Hybrid English IPA HELP

trying to clone a Hoppy Otter here's the marketing...
The purest spring water drawn from the River Otter is used to brew this traditional 19th Century-style IPA with a bit of a twist. Handcrafted with English floor malts and our very own yeast, we have added five of the US Pacific Northwest's most citrus-flavored, aromatic whole cone hops to create a new, complex, highly drinkable beer.

Label says 6.8% ABV not sure where I should add more fermentables at, to increase the ABV of my modified English IPA recipe from "Brewing Classic Styles"
Also does the hop schedule look good or are there some changes that need to be made for a better combination?

Hoppy Otter Clone
English IPA


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.22 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
12.25 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 87.5 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.50 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 1.8 %

1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00%] (60 min) Hops 30.0 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00%] (15 min) Hops 10.6 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (10 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (5 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00%] (1 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop10 days) Hops
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops

1 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.0 %
Bitterness: 49.8 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 10.2 SRM

 

Sounds like a good first attempt. You can add more pale malt for gravity. I'd also add an ounce of dry hops to give it that fresh "IPA" aroma.

 

I thought the "fresh IPA" aroma was more of a American IPA trait? If not what kind of hops would you recommend and how long should I dry hop?

I'm currently reading "Designing Great Beers" but I'm still not sure of what hops go well together, does anyone know of a book or website dealing with the subject?

 

Dry hopping is a "traditional" part of the English style because hops were added to the casks to help preserve them during shipping to India. That said, today most English "IPA" are more like bitters. It is always hard to judge how hoppy an English beer is fresh if you are drinking it in America when it is a couple months old since fresh hop character is the first thing to go.

Amarillo/Simcoe/Columbus is one of my favorite combinations. I've been putting together a list of hop combinations used in some of my favorite American IPAs/DIPAs at the bottom of this post: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/02/big-ipa-recipe-1-lb-of-hops.html seems like lots of different things work.

 

OK did a little reading and decided to try 1 oz of Cascade and Centennial for 10 days then 5 days later 1 oz Amarillo Gold for 5 days. What do you think?

Also could you recommend an extract substitute for the Maris Otter? Seems that no one make Maris Otter extract anymore.

 

That should be fine. I like 2 dry hop additions (I usually add the second one to the keg while it carbs).

Any English Pale malt extract should be fine. That said, you really should do a mini-mash with a couple pounds of Maris Otter to convert the wheat and biscuit malts.

 

I wouldn't call that a hybrid english IPA, I'd call that a straight-up american IPA. Many american brewers use Maris otter and an english yeast - Lagunitas comes to mind immediately here.

If you really want it to be hybrid, I'd suggest including some english hops with an 'earthy-tangerine' character with your late & dry hops. Challenger would be a good choice

 

What about this for a hop bill? Figured why limit my self to where the hops come from and just pick the one with the flavor/aroma I'm looking for and just adjust to the IBU's I want. Not sure what it would be, probably a lightly hopped American IPA?

0.75 oz Summit [17.00%] (60 min) Hops 25.2 IBU
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (30 min) Hops 10.8 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00%] (7 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
1.00 oz Pacifica [5.50%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops -

 

Never used Pacifica. That looks right on the cusp between a really hoppy pale, and a low-moderate hopped IPA.

 

Bought my supplies for brewing today ended up having to change my recipe a bit due to availability so here's what I'm brewing tomorrow, what do you think?

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.03 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 76.2 %
0.57 lb LME Wheat Bavarian (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Extract 4.8 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
0.50 lb Caramel Malt - 50L 6-Row (Briess) (50.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.1 %
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.30%] (60 min) Hops 25.1 IBU
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [9.20%] (20 min) Hops 9.5 IBU
0.75 oz Citra [12.30%] (7 min) Hops 5.6 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [12.30%] (20 min) Hops 4.2 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (7 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
and probably dry hop with a combination of the above
2 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.5 %
Bitterness: 45.7 IBU
Est Color: 13.0 SRM

 

3 weeks in primary FG at 1.022... I racked it to secondary and am debating what i should do next. Do I add amylase enzyme and hope it drops me the 5-10 points i need to hit the styles FG or is there anything else i can do? In either case not much I can do till Tuesday when I can get to the brew shop.

On a tangent do you think 1oz Simcoe, Citra, and Amarillo for dry hopping would be too much?