Recipe Critique: stone-ish IPA

[SuchSweetThunder]

I'm planning a big-ish IPA to brew the end of this month. I've never made an IPA in bigger than a 2 gallon batch--this will be 5 gallons. As such, I'm hoping to get some input to improve the end product.

Here's what I've got (using Brewer's friend, 70% expected efficiency, full-volume BIAB). This is loosely based on Stone's process using "their" yeast from white labs.

8 lb 2-row
2 lb 2-row, toasted
4 lb Pearl
1 lb Honey

.75 oz. Columbus at 60
1 oz. Comet at 10
1 oz. Citra at 10
1 oz. Simcoe at 5
.25 oz. Columbus at 5

Dry hop/flameout TBD
WLP007--dry english ale (with appropriate starter)

OG 1.073, expected FG 1.018, 7.14%, 75.6 IBUs, 9.7 SRM

Also going to try to track down distilled water (can't find it at the store here) and build up my water profile from minerals.

Questions:
Flameout, dry hop, or both? I want to at least dry hop. I have more of the above hops in the fridge as well as super alpha and amarillo.
Opinions on bitterness level/hops timing?

Thanks, sorry for the wall of text!

 

[Hopper5000]

Do you like malty IPA's? This 1.018 is a pretty high finishing gravity. I would shoot for 1.012 to 1.008. You could get this by subbing some base malt for sugar, maybe about 5%.

I think you are going to want to add more hops in here too. Your IBU's look ok. I would add maybe 2 to 4 oz at flameout and about the same as a dry hop. You could look into a hopstand/whirpool. Of course it all depends on how hoppy you like your beers.

 

[bobbrews]

For an American IPA, I would forego the toasted 2-row addition. This will only make the IPA less crisp and harder to drink, while muting some of the hop character.

Honey is expensive. And unless it's very high quality and used logically in a recipe, you won't sense much from it. I would go with 5-6% sugar instead.

Use more hops for this 1.073 "Double" IPA, especially at the 60 min, Hopstand, and Dryhop slots.

Your FG should fall well below 1.018 with the right practices and WLP007's average attentuation accounted for.

What are you shooting for in terms of a water profile?

 

[Hopper5000]

Agreed with bob on the toast, also I thought Honey meant malt and not the bee product...

 

[bobbrews]

Agreed with bob on the toast, also I thought Honey meant malt and not the bee product...

I certainly hope not since he would be using over 6% of the grist. Honey malt is very sweet and nutty if used in a basic IPA, even at 3%.