Thoughts on big IPA recipe

[McBrewskie]

It's an extract recipe, and I haven't done enough to know if this is just outta whack. Any suggestions of what to reduce, add, take out would be great. Also for a brew this big any yeast suggestions?

90 minute boil.

Fermentables:
1 lbs. Carmel/crystal malt 40L 90 min.
1.5 lbs. Carapils 90 min.
2 lbs. Pale Malt 2 row 90 min.
10 lbs. Pilsner LME 60 min.
2 lbs. Corn Sugar 60 min.
3 lbs. Extra light DME 30 min.

Hops- each 2 oz.

Amarillo 90 min
Simcoe 90 min
Centennial 60 min
Simcoe 60 min
Cascade 30 min
Simcoe 30 min
Amarillo 5 min
Simcoe 5 min

Dry Hopped- each 1 oz.

Cascade 35 days
Simcoe 35 days
Amarillo 28 days
Simcoe 28 days
Cascade 21 days
Simcoe 21 days
Amarillo 14 days
Simcoe 14 days
cascade 7 days
Simcoe 7 days

45 days in primary
14 days bottle

15.5 % abv
208 IBUs

 

[McBrewskie]

5 gallon batch BTW. What should I start with to account for boil and hop loss?

 

[vnyand]

Well for the yeast I'd just use the WL001 (California Ale), and make a big starter.

 

[lostboysbrew]

there isnt a point in getting that high in the IBU range..........from what I have read and talked to brewers about is that once you get beyond 120-130 IBUs that you can't taste the difference. You might be better off saving the money on all the extra hops.......

Made an IPA that was 105 IBUs and it was the hoppiest thing Ive had, no point in going higher in my opinion.....

 

[Bensiff]

2-row needs to be mashed so get rid of that. I don't like a bunch of body in an IIPA, I like it dry and the crystal will already be adding body so I would get rid of the carapils too. Then you want it to attenuate as much as possible so don't use anything but fresh pilsner extract to help you as much as possible.

I don't see much reason to do 90 and 60 minute boils with hops, just do the 60, it really doesn't add anything different. You will never see 208 IBU's, realistically you might get into the 90's, trying to force it with massive amounts of hops at 60 and 90 minutes will probably only get you a harsh and possibly grassy hop character. I wouldn't dry hop for more than two weeks or you will start dealing with vegetative flavors. Then you have to consider how much hops you are putting into this thing, you are going to lose a ton of beer doing so. Finally, 15.5% ABV is extremely high (personally I think its pointless and won't result in a good IPA) and if you do not really know what you are doing with yeast you will never see it.

 

[McBrewskie]

2-row needs to be mashed so get rid of that. I don't like a bunch of body in an IIPA, I like it dry and the crystal will already be adding body so I would get rid of the carapils too. Then you want it to attenuate as much as possible so don't use anything but fresh pilsner extract to help you as much as possible.

I don't see much reason to do 90 and 60 minute boils with hops, it really doesn't add anything different. You will never see 208 IBU's, realistically you might get into the 90's, trying to force it with massive amounts of hops at 60 and 90 minutes will probably only get you a harsh and possibly grassy hop character. I wouldn't dry hop for more than two weeks or you will start dealing with vegetative flavors. Then you have to consider how much hops you are putting into this thing, you are going to lose a ton of beer doing so. Finally, 15.5% ABV is extremely high (personally I think its pointless and won't result in a good IPA) and if you do not really know what you are doing with yeast you will never see it.

Cool, thanks for the critique. I figures it might need to be scaled back some.

 

[Double_D]

You're not going to have much left by the time you get done with all those hops. I like american 2 from wyeast. It's what I use for IPAs. I'm curious about 208 IBU though. I always do 60 min boils and I hit 116 IBU with 4 oz magnum for an hour and 2 oz of amarillo for 15 min.

You'll have to take about 8 to boil with because you're planning on doing a pound of hops and maybe if you don't have a really wide kettle you won't lose an abnormal amount to evaporation. I can bet on losing about a quart every 15 min. in my setup. With that you should have another gallon go to all your hops. 5.5 Gallons left for the fermentor. Then you dry hop with 10 oz. 2oz at a time for 5 weeks. I can't tell you how much that's going to absorb. I always used to forget I was basically rehydrating something dry in my wort when boiling or dry hopping that liquid is going somewhere.. I don't even know what your efficiency of extraction would be with a wort gravity that high? Like 10%? The way I figure it even for an hour long boil is like 350 IBU. Like I said I'm just guessing though the extraction might be lower. Did you use software?

You'll definitely need a yeast starter. And nutrients. Probably 2 smack packs in a starter of 250 g LME boiled in one pint water and cooled with one pint ice. I follow that procedure for mine but I make ten gallon batches and my highest OG is 1.124 (winter warmer came out at 10.2) Make sure you aerate very well.

You don't really need the pilsner malt. Just do all extra light. You could do all LME if you wanted to and just add another pound to account for the slightly less fermentable malt vs. dextrose.

Keep us posted. I want to know how this turns out.

 

[Double_D]

Dry yeast is a good idea. It's way cheaper. I second that.

 

[McBrewskie]

You're not going to have much left by the time you get done with all those hops. I like american 2 from wyeast. It's what I use for IPAs. I'm curious about 208 IBU though. I always do 60 min boils and I hit 116 IBU with 4 oz magnum for an hour and 2 oz of amarillo for 15 min.

You'll have to take about 8 to boil with because you're planning on doing a pound of hops and maybe if you don't have a really wide kettle you won't lose an abnormal amount to evaporation. I can bet on losing about a quart every 15 min. in my setup. With that you should have another gallon go to all your hops. 5.5 Gallons left for the fermentor. Then you dry hop with 10 oz. 2oz at a time for 5 weeks. I can't tell you how much that's going to absorb. I always used to forget I was basically rehydrating something dry in my wort when boiling or dry hopping that liquid is going somewhere.. I don't even know what your efficiency of extraction would be with a wort gravity that high? Like 10%? The way I figure it even for an hour long boil is like 350 IBU. Like I said I'm just guessing though the extraction might be lower. Did you use software?

You'll definitely need a yeast starter. And nutrients. Probably 2 smack packs in a starter of 250 g LME boiled in one pint water and cooled with one pint ice. I follow that procedure for mine but I make ten gallon batches and my highest OG is 1.124 (winter warmer came out at 10.2) Make sure you aerate very well.

You don't really need the pilsner malt. Just do all extra light. You could do all LME if you wanted to and just add another pound to account for the slightly less fermentable malt vs. dextrose.

Keep us posted. I want to know how this turns out.

Awesome. Thanks so much. So all extra light LME and get rid of the pilsner malt and the dextrose? I'll definitely keep this updated.

 

[Double_D]

Like I said, it's just what I'd do. You don't really need those other things to make a great IPA. I think WLP005 is supposed to be the same as wyeast Am2 can anybody confirm that? You could make a mini mash and do it hot with about a gallon of water. Shoot for 165 and it should stabilize in the high 150's. It will convert in about half an hour. Problem solved.

 

[McBrewskie]

Like I said, it's just what I'd do. You don't really need those other things to make a great IPA. I think WLP005 is supposed to be the same as wyeast Am2 can anybody confirm that? You could make a mini mash and do it hot with about a gallon of water. Shoot for 165 and it should stabilize in the high 150's. It will convert in about half an hour. Problem solved.

Will do.

 

[dcp27]

id ditch the 2-row, carapils (its already in the extract anyway), DME, and cut way back on the bittering adds (2oz at 60 should be plenty).

i've never gotten vegetal/grassy notes from too long of a dry hop, but i wouldnt recommend it all the same. you can do them in bags and pull them out in stages a la pliney if you want tho.

I think WLP005 is supposed to be the same as wyeast Am2 can anybody confirm that?

005 is 1187, 051 is wyeast Am2.

 

[vnyand]

My buddy's BPA got veggie hop notes from dry hopping A. too much B. too long C. in too boozy of a beer

Ended up delicious after 6 weeks bottle conditioning, but who wants to wait that long for a BPA

 

[Bensiff]

From my experience I have gotten vegatative flavors from letting things sit on hops too long...however, it might be species dependent. Importantly though, what is your yeast wrangling experience? If you don't have a solid grasp on it and equipment for it I wouldn't venture into the high grav beers yet.

 

[Double_D]

005 is 1187, 051 is wyeast Am2.

thanks.

 

[McBrewskie]

Thanks guys. Ditch 2 row and carapils, cut back on bittering adds and stage dry hop.

 

[McBrewskie]

From my experience I have gotten vegatative flavors from letting things sit on hops too long...however, it might be species dependent. Importantly though, what is your yeast wrangling experience? If you don't have a solid grasp on it and equipment for it I wouldn't venture into the high grav beers yet.

I have yet to make a starter for anything so this may lead me to scale this back and try something lower first.

 

[Bensiff]

I have yet to make a starter for anything so this may lead me to scale this back and try something lower first.

Yeah, if you haven't even used a starter before I would look at this as an opportunity to work up a good IPA recipe that can be the base for a DIPA unless you are willing to shell out the money for 4 packs of yeast...if you have the money then go for it, otherwise I would begin putting together something to make starters in and a stir plate, an oxygen setup, quality yeast nutrients...and then of course you need temp control to keep the yeast from going too hot or crashing out.

 

[McBrewskie]

Yeah, if you haven't even used a starter before I would look at this as an opportunity to work up a good IPA recipe that can be the base for a DIPA unless you are willing to shell out the money for 4 packs of yeast...if you have the money then go for it, otherwise I would begin putting together something to make starters in and a stir plate, an oxygen setup, quality yeast nutrients...and then of course you need temp control to keep the yeast from going too hot or crashing out.

Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll scale this back a little and take a shot at doing a starter first

 

[henrik]

Hey...just curious if you ever ended up brewing this. If so, what did you end up doing and how did it turn out? Where did your numbers come in?