A 1 Gallon Pine IPA Recipe I'm Working On

[Dice_Boken]

Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge than me can add to/fix this. This is a 1 gallon IPA that I fooled around with using ingredients from Northern Brewer's website. The problem is I didn't steep enough of the Maillard Briess Pale Ale Malt grains and wound up with a lower body than I would have hoped. I wound up with an IPA around 4.5 ABV. Apologies if I'm making a noob mistake, that's exactly what I am, a noob.

4 cups of Maillard Briess Pale Ale Malt to steep.
1 LB Briess Pilsen Light dry malt extract (add at beginning of boil)
1 OZ US Northern Brewer hop pellets (add at beginning of boil)
1 OZ Eureka! hop pellets (add at 55 minutes, end boil 5 minutes later)

The Eureka! hops add a very distinguishable pine flavor, I'll definitely be using them again whenever I try to go it alone instead of using a kit. The end result was a very bitter and hoppy pale ale that's actually pretty tasty. It could use a bit more body but me being a noob, I didn't steep enough grains.

 

[NSMikeD]

4.5 ABV is on the low side of of an IPA but within range so it's sounds like you brewed a good IPA

Body in beer speak has more to do with mouthfeel than it does ABV (although there is a slight correlation). Body has to do more with stuff that doesn't get fermented while ABV is all about the fermentation.

To bump the ABV you can either try a more efficient mashing/steeping method or add some more extract (don't rule out DME).

Steeping malt in extract brewing is done more of taste, mouthfeel and color than extracting the sugars since is not an efficient method of mashing. Mashing requires holding the water temperature steady at one or more points for specific period of time. While the Breiss is a great base malt for an IPA, steeping to get all the sugars would require a little more finesse.

For example, NB John Palmers Elevenses partial extract/partial grain kit instructs the brewer to heat the water to 164° and then add the grain bag (which will cool the water a bit) and then hold it steady at 154° for an hour to get all the sugars. Congrats , you are on your way to being an all grain BIAB brewer!


Crystal malt in the 20-60 L range is commonly used in IPAs to add "body". The caramelized sugars cannot be fermented and so the residual sweetness in the beer compliments the hops adding a maltiness in the mouthfeel. It will also add a bit of the desired pale color a common choice for simple steeping for an extract brew.