Not-Quite-Average NEIPA - Looking for feedback

[Cryovenom]

So I'm looking to brew my very first NEIPA, a style that I've really grown to love from local craft breweries over the last year.

I gathered together 10 NEIPA recipes I found online, trying to find out what they have in common. After messing around with notepads on my kitchen table I realized that the "average" of all of them was actually one of the recipes I was already looking at - the Averagely Perfect NEIPA I found on Brewer's Friend that was crowdsourced from this thread over on BeerAdvocate.

Anyway, Galaxy hops are damn near impossible for me to get, and I'm brewing on a 10L/2.5gal BIAB setup, so I made a few changes and was hoping to get some feedback from you guys on whether this looks good before I go and brew it. I really want to knock this one out of the park so any feedback would be super helpful:

JohnnyIPA / JON NEIPA

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 10.0
Total Grain (kg): 2.892
Total Hops (g): 187.15
Original Gravity (OG): 1.062 (°P): 15.2
Final Gravity (FG): 1.017 (°P): 4.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.93 %
Colour (SRM): 5.2 (EBC): 10.2
Bitterness (IBU): 27.1 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
2.227 kg American - Pale 2-Row (77%)
0.289 kg American - Wheat (10%)
0.289 kg Flaked Oats (10%)
0.087 kg Canadian - Honey Malt (3%)

Hop Bill
----------------
8.5 g Amarillo Pellet (8.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)
14.3 g Citra Pellet (11.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.4 g/L)
8.4 g Mosaic Pellet (12.3% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)

16.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (HopStand) (1.6 g/L)
4.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.1% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (HopStand) (0.4 g/L)
16.0 g Citra Pellet (11.8% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (HopStand) (1.6 g/L)
16.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12.3% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (HopStand) (1.6 g/L)

16.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.2% Alpha) @ High Krausen (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)
4.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.1% Alpha) @ High Krausen (Dry Hop) (0.4 g/L)
16.0 g Citra Pellet (14.1% Alpha) @ High Krausen (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)
16.0 g Mosaic Pellet (12.3% Alpha) @ High Krausen (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)

16.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.2% Alpha) @ 7 Days in Fermenter (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)
4.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.1% Alpha) @ 7 Days in Fermenter (Dry Hop) (0.4 g/L)
16.0 g Citra Pellet (11% Alpha) @ 7 Days in Fermenter (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)
16.0 g Mosaic Pellet (14.1% Alpha) @ 7 Days in Fermenter (Dry Hop) (1.6 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with London Ale III 1318

Water Additions
----------------
0.1 g Gypsum
0.25 g Calcium Chloride

Water Profile After Additions
----------------
Calcium 125ppm
Magnesium 2ppm
Sodium 12ppm
Sulfate 56ppm
Chloride 160ppm
Bicarbonate 29ppm
S2C Ratio 0.4

 

[1galbrewer]

Recipe looks good to me. I like it.

I use nearly the exact same malt bill after looking at the average of a bunch of recipes like you did. I didn't calculate out the IBUs you're getting, but everything looks good. Amarillo is a great hop and the rest are, of course, solid too. I like the addition of centennial towards the end. I feel adding something like that brightens the hop profile. The really fruity hops can get too tropical tasting sometimes, imho, and 'weighs down' the favor, I guess I'd say?

My critiques would be that the ABV seems low and the sulfate:chloride ratio might be a little extreme. I feel like NEIPA starts at 6.5%. I've seen a lot of people suggesting to keep sulphate:chloride at 1:1 to 1:2. I've had chloride levels really high in proportion and the beer just seems kinda thick and sweet and lacked hop aroma, but I'm still dialing in my ratios here too, so take it with a grain of salt (pun intended).

 

[Rob2010SS]

Looks good to me as well. My 2 cents...

- I think the sulfate/chloride ratio is fine. I typically try to aim for 75/150. While a bit more extreme than mine, I think your ratio will be good.

- While I don't think it's a deal breaker, I do think ABV is a bit on the low side as well.

- I prefer a bit more wheat/oats in mine. I like the 30% mark. Anything less and I feel I don't quite get the mouthfeel impact. It also doesn't come out with the look that I'm after (yes, I know the haze is a side effect of the recipe and not a goal).

- After reading about some commercial examples, mainly Weldworks, I have taken their approach and have been using a small FWH addition that equates to 5-10 IBUs, and then no more hops until whirlpool. While I haven't compared this technique to how you're doing it in your recipe, I can say I'm a fan of how it comes out. While not overly bitter, it does provide a nice smooth bitterness on the back end.

All in all I think your recipe looks fine as is. The things I noted above are just personal preference and nothing more.

 

[Rob2010SS]

The only other thing I'll mention, and again, do not take this as "you should do this..", is in regards to your dry hop. It seems there are 2 groups these days. 1 group still performs the biotransformation dry hop (dry hopping during active krausen) and the other group has gone away from that and instead, waits until fermentation is over, does a soft crash at ~50F to drop the yeast, warms back up to ~60F and performs dry hopping then. I will say that this is what I've gone to due to my experience with hop burn and it has worked great! I have no plans to go back to biotransformation dry hopping for the time being.

This will come down to your equipment as well as your tastes. Everyone has different preferences.

 

[1galbrewer]

I subscribe to the FWH/60 min addition as well. Scott Janish talks about it in his book and why you might want to do it, but I don't remember what the reasoning was. To be succinct, hop bittering in a NEIPA is complex; the bitterness comes from multiple sources, not just iso-alpha acids.

I would be mindful of the quantity of hops you use in your dry hopping. I think they say the max amount you want to use is 1-2 lbs per barrel, based on 'hop saturation.' I think this is 4-8 grams per liter, though I wouldn't trust my math on it. Worth looking into though if you're not happy with the batch. I'm interested in hearing how it comes out!