critique?? IPA

Can someone critique this? Give your thoughts... I'm a new brewer with limited equipment hence the small batch size. But give me your thoughts and expertise, I don't wanna brew a bad beer.


IPA

Recipe specifics:

Style: American IPA Batch size: 2.5 gal Boil volume: 1.0 gal OG: 1.071 FG: 1.018 Bitterness (IBU): 54.6 Color (SRM): 10.0 ABV: 7.0%

Grain/Sugars:

4.00 lb Light LME, 76.2% 1.00 lb Crystal 20L, 19.0% 0.25 lb Cane Sugar, 4.8%

Hops:

1.00 oz Cascade (AA 6.6%, Pellet) 60 min, 14.6 IBU 1.00 oz Chinook (AA 11.5%, Pellet) 60 min, 25.4 IBU 1.00 oz Amarillo (AA 8.0%, Pellet) 20 min, 10.7 IBU 1.00 oz Cascade (AA 6.6%, Pellet) 5 min, 2.9 IBU 1.00 oz Chinook (AA 11.5%, Pellet) 1 min, 1.1 IBU 1.00 oz Amarillo (AA 8.0%, Pellet) dry hop 1.00 oz Cascade (AA 6.6%, Pellet) dry hop

Recipe Notes:

Follow hops as scheduled, dry hop after 7 days in fermenter.

 

anybody?? please?? I need your HELP!!!

 

I think it looks like a decent recipe man. I would personally drop out the cane sugar and use a little more grain in it. Maybe add a specialty grain like honey malt or biscuit or something like that in place of the sugar. I think the hop schedule looks pretty good but I like chinook for a bittering hop so im biased. The amarillo and cascade dry hop is a great combo too. I think your on the right track.

 

I did a ranger clone with sugar and liked it. Dryed it out good. Personally I like drier ipas with that bitter bite. I like the malty flavor masking the hops.

 

I'd recommend losing the two 60 minute additions. Just make it one Chinook addition at 1.5 oz. That'll help increase your ibus a bit. 50s ibu for a 1.070 beer is a little low. So take that ounce of Cascade at 60 and move it to either more of a dry hop or 0 minutes.
I made an IPA with Munich and loved it. While it's not really in an IPA style guidelines, I really liked it.
What yeast are you planning on using?

 

Awesome! honestly I was expecting someone to change everything! glad to see im starting to understand all this lol

would you cut out the sugar because it might make it to sweet tasting?

 

Im not sure on the yeast. I don't really know what the different yeast' are and how they change the final product... any suggestions?

 

Cane sugar is 100% fermentable.... meaning that it leaves nothing behind and adds nothing to taste. It won't make a beer sweet, it will make it dry and add to the ABV. Some styles use pure sugar (e.g. Belgians), but for an IPA you're better off adding a little more malt.

 

ok good idea on cutting out the sugar, Im not a big fan of the dryness. would you add more LME or a specialty grain?

 

Yeast selection can make or break a beer. It's not an exaggeration to say that yeast makes the beer (quite literally).

For a basic IPA, stick with something neutral. For dry yeasts, try Safale US-05. If you want a liquid yeast, White Labs 001 is a great all purpose yeast.

This thread has a good breakdown of dry vs. liquid yeast (as well as other topics worth reading): http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/

 

For a first beer, just add a little more LME (maybe .5lb). Keep it simple. Focus on process and getting comfortable with the steps involved. As you gain experience, you can start goofing with more complicated recipes.

 

If it were my beer, I'd cut the crystal way down to about 1/4 lb. I usually go with 1/2 lb in a 5 gallon batch.

I don't use sugar in a regular IPA and prefer to just keep the crystal restrained and IBU's high to provide the balance.

 

So just straight with the LME and focus on hop additions.

Stoked to brew

 

Is it possible to do an AG with a partial boil? Would you steep or do you just throw em in.

 

"Is it possible to do an AG with a partial boil? "

It's kinda hard since you need the water to wash the sugar out of the grains. I guess you could try a variation of the old british method. They used to use the first runnings from the mash to make a strong beer and used the second runnings for a small beer - often blending the 2 later. You would basically be using the first runnings and dilluting with water after the boil. That is a pretty inefficient way to make beer though, so you may as well spring for a larger pot if/when you start looking at AG.

 

Yes I can do 2 gallons. Why do you say its too small??