Noob American IPA

[AZBeer]

Hey all,
I am new to brewing, so this is a bit of a sanity check...I am kicking around ideas, even though I admit I am a noob. Feel free to tell me I am crazy.

I was picking the brain of one of the brewers at one of our local breweries...and probably bugging the crap out of him. I was surprised, although I wasn't comfortable discussing the recipe of his IPA (which I LOVE) directly, we talked a bit about it. They used a pretty simple grain bill. He didn't give me much about the hops, other than the varieties which were some familiar, some not so familiar.

So I am looking to develop a "house" IPA. Keep in mind I am many months away from brewing this, and I am open to any and all criticism.

So here's what my initial recipe is...fire at will.

Title: Noob American IPA

Brew Method: Extract w/ specialty grains
Style Name: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 1 gallon (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 1.25 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.055
Efficiency: 35% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.069
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 7.35%
IBU (tinseth): 88.81
SRM (morey): 9.99

FERMENTABLES:
2 lb DME Briess Golden Light (75%)

Specialty Grains:
0.5 lb Briess Carmel 20L (25%)

HOPS:
0.25 oz - Magnumum, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: First Wort
0.25 oz Simcoe - Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min
0.25 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.25 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Fermentation Temp: 68 F
Pitch Rate: 0.75 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
Steep spec grains @ 160 F for 20 mins

Let me know what you think. And if this looks like a clone of some commercial beer, let me know. I'd love to taste an example.

 

[Double_D]

I'd cut your crystal down to15%. Are you r e ally getting 35% BH efficiency? That doesn't sound right.

 

[AZBeer]

Not sure about the BH efficiency. Honestly, that was there from a recipe that I used as a template to put this together.

 

[slym2none]

When using extract w/steeping grains, most calculators have the efficiency set at 35%, and that is for the steeped grains alone. If actually mashing those grains, you have to manually set the BH%.

I made a very malty-sweet Oktoberfest because I didn't catch that, once.

 

[Double_D]

When using extract w/steeping grains, most calculators have the efficiency set at 35%, and that is for the steeped grains alone. If actually mashing those grains, you have to manually set the BH%.

I made a very malty-sweet Oktoberfest because I didn't catch that, once.

That makes sense.

 

[AZBeer]

When using extract w/steeping grains, most calculators have the efficiency set at 35%, and that is for the steeped grains alone. If actually mashing those grains, you have to manually set the BH%.

I made a very malty-sweet Oktoberfest because I didn't catch that, once.

So...since I will be doing an extract & steeping spec grains, should I be concerned about the 35%?

 

[slym2none]

Nah, that's how it's supposed to be.

 

[AZBeer]

Cool, thanks.

Anybody have thoughts on dialing back the bitterness just a bit? Less hops @ 60? move the first hops to 45 min? Different bittering hop?

 

[supercarbuilder]

I would move the bittering hop to 60 or even 45. Also drop that crystal down to 5%, I usually run down to 3%. I would bump up the dry hop a bit too, even better is to add another hop all together as one dry hop can be one dimensional. Cheers!

 

[Calder]

I use 0.5 lbs crystal for 6 gallons.

Apart from that, looks good.

 

[kristiismean]

over all, it looks great! Lately I have been leaning towards the wyeast 1056 and 1968 packets over the safeale-05, but mainly because I do not do starters yet, and the wyeast has always kicked off within 6 hours (@68 degrees)

1 gallon batches are fun, and cheap!

 

[AZBeer]

Thanks for all the feedback everybody.

I am thinking about bumping the crystal down to ~45 grams (0.1 lb) which would put me @ 6.3%, but moving to 60L to get the color where I want it.

Also considering adding an additional .5 oz of hops to dry hop with the citra. Obviously this is a huge personal taste thing and I will need to play with them, but I am open to suggestions.

 

[Double_D]

Crystal 20 tastes way different than crystal 60. If you want to adjust for color add a small amount of dark malt or just accept that this batch isn't as dark as you were planning.

 

[Double_D]

over all, it looks great! Lately I have been leaning towards the wyeast 1056 and 1968 packets over the safeale-05, but mainly because I do not do starters yet, and the wyeast has always kicked off within 6 hours (@68 degrees)

1 gallon batches are fun, and cheap!

As far as pitch rate goes, an 11.5 gram pouch of us-05 has more yeast in it than a 50ml smack pack.

The fact that wyeast seems to kick off faster is irrelevant. I frequently use us-o5 on my IPAs and have the start of krausen at the 4-6 hour mark even when they're in the .070-.085 range. If you're not making starters you're actually pitching less yeast than with a pouch of us-05. As far as any of that goes, extremely active fermentation is a symptom of under pitching. Something that I can attest to especially SINCE I started using yeast starters.

Unless you're pitching into 1 gallon. Then it doesn't really matter.