Recipe help/Critique

[Gkohrs]

This would be my 5th AG batch but my first Imperial Ipa. Looking for thoughts or ways to improve it. My most pressing question is if Amarillo and Cascade together are overkill and is the grain bill too small. Thanks!

5gallons
75m mash @150
90m boil
OG 1.087
FG 1.015
Abv 9.6
IBU 125

9lbs 2-row
4lbs Pilsner
1.5lbs Flaked Oats
.5lbs 10L Crystal
1lb Turbinado Sugar at 10m left in boil
US-05 Yeast

.5oz Centennial FWH
.5oz Simcoe FWH

1oz Amarillo 30m
1.5oz Cascade 30m
1.5oz Cascade 20m
1.5oz Amarillo 15m
1.5oz Centennial 15m
1oz Amarillo 5m
1.5oz Cascade 5m
1oz Centennial Steep/whirlpool 30m

After Fermentation:
2oz Amarillo/1oz Simcoe dry hop days 1-5
2oz Centennial/2oz Cascade dry hop days 6-10

Thanks again!

 

[giraffe]

Weather the grain bill is too small is a matter of what your efficiency is. Without looking at a calculator, Id guess youd need an efficiency around 78% to hit 1.087. If you dont know your efficiency, 70-75% is a good starting guess, so Id look at an online calculator and add two row until you get there.

 

[slym2none]

Amarillo & Cascade will probably go great together, OP. Lots orange & grapefruit citrus going on there.

 

[dmtaylor]

Looks like a decent recipe. Amarillo and Cascade and the other hops will all go great together, really good stuff.

That said, a few things you could do to tweak:

ABV looks a bit hot to me. Consider reducing your base malt by a pound or two to make this beer more drinkable. Also be sure to ferment cool in the low to mid 60s F.

You can safely eliminate the 30 and 20 minute hop additions. They're just excessive and not needed.

And you can cut your dry hops in half and get the same results. Your recipe above is wasting a lot of hops that you won't get much if any benefit from in the final beer. Save a few bucks. You'll get the same results.

Looks great otherwise. I'm sure I'd like it.

 

[Double_D]

I'd like to add the following:

The caveat to my suggestions is I like my DIPAs as dry as I can get. It's hot here and I don't know what you're shooting for. Maybe you're going for one of those NE ipas I keep hearing so much about but haven't found on the shelf here in the desert. I like corn because it doesn't really add anything in the way of flavor or body, same with dextrose.

Unless you're using what you've got around the house, I'd use either 2 row or pilsner. I like to do IPAs with pils, and usually make sure one happens when I've bought a bag. I've also added it because I was short on 2 row. I wouldn't expect the flavor to come through though.

Mashing lower, like 147 or 148 would make this more drinkable without changing your OG or removing base malt. I assume you're going for a big DIPA.

I always start my big beers at 62 (ambient) and give them at least 72 hours then I'll up the temp to 65. It's my understanding most fusel (hot) alcohols are produced during the initial phase of fermentation. Someone can correct that for me, or add information hopefully.

Eliminating 30 and 20 minute hop additions will change your target IBU. If you want it lower, go ahead. Otherwise, my suggestion is to add another .5 to 1 oz to your 90 minute. I agree generally, 30 and 20 minute additions are not needed but it's because they don't efficiently use alpha acid and boil off the majority of flavor.

I don't think 7oz of dry hops is necessarily wasting it. I'm pretty sure the clones of pliny are in that range. I also use about that much in my DIPAs.

My .02, if this was my recipe I'd mash lower, change the oats to corn, use dextrose instead of turbinado sugar, move both 30 min additions to the flame out, remove the 20 minute addition, increase the 90 minute addition with the highest AA% to adjust target IBU back to where you want it. Also, my experience has been that making a big beer lowers your efficiency. I get 76-78% on my 5ish abv beers. On my 8ish beers, it's usually about 70%. I have a bad habit of sparging too fast though and that's probably off topic.

 

[sendai]

Also, consider mashing a little lower. (That depends on how much residual sweetness you prefer, of course.)

 

[dmtaylor]

I find mash time to matter more than mash temperature. 75 minutes is plenty. Could go 90 if you wanted it real dry. FWIW, I only mash for 40 minutes because it's "good enough" on my system. Save some time on brew day, and still get full attenuation, especially with a highly attenuative yeast like US-05. I think 75 minutes at 150 F is plenty good.

 

[Gkohrs]

Appreciate all the comments. The 20m and 30m hop additions I will look at to better utilize my $$$