Looking to brew a mild IPA (input requested)

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Happydad1689

Happydad1689

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I'm new to home brewing and loving it. I have a Christmas Ale in secondary now and want to get a IPA going. I like IPA but don't want it too hoppy.

I found this recipe:

0.5 lbs amber crystal, steep until boil
6 lbs. English light malt extract: boil 60 min.
1 oz. Galena (11% a.a.): boil 60 min
1 oz. Willamette whole leaf hops (4% a.a.): boil 10 min.
1 oz. Willamette: put in nylon hop bag and pour the hot wort over it

I notice it doesn't say anything about yeast so I would appreciate any input you can give. I want to stay with extract for now. Thx
 
Looks like a good recipe but I have a few questions.

How big is this batch going to be? 5 gallons?

Are you using liquid or dry malt extract? 6lbs LME would give you a beer around 4% whereas DME would be closer to 5%.

What is your estimated boil size? If you are doing a full boil the hops might approach IPA territory whereas a 2.5 gal boil would push the bitterness down into pale ale territory.

I would recommend Saffale US-05, it's got pretty good attenuation and flocculation and it's also clean enough to not get in the way of the hops.

Cheers :mug:
 
Thanks for the reply.

I will use DME in that case. I will make 5 gal but only boil 3. I was just going to top up to 5 in the pail. My pot is small..... Should I increase hops?
 
If you like hop flavor but not a ton of bitterness, consider doing a big hop steep after flameout -- 2-3 oz and let it sit for 30-4 mins. It will add very little perceived bitterness but just a ton of flavor and aroma.
 
Check out the IBU calculator... you can determine how bitter your beer will be with the hop additions chosen.

EDIT: totally misread the first post... An IPA by definition is a hoppy beer though.

Flavor: Hop flavor is medium to high, with a moderate to assertive hop bitterness. The hop flavor should be similar to the aroma (floral, earthy, fruity, and/or slightly grassy). Malt flavor should be medium-low to medium-high, but should be noticeable, pleasant, and support the hop aspect.
 
I think a couple important things to consider:

1.) Do you not like hop bitterness or not like hop flavor? Or both? Most people (if they object to something about hops) object to the bitterness - which is from the first addition of hops at the beginning of the boil. Cut that addition down to .5 ounces or do something like .75 ounces at 30-40 minutes and you will get rid of much of the bitterness but can still get hop flavor from the late boil additions.

2.) An IPA is higher gravity (1.060-1.070 range unsually). You need more hops to balance more malt. Your beer looks more like a 1.040-1.050 beer.......with less hops ....... so, you are really talking more about an American Pale Ale type recipe.

A good place to start is to go to the link below. It is for Northern Brewer's various pale ales. If you click on the beers, and then go to the "additional information" tab under the description, they have links to their pdf recipes for the beers - it is a great way to see various recipes vs. the descriptions they give. You can then tweak those recipe's a bit and make it suit your taste a bit more if you want:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits/extract-ale-kits?beer_style=253
 
Ok...I stopped in at my local home brew store and picked up the ingredients for this weekend. He didn't have everything (See recipe above)so he helped me substitute. I am interested in your input on making a slightly hoppy IPA.


2 x Golden Light LME (3.3)
1 LB of Crystal 60 (suppose to steep half) * What does this do to the brew?
1 - US Brewers Gold
2 - US Fuggle
Saale US -05 (as suggested above)

One question I have is how I am going to do the hops. I like the hop flavour and a bit of the bitterness. In fact I really like the hop taste....so I am not sure how to structure the integration of hops.

What think ye oh wise brewers?
 
3 oz of hops is not much. You really won't reach IPA territory with that. Somewhere around 40 IBUs is a good target for a light IPA/hoppy pale ale. Harpoon IPA is about 42 IBUs. Try one and see what you think. Then use BrewSmith or some other software and plug in your recipe. Play around with the hop additions until you find the right range.

In general, the early hop additions give you the bitterness and the late ones give you aroma and flavor. A hop stand (steep at 170F for 30 min after flame out) and dry hopping a week before bottling/kegging are good ways to get aroma and flavor without the bitterness.
 
I suspect the brewers gold should go in at 60 minutes remaining. I'd hold on to all the fuggles and add them after the boil while you are chilling the wort after it is down to about 170. This will optimize your flavor and aroma with minimal additional bitterness.

You can also add one can of lme at the beginning of the book and one can with 15 minutes left. If you do this turn off the heat before adding the lme and don't turn it on again until you're sure it's all dissolved.
 
Extract... I do AG but converted it, this one for me is awesome and not super hoppy at all, get good reviews from friends (and they are super critical so... )

Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.49 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.24 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 9.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6.3 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1 9.0 %
10 lbs 12.9 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.0 %
6 lbs 7.1 oz Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 85.0 %
0.52 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 19.8 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
0.52 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.5 IBUs
0.52 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 9.8 IBUs
0.52 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.8 IBUs
0.52 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 3.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 Yeast 10 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
 
Happydad1689 said:
Can I use pellets to dry hop?
Click to expand...

Yes, I like whole for it but use pellets, just try not to draw a lot in when racking to keg or bottling bucket. You can use a hop sack too... weight it with some SS washers if your doing a ton of hops.
 
If you're trying to avoid too much bitterness but want a lot of hop flavor and aroma, let me recommend a small bittering addition at the beginning of the boil and then a big whirlpool and dry hop addition. My low-IBU IPA recipe uses just ten grams of Centennial as a first wort hop, gets a huge kick of flavor and aroma (and some gentle bittering) from five ounces of whirlpool hops, then yet more aroma from another five ounces of dry hops (though the dry hop's probably overkill). It's best within a month or so of bottling, but even after three months in the bottle, when the aroma was mostly gone, it was still the most delicious beer I've brewed.
 
Fatdragon I came to the same conclusion (hop stand). You say you used 5 oz. Is that amount normal?

I was going to do 2oz but maybe I should up it.....
 
Have you tried a beer with Fuggles before? It's a very English hop, so you'd be making more of a British IPA, rather than the citrusy, super aromatic American ones. I like Fuggles, but it does have a pronounced earthy flavor (some would say it tastes like dirt). It's also a very low alpha hop, so you're going to get very little bittering out of it.
 
No. I've never used Fugles. It was recommended by the HBS. Still learning :)

A friend recommended Cascade.....
 
Cascade is kind of the reference American citrusy hop -- if you've had Sierra Nevada pale ale, that's Cascade. It's tasty and few people find it objectionable. Fuggles is a bit more... controversial, and less familiar to Americans.
 
Ok. Sounds good. I recently had an IPA with cascade and it was great.

If you were to do a hop stand with them how much would you use? And for how long?
 
Happydad1689 said:
Fatdragon I came to the same conclusion (hop stand). You say you used 5 oz. Is that amount normal?

I was going to do 2oz but maybe I should up it.....
Click to expand...

A 2 ounce hop stand - say half an hour - will give you a decent amount of hops flavor and aroma and just a bit of mild bitterness to go along with your bittering addition. I'd recommend supplementing that with at least an ounce of dry hops after primary fermentation is done to get the aroma up a bit further. That won't get you mindblowing hoppy flavors or aromas, but it'll be comparable to a lot of commercial IPAs.

My guess as to why the LHBS recommended Fuggles is that you may have made the same request to them as you did in the title of this thread: a "mild" IPA. "Mild" is a variety of British pale ale, so they probably thought you were aiming for a hoppier version of that and pointed you towards the English hops in response. Going for your recipe with Fuggles won't produce a bad beer, but if you're trying to make an American IPA with light bitterness, you'll probably be disappointed by the hops contribution. Cascade, as recommended before, is a good safe bet for what you're trying to get out of this beer, though supplementing it with a bit of Citra, Centennial, Simcoe, or another "c" hop would give you a slightly more unique flavor and aroma if you wanted to experiment a bit.
 
Here's a recipe that I came up with...with some help. Started drinking it this past weekend.

Wyeast Scottish Ale

20 minute steep 1/2 lb carapils & 1/2 lb honey malt

9 pounds Pilsen Light LME
1/2 pound corn sugar

1.5 oz nugget 60 min
Whirfloc 15 min
1 oz mosaic 10 min
1 oz cascade 10 min
1 oz cascade flame out

2 oz cascade dry hop in keg for 5 days after 2.5 weeks in primary and 1 week in secondary.

I started with about 3.5 gallon boil and then added the malt and what not. I probably ended up with around 3 gallons to 3.5 to top off.

This is one of the best beers I've ever drank. It has mild/medium bitterness and bold citrus notes. Grapefruit is very prevalent.

I'm like you and don't like too bitter of a beer. If I would do it again I would probably up the alcohol by adding more LME and sugar and by upping the aroma hops and maybe dry hops a bit. I would leave the bittering hops alone.

When I do it again like this I will cut the nugget to 1oz instead of 1.5 or just leave it alone. I cannot wait until I get off of work to drink this.
 
OG was about 1.063 and the FG was about 1.016.

Somewhere around 6.2%.

I have trouble reading my hydrometer in the buckets though. I didn't want to waste any by putting it in the hydrometer tube but I guess I could've just dumped it back in.

Also I may not have got all of the LME out of the bags. I buy it from the LHBS and they put it in plastic bags based on the weight that I request.
 
They have a big drum of it. They take a coffee can and put it on a scale. Then they line the coffee can with a plastic bag. Then they dump how ever much I want in and then seal the bag.

It's all liquid. $2 per pound. It makes for cheap beer.
 
The 5-gal mild IPA I made this year was pretty good. I chose several belgian yeasts to test it with.
Recipe:
10 lbs Pilsen Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM)
1 lbs Wheat - Soft Red, Flaked (Briess) (1.6 SRM)
1 lbs Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM)
1.0 oz Simcoe [13.0%] - Boil 30 min
2.0 oz Chinook [13.0%] - Steep 15 min
 
Ok. I opened this thing up to take a reading and put some cascade in for three days. Oh man, did it smell good! The sample was great!

Bottling on Monday. :)
 

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