound of sugar is a lot of drying out. You might consider using brown sugar, and only half a pound of it.

 

[kingwood-kid]

At that gravity, the 6oz honey malt should be enough crystal, although I don't know how sweet you like your beer. My beers of the same gravity have neither crystal nor sugar, but I could see the honey malt and tropical hops playing well together. I'd pick one or the other of the Vienna and MO, and run a grain bill that was along the lines of 8lbs 2-row, 8lbs Vienna/MO, 1/2lb sugar, and keeping the honey and acidulated the same. You'd get an OG of 82 and an SRM of 7-8. If you mash it on the low side and sparge with 150F water (instead of a mashout to raise the temps), it should dry out fine.

The hops look good; the only thing I would do here is consolidate the late aditions to make my life simpler. When I make my DIPAs, I calculate my 60-minute adition to get all my desired IBUs, then add everything else as a hopstand. Not that you have to do that, but I think you'd be fine just adding at 15, and at or after flameout.

 

[fab80]

the only thing I would do here is consolidate the late aditions to make my life simpler. When I make my DIPAs, I calculate my 60-minute adition to get all my desired IBUs, then add everything else as a hopstand. Not that you have to do that, but I think you'd be fine just adding at 15, and at or after flameout.

I agree with simplifying the hop schedule, never had good luck with mixing hops at 15,10,5,0 additions. To be honest I don't like the 60, then Hop stand tecnique, either. For a DIPA I would do about 1oz Warrior (60), 1oz each Galaxy and Amarillo (30), 1oz each Citra and Mosaic (10), 1oz each Galaxy, mosaic, amarillo and citra Hop stand at 170 F for an hour, same for dry hop. Anyway, I guess I am too late now, how is it going?

 

[Wort_Cleaver]

I haven't brewed this yet. I'm going to do an English Old Ale using a 3L starter of WLP007 first, then transfer that to a secondary with bourbon soaked oak cubes, wash the yeast and repitch a nice healthy load for my IIPA. I've had success with yeast washing in the past and it should help me get some nice attenuation. I've been tweaking the recipe and placed my order last week, so the grains/hops/yeast are pretty much set, but I could still mix up the hopping schedule, which I will look into. Still have a few weeks to decide before I'll be ready to brew this one.

Here's the latest iteration of the recipe. Basically, I dropped the Maris Otter and kept only Vienna as a second base malt, at a lower % of the grist. I adjusted the crystal malts to bring it to about 5% of the total grain bill, went down on the honey malt as I've heard it can be a bit overpowering. I dropped the dextrose a bit. And I adjusted the hopping schedule slightly. I'll still have to look into spreading them out a bit vs. keeping the huge back end late additions as it is now.

Est OG = 1.080 (70% efficiency, 5.75 gallon batch, mash at 150 F)
Est FG = 1.013
IBU = 106.4
SRM = 6.6
Est ABV = 8.8%

13 lb 2-row Pale Malt (74%)
2 lb 12 oz Vienna (15.7%)
6 oz Crystal 20 (2.1%)
4 oz Honey Malt (1.4%)
3 oz Crystal 40 (1.1%)
4 oz Acid Malt (1.4%)
12 oz Dextrose (4.3%)


60 Minutes - 1 oz Warrior
15 Minutes - 0.5 oz each - Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic
10 Minutes - 0.5 oz each - Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic
5 Minutes - 0.5 oz each - Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic
Flameout - 0.5 oz each - Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic
Dryhop 7 days - 1 oz each - Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic

Yeast - WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
I anticipate that the water profile will be the same as listed above.

Thanks for all your feedback. I appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Wort_Cleaver]

So I finally got around to brewing this 10 days ago. I brewed it as written above, with the water profile as specified. I ran off a bit too much wort and extended the boil to 75 minutes to compensate. Didn't add the Warrior hops until 15 minutes in. Had the dextrose in for the entire boil. Ended up hitting my OG dead on at 1.080. Flameout hops were held for a 30 minute hopstand before cooling.

I used a jar of WLP007 I washed from the previous batch of Old Ale I brewed. Made a 2 L starter with the washed yeast prior to pitching. Kept fermentation temperature at 64-65 F for the first week, then ramped up to 68 for the past few days. I checked a gravity sample today and it's at 1.014. I'll let it rise to 70 and sit for a few more days to see if it comes down a few more points.

I will say that the gravity sample tasted pretty damn delicious, and if it's any indication of how the final product will come out, it'll go over well. The nose is all tropical and citrus. Very smooth bittering, not harsh at all. Taste is again very fruity and citrusy, just a touch of sweetness on the back end. The alcohol (8.8%) is hidden well, doesn't taste hot or boozy at all. I know it's premature, especially since I have yet to dry hop, but so far I'm pleased, and even my wife, who despises IPA's thought it was tasty.

So now all that's left is the dry hop. Haven't decided how to proceed with that yet. I have 4oz of hop pellets ready to go. Question is - dry hop in primary or transfer to secondary? Use a hop sack or just throw them in loose?

4oz is going to be a big wad of pellet mush so I'm not sure about the best way to proceed. Any suggestions are appreciated. I use better bottles, if it makes any difference. I plan to dry hop for 7 days and I'll try to remember to post a final update once this brew is finished, if anyone cares.

 

[dcbw]

Good lord don't toss the pellets in loose unless you like looking at bog water before you drink. At least use a hop sock. So much easier to keep clear that way.