IPA Recipe Critique - Cascade and Sterling?

[JohnReynolds]

I have never really worked with Sterling hops before so I don't know how the spicyness of sterling hops mixed with the citrus provided by cascade will come out. Thoughts on this recipe please.

Batch Size:
10 Gallons

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
IBU: 73.7

25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lb Biscuit Malt
1 lb Caramel/Crystal 40 L

2 oz Chinook 60 min
1 oz Sterling 10 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
1 oz Sterling - Flame out
1 oz Cascade - Flame out
2 pkg - American Ale II Wyeast Labs 1272

 

[BigMack]

I love mixing citrusy hops with something more on the spicy/herbal side of things. I haven't used that specific combo, but I bet it will turn out great! My only thought would be using something else rather than Chinook as bittering. It may just be my own tastes, but I have found that when I use Chinook for bittering it makes the flavor from the late additions muddled.

Also, I love 1272.

 

[skyler]

I have never really worked with Sterling hops before so I don't know how the spicyness of sterling hops mixed with the citrus provided by cascade will come out. Thoughts on this recipe please.

Batch Size:
10 Gallons

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
IBU: 73.7

25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lb Biscuit Malt
1 lb Caramel/Crystal 40 L

2 oz Chinook 60 min
1 oz Sterling 10 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
1 oz Sterling - Flame out
1 oz Cascade - Flame out
2 pkg - American Ale II Wyeast Labs 1272

Granted, I live in Portland, Oregon, and my taste buds are used to west coast IPAs, but that recipe doesn't look like an IPA to me. IMO, it's not an IPA if it isn't dry-hopped and there aren't at LEAST .5 oz of flame-out hops per gallon of finished beer.

That said, to answer your question, blending a spicy "Pilsner-style" or "English-style" hop with an old school "C" hop was a pretty common flavor blend in a lot of craft beers of yesteryear. Sterling is very potent for a Pilsner-style hop (unlike, say Mt. Hood), but usually blending "C" hops with European-style hops gives a boost to the C hop, while making more of a balanced "hoppy" flavor than the straight citrus-floral-pine you tend to get from C hops. It's a flavor combo that works great in pale ales and ambers (or brown ales, for that matter), but it doesn't really speak "IPA" in the way that, say, Simcoe and Amarillo do. That said, your beer looks more like a strong pale ale than an IPA to me, so the balance might be nice.