My first all grain recipe. Critiques/recommendations, please.

[mendesm]

My goal is for an English IPA, medium bitterness, but with lots of hop aroma, towards the darker side of the scale for that style (I'd like to have a nice, deep copper color to it).

Batch: 5.5gl
Est boil: 7.89gl
Est OG: 1.070
IBUs: 50
Color: 12.8 SRM
Est ABV: 6.7%

12lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Caramunich Malt
0.5lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.25tsp irish moss
1oz Herald @ 60
1oz EKG @ 60
1pz EKG @ 5
2oz EKG @ 1
1oz EKG dry hop 15 days
1oz Fuggles dry hop 15 days
1pkg London Ale III (WL1318)
1pkg London ESB Ale (WL1968)

Mash In 152F for 60min
Mash Out 168F for 10min

I like what the 2 yeast strains do individually and this is an experiment to see what both of them together will give me, sort of best of both worlds thing.

I'd like to get this as crystal clear as possible, so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Instead of caramunich I would consider using English crystal malts.

 

[hopsalot]

are you batch sparging?

 

[mendesm]

are you batch sparging?

Yes.

 

[Stephonovich]

I agree with Crystal. Sub in C20 or maybe C40 for the Caramunich. Keep the Carapils.

Also, personally, I'd say swap the yeast for S-04. 95% of beers only need 04 or 05, IMO. Cheaper, and you won't tell the difference.

Have you considered water salts to mimic English water?

 

[mendesm]

I agree with Crystal. Sub in C20 or maybe C40 for the Caramunich. Keep the Carapils.

Also, personally, I'd say swap the yeast for S-04. 95% of beers only need 04 or 05, IMO. Cheaper, and you won't tell the difference.

Have you considered water salts to mimic English water?

Care to elaborate a bit more on why the sub? As a beginner it would help out to know the logic behind it.

I tried looking up what's behind the 04, 05 numbers in the yeast name, but could not come up with anything other than genetic nomenclature. Can you point me in the right direction as to what's behind this?

As for the water, I have not given any thought about it. I was planning on using Poland Spring. My water is not bad, but it's not delicious either so until I get a water report I've been sticking with mineral water. I'll read up on the profile for English water and give it some thought.

Thanks.

 

[BigEd]

95% of beers only need 04 or 05, IMO. Cheaper, and you won't tell the difference.

I'd say that's a gross over-simplification. It's fine, however, if you only want to use dry yeast and aren't concerned with making anything other than UK or US ales.

 

[BigEd]

My goal is for an English IPA, medium bitterness, but with lots of hop aroma, towards the darker side of the scale for that style (I'd like to have a nice, deep copper color to it).

Batch: 5.5gl
Est boil: 7.89gl
Est OG: 1.070
IBUs: 50
Color: 12.8 SRM
Est ABV: 6.7%

12lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Caramunich Malt
0.5lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.25tsp irish moss
1oz Herald @ 60
1oz EKG @ 60
1pz EKG @ 5
2oz EKG @ 1
1oz EKG dry hop 15 days
1oz Fuggles dry hop 15 days
1pkg London Ale III (WL1318)
1pkg London ESB Ale (WL1968)

Mash In 152F for 60min
Mash Out 168F for 10min

I like what the 2 yeast strains do individually and this is an experiment to see what both of them together will give me, sort of best of both worlds thing.

I'd like to get this as crystal clear as possible, so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

That is on the high side for crystal malt and I agree with others than British rather than German crystal should be used here. I'd back the quantity down some, maybe to one pound if you are keeping the CaraPils. If you want a deep copper color add about two ounces of chocolate malt. The quantity of late hops seems overboard to me. You could probably get by with 2/3 or even 1/2 the amount and still get about the same effect and save a few bucks.

 

[daksin]

Yea, I would cut back the amount of the crystal to a pound or less, and agree that you should use english crystal, I would say get english light crystal if you can. If you're looking for a particular character, I would go with a single yeast, but I think for an english IPA, S-04 is really all you need. I wouldn't do 1968 as I don't think it attenuates enough for EIPA. A nice malt/hop balanced english beer will be nice with S-04, 1968 will accentuate the malt character. WY1318 would be nice by itself too. Your call on the yeast, but I don't think you'll gain much by blending with this style.

 

[ajf]

Your goal is very similar to mine. You obviously have great taste.
I prefer more bitterness than you, but apart from that we seem to want the same thing.
I'd get rid of the caramunich, and cara-pils, and replace them with about 12 oz of an English medium crystal. You would probably need to increase the MO a bit to achieve the required OG.
This would leave you with a lighter color than you want.
I have not found any way of increasing the SRM without adding flavors that are inappropriate. Gordon Strong in Brewing Better Beer suggests that you can use dark grains such as roast barley to achieve color adjustments without affecting the flavor, by adding the grains at the end of the mash. I have not yet tried this, so I can't say if it works or not.
What you and I want out of an EIPA doesn't seem to match what is available in commercial EIPA's that I have sampled.
As for the yeast, I've had good results with Wy1028, but I haven't tried Wy1318. I like Wy1968 for bitters, but I am not sure I would like it for an IPA.
I do like WLP023 for IPAs, but I haven't used the Wyeast equivalent.
Good luck,

-a.