IPA advice.

[bottleopener]

Ahoy there, I've decided it's time to make an IPA. Experimentation is fun, so this is what I came up with:

Malt:
-8lbs Briess Ultralight LME
-2lbs Crystal 15L
-1lb Carared

Hops:
-2 oz 5.8 AA Glacier (60)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (6)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (5)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (0)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (Dry)

Yeast:
-S-04

Online calculators estimate about 6.5 ABV and a little under 70 IBUs.

I'm not too familiar with highly hopped beers, so any advice or pointers would be much appreciated. I'm least sure about yeast selection. I also have no clue as to what Cara-red tastes like, but I'm a sucker for red beers.

What advice does HBT have to offer?

Thanks,
-bottleopener

 

[McKBrew]

You need to cut back on the crystal and the Carared. Using too much crystal will give you a beer that is potentially too sweet, and it might not attenuate as much.

I did a search to give you more information on why you don't need so much specialty grain, but couldn't find too much info, so I'm hoping someone else will chime in.

Mabye 1/2# of each. For yeast, I'd go with either White Labs or Wyeast American Ale, or use some Nottingham dry yeast.

 

[Professor Frink]

I agree, maybe a little bit of crystal for sweetness, but you want the hops to shine through. American Ale or Nottingham are good neutral yeasts to use.

 

[Brandon O]

+1 on nottingham, dry yeast that require no rehydration or starter.

cheap and you just throw it in there.

 

[cuinrearview]

Not sure what you're usual commercial IPA is, but the cascade at the back end is up my alley. I use that and centennial in various combinations exclusively in my recipe, until I can get my hands on some other stuff this October to try. Personaly, I like more bittering hops than what you have. I do an ounce cent. around 9% with an ounce cascade around 7%. I pick one or the other for the flavor addition, and add the other at flame out. I've tried both for dry hopping, but one ounce of each produced the best results (cascade at transfer for two weeks, cent. with one week left). I'm still working on the recipe, trying to find what I want. I've used only dry yeast, Nottingham and Safale-05. I probably shouldn't have posted, I'm little help becuase it seems so far I can't screw it up

 

[s3n8]

This is what I would do... changes bolded


Malt:
-8lbs Briess Ultralight LME
-1lbs Crystal 15L
-.5lb Carared

Hops:
-2 oz 5.8 AA Glacier (60)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (20)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (5)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (0)
-1 oz 5.6 AA Cascade (Dry)

Yeast:
-S-05


I saw a chart somewhere that optimum times for flavor was 20 minutes, optimum for aroma was 5. As others have said, 2lbs of crystal is a pound too much . S-04 does not attenuate as much as 05, so I would go with 05 or as others have suggested Nottingham. I just had Nottingham take a barleywine from 1.096 to 1.014 in 5 days