Need help with IPA recipe

[mike20793]

I'm still a newbie, but I have been thinking of a recipe and this is what I got. Thanks ahead of time for your opinion and/or advice.

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 25.0 min
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

 

[mitchar19]

Is this for a 5 gallon batch? If so, I would cut the crystal malt down to about 1 lb. Also if it were me I would use a high AA hop for the 60 minute addition like Magnum, Horizon, Colombus etc.. It will cut down hop mass and give you more IBUs for a higher gravity IPA. Good luck, recipe formulation is a lot fun.

 

[Brulosopher]

I agree with mitchar on cutting the crystal malt down a bit, maybe 1.25 lbs if to like it sweet.

I would also suggest going from 5 different hops to 2 or 3. Maybe use .5 Simcoe at 60, cut out the Citra, and move the cascade to dry hop (with what you've already got).

 

[Brulosopher]

I agree with mitchar on cutting the crystal malt down a bit, maybe 1.25 lbs if to like it sweet.

I would also suggest going from 5 different hops to 2 or 3. Maybe use .5 Simcoe at 60, cut out the Citra, and move the cascade to dry hop (with what you've already got).

Sorry, replace the Citra with more Amarillo. Also, move 25 min Amarillo to 5 min (35 to 25 min is negligible). You might also consider replacing the centennial with more Simcoe, or vice versa. Cheers!!

 

[lumpher]

close on the grains to my favorite recipe for a tasty ipa:

10 lbs 2-row
2 lbs vienna
1 lb crystal 10 or 20 (depending on which lhbs i go to. 1 has 10, 1 has 20)

 

[mike20793]

Thanks for the suggestions, it really helps alot. I made a few changes to the hops and decreased the crystal by a pound and increased the vienna by a pound. Does this look any better?

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

Thanks again.

 

[Brulosopher]

Thanks for the suggestions, it really helps alot. I made a few changes to the hops and decreased the crystal by a pound and increased the vienna by a pound. Does this look any better?

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

Thanks again.

Nice! Throw in an ounce of Simcoe for dry hop an you'll be very happy

 

[mitchar19]

Looking much better, the only thing I can suggest is increasing the IBU's in this beer. The way you have it now I'm getting about 55 IBU's. That's pretty low for an IPA. Being that your OG is around 1.076 with this malt bill I would say you need to shoot for an IBU range closer to 76 IBU's or so. Less if you want it less bitter more if you want it more bitter. Hope this helps. Here is a link talking about BU/GU ratio for recipe calculation.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/question-about-bu-gu-ratio-216918/

 

[mike20793]

Looking much better, the only thing I can suggest is increasing the IBU's in this beer. The way you have it now I'm getting about 55 IBU's. That's pretty low for an IPA. Being that your OG is around 1.076 with this malt bill I would say you need to shoot for an IBU range closer to 76 IBU's or so. Less if you want it less bitter more if you want it more bitter. Hope this helps. Here is a link talking about BU/GU ratio for recipe calculation.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/question-about-bu-gu-ratio-216918/

Thanks for the link. I noticed the IBU's were slightly low but within the range in Beersmith. I figured that was ok, but now I see what you were saying about the BU/GU ratio. I will try increasing the cascade to 1.5 oz at 60 min. I will just have to brew it and go from there.

 

[Phunhog]

I would sub the Cascade bittering addition for a high AA hop. Horizon, Magnum, or CTZ all come to mind.

 

[prrriiide]

Just a broad suggestion, not anything pointed...I would think about using more hops later in the boil. Move the 35 min addition to 20 minutes and up the amount of the hops for that addition. Maybe do the 60 min addition, then one at 20, one at 10, and one at 5. I think you'll find that doing that, while it increases the amount of hops you need to get to the IBUs you want, it will make for a smoother, more aromatic, and ultimately more drinkable IPA.

Here's a good article about it...

Mrmalty.com

 

[coastwx]

I've been getting into IPA like this over the last year. Looks like a good grain bill that will allow more hops expression. One suggestion, although I'm far from an expert, would be to move the 35 min addition to 20 or even 15 min to make it more hop forward. You could even bump it up to 1.5 oz to make up for the IBU loss. My last IPA turned out fantastic with:

1 oz Magnum 60 min
1.5 oz Cascade 15
1 oz Cascade 7 min
1 oz Cascade 1 or 0 min
1 oz Cascade dryhop

I followed this one with another with Columbus instead of Magnum and did a Cascade/Columbus mix at 15 min, 7/5 min and flameout.

 

[coastwx]

Just a broad suggestion, not anything pointed...I would think about using more hops later in the boil. Move the 35 min addition to 20 minutes and up the amount of the hops for that addition. Maybe do the 60 min addition, then one at 20, one at 10, and one at 5. I think you'll find that doing that, while it increases the amount of hops you need to get to the IBUs you want, it will make for a smoother, more aromatic, and ultimately more drinkable IPA.

Here's a good article about it...

Mrmalty.com

We must have posted at the same time... agreed!

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the suggestions, it really helps alot. I made a few changes to the hops and decreased the crystal by a pound and increased the vienna by a pound. Does this look any better?

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

Thanks again.

Better! But you need more hops at 60 minutes since cascade is such a low AAU hop at 5.5%. You also need more "late" hops for flavor and aroma. The 35 minute hops give you bittering, but they are sort of a waste there, as you don't get as much bittering as you would at 60 minutes, and you also don't get flavor out of them, since they are boiled more than 20 minutes.

Something more like this:
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min (or another hop to get you to 50 IBUs)
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10 min
.5 oz simcoe 5 minutes
.5 oz amarillo 0 minutes

1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

 

[saluki_brewer]

I was going to start a new thread, but I have a very similar question about my hop additions in my first IPA recipe. I am interested in trying the "hopburst" technique. Right now I have all of my hop additions at 20 minutes or less. Is this a good idea or would it be better to add a small amount of a somewhat neutral bittering hop at 60 and keep the rest where they are?

I know the idea of hopbursting is to add huge amounts of aroma/flavor additions to get you to your desired IBUs, but am worried that if I don't drink all of these beers immediately the flavor and aroma will be gone and the beer won't have a nice bitter backbone.

FYI - I am using Amarillo, Centennial, and Citra. I love grapefruit/citrus/tropical fruit characteristics in these hops and thought that hopbursting would be a good way to bring them to the forefront.

 

[Brulosopher]

I was going to start a new thread, but I have a very similar question about my hop additions in my first IPA recipe. I am interested in trying the "hopburst" technique. Right now I have all of my hop additions at 20 minutes or less. Is this a good idea or would it be better to add a small amount of a somewhat neutral bittering hop at 60 and keep the rest where they are?

I know the idea of hopbursting is to add huge amounts of aroma/flavor additions to get you to your desired IBUs, but am worried that if I don't drink all of these beers immediately the flavor and aroma will be gone and the beer won't have a nice bitter backbone.

FYI - I am using Amarillo, Centennial, and Citra. I love grapefruit/citrus/tropical fruit characteristics in these hops and thought that hopbursting would be a good way to bring them to the forefront.

I've brewed many beers with my first hop addition at 40 min, with all else coming at 15 to 0 and dry hop. Jamil's Evil Twin goes one step further with first addition at 20. I say go for it!!

 

[saluki_brewer]

Awesome. I actually read an article about the Evil Twin that inspired me to try this. I just wanted some input from someone who's tried it.

Just out of curiosity...how have your beers aged that are heavy on late hop additions? I have more than I can drink in my pipeline(awesome problem to have), but I just set up a ferm chamber with an old deep freeze and temp controller so obviously I need to brew again ASAP

 

[Brulosopher]

IMO, hop forward ales are best within about 3-5 weeks of packaging. After that, the "burst" tends to fall off a bit.

 

[mthompson]

I've only made one recipe with a bunch of different hops (5 hops, 1ounce each). I simply split them all between the additions (in grams), and whatever was leftover in the packs went into the freezer for dry hopping later:

_________Grams___________
boil 60 mins 9 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 60 mins 9 Centennial pellet 9.1
boil 60 mins 9 Sterling pellet 7.0
boil 60 mins 9 Styrian Goldings pellet 4.5
boil 60 mins 9 Willamette pellet 6.0
boil 30 mins 7 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 30 mins 7 Centennial pellet 9.1
boil 30 mins 7 Sterling pellet 7.0
boil 30 mins 7 Styrian Goldings pellet 4.5
boil 30 mins 7 Willamette pellet 6.0
boil 5 mins 7 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 5 mins 7 Centennial pellet 9.1
boil 5 mins 7 Sterling pellet 7.0
boil 5 mins 7 Styrian Goldings pellet 4.5
boil 5 mins 7 Willamette pellet 6.0
dry hop 7 days 10 Cascade pellet 5.0
dry hop 7 days 9 Centennial pellet 9.1
dry hop 7 days 11 Sterling pellet 7.0
dry hop 7 days 10 Styrian Goldings pellet 4.5
dry hop 7 days 9 Willamette pellet 6.0


Turned out really flavorful on the hop end of things, but this depends on the malt bill you end up using. On another I use 60 min., 15 min., 5 min., 1 min., and dry hop 7 days. This one has lots of hop aroma on every drink to the bottom of the glass.

Also, I like to use a neutral yeast strain for IPA's. I use American ale in a pinch, but really like the Bell's strain if you can get it.

 

[mike20793]

After all the suggestions, I think I am going to brew this:


8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.75 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
0.5 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
0.5 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min

1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

I am planning on using Wyeast 1056. I will definitely let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Brulosopher]

After all the suggestions, I think I am going to brew this:

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.75 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
0.5 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min
0.5 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min

1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

I am planning on using Wyeast 1056. I will definitely let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks for all the help.

Looks great! With that malt bill, make a starter. Cheers!