Thoughts on this IPA recipe

[mwfripp]

My last IPA recipe I threw out to the masses turned out great so I figured I'd do it again. One question, would 1 packet of yeast be enough?
OG 1.076
IBU 77.8
color 13.4 SRM
ABV 7.6%

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
11 lbs 0.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)

0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.75 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.75 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min

1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min

1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
1.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
1.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days

1.0 pkg Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml]

 

[kh54s10]

The extract probably already has crystal malt in it so you might want to use a lot less. Maybe .25 lb.

MrMalty suggests 1.3 packs of yeast so I would just use one pack - re-hydrated.

 

[myelo]

I think you're good with 1 pack yeast hydrated.

If you like your IPAs, crisp and hoppy, west coast style, you might also think about adding about 1 pound sugar near the end of the boil to help it ferment to a bit lower FG. Extract brews tend to finish a little higher than I like for an IPA.

Along those lines, I also agree with dialing back the crystal a bit. Again this is just my personal preference.

 

[mwfripp]

Thanks for the advice. I've wondered why my pale ales/IPA's have finished a little higher than i wanted. I'll definitely add the sugar. I'm from the west coast so I love my IPA's that style

 

[TwoHeart]

What would the pound of sugar impart on the final product, though?

I'm wondering if I should add a half a pound to my recipe, but afraid it would dry it out or impart some unwanted tastes...

 

[Calder]

My last IPA recipe I threw out to the masses turned out great so I figured I'd do it again. One question, would 1 packet of yeast be enough?
OG 1.076
IBU 77.8
color 13.4 SRM
ABV 7.6%

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
11 lbs 0.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)

Do some research on the extract and understand what is in it. If it already has Crystal in it, I'd just get rid of the crystal all together. Having an SRM of 8.0, I suspect it has somewhere in the region of 50% Crystal. If you used something like Briess Golden Light (SRM 4.0), which is 99% 2-row and 1% Carapils, I would stilll say you have too much Crystal, and recommend cutting it by half.

Nottingham can attenuate well, but I suspect you will have a tough time getting much below 1.018. I like my IPAs to be sub 1.010. To get close to that you will need to replace 2 lbs of the LME with 2 lbs of table sugar. That's a lot of sugar, but not extreme. With all-grain you can mash low to get the beer to dry out, but with all-extract, it's what you need to do.

1 pack of Notty should do fine, just make sure you keep your temps under control.

 

[myelo]

What would the pound of sugar impart on the final product, though?

I'm wondering if I should add a half a pound to my recipe, but afraid it would dry it out or impart some unwanted tastes...

The sugar will be completely fermented to ethanol. This will do several things:

1. Dry out the beer, as you indicated, that is, less sweet. For American pale ales and IPA, you often want the malt:hop balance in favor of the hops. These beers tend to emphasize the hops and hop flavor depends not on just the amount of hops but the balance between the hops and the malt.

But malt extract often doesn't ferment as completely as comparable all grain beers, or at least AG beers mashed at relatively low temperature. This can be fine for beers balanced toward the malt, for examples, stouts and porters. But it may not be as desirable for a beer balanced more toward the hops. Thus, adding some sugar can help balance the beer more toward hops (less malt sweetness).

2. Increase the alcohol content (unless you compensate by decreasing the extract amount appropriately). For American style IPAs, this is usually not a problem unless you go overboard because they tend to be higher ABV compared to some other styles.

3. Thin out the body. Again, this can be undesirable in some styles but reasonable amounts of sugar are usually not a problem with IPAs.

As for taste, as long as you get a good fermentation, the sugar is essentially all fermented to ethanol (and C02) and ethanol actually has very little taste at the levels typical in beer.

 

[mwfripp]

So i'm about to brew this recipe and I've taken out the crystal and am using Briess Golden light DME. Beer smith has an ABV of 8.4% and I'm using 2 packets of SafeAle 05 because LBHS was out of Notty. Question: Will 2 packets of yeast have the same drying out effect as adding sugar would do? If I add sugar Beersmit says the ABV will go up to about 9%?

 

[myelo]

Will 2 packets of yeast have the same drying out effect as adding sugar would do?

No

The yeast is going to keep fermenting until all the fermentable sugars are gone. Adding more yeast won't make them ferment any more -- you have to add more fermentable sugars.

If you want to cut back on the ABV and still use the sugar, you can decrease the amount of LME.

 

[bobbrews]

Agree on reducing crystal malt to the 0-5% total fermentable range. I'm a fan of using either no crystal malt, or a tiny bit of C10-C40 in an AIPA. It produces a cleaner, crisper, more drinkable IPA than one muddled with say, 9% of C60, which would be awful, for my palate at least.

For the hop schedule, know this... BOILING KILLS FLAVOR... especially delicate flavor. Hops have delicate flavor. When you boil hops, their delicate flavor evaporates in a sense through the steam and air. That is why I suggest using pellet hops or hop extract for bitterness only during the boil.

Don't follow the old schedules that suggest flavor additions at 15 and 10 minutes, and aroma additions at 5-1 minutes. That advice is bogus. To attain the best flavor and aroma from your hops as possible, use them post-boil and in the dry hop.

 

[mwfripp]

That all makes perfect sense. So then add flavor hops at flameout and aroma during dry hop?

 

[bobbrews]

Flavor and aroma are the same sort of thing in this sense. Both are strongly desired in huge amounts. And if you nail it, you will have both in huge amounts. The best flavor and aroma in an IPA if you use the large majority of your hops late.

"Late" is flameout/warm hopstand/any time post-boil/dryhop/second dryhop, etc. You have to figure out how much hops to use at these stages and which types suit your tastes.

Late is not 15, 10, 5 min or 1 minute left in the boil. Add hops to an IPA at these stages, and you are essentially boiling off the desired, delicate flavors and aromas. For an IPA, the outdated 60/15/10/0 schedule (or something like this) will still have flavor and aroma, but not as much as it would have with a different hop schedule.

In a nutshell, don't boil hops for flavor and aroma.

 

[brewchachojoe]

The sugar will be completely fermented to ethanol. This will do several things:

1. Dry out the beer, as you indicated, that is, less sweet. For American pale ales and IPA, you often want the malt:hop balance in favor of the hops. These beers tend to emphasize the hops and hop flavor depends not on just the amount of hops but the balance between the hops and the malt.

But malt extract often doesn't ferment as completely as comparable all grain beers, or at least AG beers mashed at relatively low temperature. This can be fine for beers balanced toward the malt, for examples, stouts and porters. But it may not be as desirable for a beer balanced more toward the hops. Thus, adding some sugar can help balance the beer more toward hops (less malt sweetness).

2. Increase the alcohol content (unless you compensate by decreasing the extract amount appropriately). For American style IPAs, this is usually not a problem unless you go overboard because they tend to be higher ABV compared to some other styles.

3. Thin out the body. Again, this can be undesirable in some styles but reasonable amounts of sugar are usually not a problem with IPAs.

As for taste, as long as you get a good fermentation, the sugar is essentially all fermented to ethanol (and C02) and ethanol actually has very little taste at the levels typical in beer.

All good advice, just be aware that 1# per 5 gal is about the upper tolerance of volume before sugar starts imparting some cidery qualities

 

[mwfripp]

OG 1.096
IBU 77.8
color 13.4 SRM
ABV 10.4


10 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (4.0 SRM)
.5lb sugar 15 min left in boil

0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.75 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.75 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min

1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min

1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
1.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
1.25 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days

2 packets 05

So this is what I came up with. It fermented like crazy for about 4 days. Just dry hopped today and have a FG of 1.018