building an IPA

Hi all -

New to brewing here. Started to work a Pale Ale recipe to an IPA. My plan is to take the recipe, make it well, then improve it.

At the moment I have my second batch. I killed the fermentation on the first (sorted that out) but kept the product to see if I wanted to try same recipe again. Even without much fermentation, it seemed to be a very good batch. This second batch is off to a great start no problems with fermentation, that is for sure. Racking to secondary takes place Friday.

Recipe is:
10lb 2-row
1 lb Carapils
1 lb Caramel /Crystal 40L
1/2 lb Caramel / Crystal 60L

60 min mash, vorlauf and sparge

Hops:
2oz Chinook at 60min
2 oz Amarillo at 20min
1 oz Cascade at 10 min
1 oz Cascade at 5 min
1/2 oz citra at 1 min

Yeast:
Omega labs DIPA OYL-052

Fermentation 4 days, secondary 10 days, bottle condition 2 weeks.

Thoughts? Tweaks? Suggestions?

If this works out, I will progress along the same lines to a Double IPA, but I would love to get input on ways to nudge this one.

 

With that much crystal it is going to be quite sweet for an IPA. Great if you like your IPAs with more malt character, but if you like dryer IPAs, you might want to back the crystal to under a pound total.

I also really like dry hopping my IPAs.

 

Oh, also, get rid of the secondary. Ferment in primary for 2 to 3 weeks, and then bottle. If you dry hop, add them directly to primary.

 

Definitely take @theseeker4 's advice and back off that crystal. Also, I often question why people use two different types of crystal in IPAs at all. Definitely could be my own ignorance there. I would dry hop for aroma and also take the above advise and get rid of secondary. If you must use secondary, do it when fermentation is done. 4 days may not be enough.

 

Agreed, that's a heck of a lot of crystal malts for any beer at 20%, but way too much for an IPA (most would go 5% or less if using any in an IPA/DIPA). With the other crystal in there IMO the carapils is redundant - they all should give some body and head retention - so I would just replace that with base malt. If looking for malt character I would consider replacing a lb of the other crystal with a different character malt like vienna, munich, etc. You could even use a little victory for toasty flavors. For hops you seem to be loaded toward early additions and not enough finishing. Depending on what IBU's you're targeting I'd not go more than an oz at 60 and move more to the 10 to 0 range including flamout/hopstand. Then you'd want to dry hop an IPA or DIPA. I'll typically go something like 4-5 oz in the 10 to hopstand range and dry hop with 3 oz for an IPA.

 

Was looking at boosting two row to 11 lbs, Vienna at 1lb and and 1/2 lb of Special B

A little better?

Seriously - be brutal, tear it up. This is important, it's beer!!!

 

Looks better percentage-wise. Just realize that special B may get you some raisiny/toffee flavors - to me it's pretty potent and a little goes a long way. It's a bit atypical for an IPA but it can work in hoppy beers if that kind of flavor is what you want, for example the arrogant bastard clones I've seen use a lot of dark crystal like special B

 

Just some quick tips. Mash low around 150, use little to no crystal - 5% crystal max for color. Stay away from specialty malts. I always add some carapils around 5% for a little body and head retention. Keep in mind this beer style is all about the Hops. So a simple "clean" grain bill is ideal. Ive made IPA's with only pale 2 row and some cara pils and they came out great.

As far as your hops go I would defintely add 3 to 4 ounces to the secondary. Was thinking 1oz Amarillo, 1oz Cascade, 1oz Citra based on your current hop additions. Its all about what you want your beer to smell like. Remember 80% of what you taste comes through your nose

Also to get the bitterness "bite" for this style I would add some gypsum to your brew kettle to boost the calcium and sulfate level in the beer. If you know your brewing water profile you can always use a free program like Bru'n water and add the minerals to get a better water profile that style of beer. Water is arguably the most important ingredient in beer. If you dont have the right water you cant make great beer.

Sorry for the rambling........I just love talking beer

Cheers!

 

Awesome stuff everyone.

Will investigate more then. Next move, figure out the last 1/2 lb of malt and move hops to the end and dry hop.

Great stuff

 

ramble on rwing7486! I learn more that way.

Mash was 150-148.
Did Iodine check before sparge
pH was 5.3 before sparge

I think that is good - right?

 

I don't know too much about Special B malt, but with this being one of your first batches, why not go with a more "traditional" base of either Pale and some crystal (back off to about 5% as previously suggested) or some combo of vienna/munich?

As for hop schedule, I think you really need to scale back your 60 minute addition. 2oz is going to make for a VERY bitter beer. Remember, with IPA's you want appropriate bitterness but you don't need it to be a palate destroying experience. By plugging this all in to Beersmith, it looks like you'll have about 130 IBU which is pretty nuts. Focus more on upping your 20, 10, and 0 minute additions to pull more flavor and aroma. And make sure to dry hop with at least 3oz.

If it were my beer, I'd scale back the 60 minute addition to about .5oz which would put you at about 66 IBU and totally appropriate for the style. Remember - more IBU does not equal more flavor. Most of the best IPA's in the world don't top 100 IBU.

Also, since it appears you're brewing all grain, keep your mash temperature low (between 148-150) so that you end up with a nice dry beer that accentuates the hop flavors/aromas.

Hope that's helpful.

 

Great learning points from all

I borrowed this recipe just to get started. Glad I came here and asked - keeps me from wandering around and guessing at it.

From everyone's response, it sounds like the creator must have used the hopping at 60 as a balance for the extra crystal malt.

Cut back on both is what I am hearing.

 

Everyone will always put in their 2.5 cents for recipes and split hairs over them. All I suggest is to follow the basic guidelines and brew a beer with flavors you will enjoy.

 

Even if I do not take everything that everyone says as gospel, I still will come out with a better direction that what i had.

 

easy to start with grand schemes and designs - while a simple approach is probably best to start with. Sound advice

Thank you