Anything to improve my IPA Recipe?

[ckmpls]

You can see my recipe Here. I want to make a floral IPA with a lot of aroma characteristics and minimal bitterness. Im a novice brewer, with this only being my 3rd brew, so as much as I love hops, I dont know which hops are good for what flavor/characteristic. So what ive got so far is

• Steep 1lb Honey Malt for 30 Min
• Add 8lbs Light DME
• Boil Hops
• 1oz Magnum-30 Min
• 1oz Cascade 15 min
• 1oz Citra 15 min
• 1 oz citra 1 min
• 2oz Centennial Dry Hopped 4 days
• Americal ale Yeast Blend WLP060

Like I said I'm a rookie brewer so im open to any/all suggestions!

 

[Fordzilla]

I think it would turn out good if you brewed it as you have it currently, but this is what I would change, for how I like my IPAs. Not saying you have to do any of this.

Move the Magnum addition to 60 minutes. Bittering hops typically are boiled for 60 minutes. At 30 minutes you will get some of the hop flavor from the Magnum, which might be out of place in your IPA and conflict with the Citra, Cascade and Centennial flavors.
Take out the honey malt, as I like IPAs to be on the dry side to accentuate the hops. Maybe use a half pound of Crystal 20L to give it a little bit more of an interesting malt profile without adding too much sweetness.
I'd split the dry hop between 1 oz of Centennial and 1 oz of Citra because Citra is awesome.

I would also recommend going to www.brewtoad.com and plugging in your recipe. It will tell you if your beer is true to IPA style. (IBUs, ABV, etc) This will also give you an idea of how balanced it will be between dryness/sweetness/bitterness etc.

 

[BreezyBrew]

I'd dry hop with at least 3 oz, probably more like 4 or 5. That fades quickly on homebrews.

 

[ckmpls]

Thanks for your input @fordzilla! I did use brewtoad and all the levels are in the green. I think I will go with a 60min Boil for the Magnum, also gonna rethink my dry hops!

 

[DarthCitra]

You can FWH your magnum to mellow out the bitterness a little and still boil for 60mins.

It seems you like citra, IMO, i love amarillo with it.

 

[rodwha]

20 mins for the flavoring addition yields the most you can squeeze from your hops.

Don't use all of your DME in the whole boil. 60 mins just darkens it.

I second swapping out the honey malt for some crystal 20-40. I typically use a combination of 20 and 40 or 20 and 60, but if you want a west coast style go very easy on the crystal, as in no more than maybe 1/2 lb. But a full pound will still give you a basic American IPA. But adding flavors takes a little away from the star of the show (hops).

 

[jperry]

In my Opinion, Honey malt does not really belong in an IPA, especially an entire pound of it.

The malting company that makes Honey Malt, says it is best mashed with a base malt.
Although, Morebeer claims that you can extract flavor by steeping.

I would take out all the honey malt, and sub in 0.5lb-0.75lb of a lighter crystal,
and possibly sub out a pound of the DME, for a pound cane sugar, to dry it out a little.

 

[rodwha]

It can certainly be steeped.

 

[ckmpls]

You can FWH your magnum to mellow out the bitterness a little and still boil for 60mins.

How do I do this when doing an extract brew? Everything I could find talked about how to add them before draining the mash tun

 

[rodwha]

I'm not familiar, but I understand this to be during the time your water is heating up prior to it boiling. I'm not sure if you need wort during this time frame or not.

 

[freisste]

How do I do this when doing an extract brew? Everything I could find talked about how to add them before draining the mash tun

I would do this in conjunction with late extract addition. So do the following:

1- steep any grains as you normally would.

2- when you pull the grains, add some extract, maybe 10-20% or whatever makes an easy addition.

3- add FWH as you would add them to your first runnings from mashing.

4- turn the burner on high to get to a boil.

5- follow schedule as normal, starting 60 minute countdown (or whatever you're doing) when you reach a boil.

6- add remaining extract with a few minutes left in the boil or at flameout.

Just watch out for a boil over when you reach boiling temps.

 

[Queequeg]

Lose the honey malt.

Change the Light DME for Extra Light. Even Extra light might be to dark.

include about 6%-10% crystal malt, you don't need the dark crystal because its normally used for colouring and balancing really big hop profiles like in IIPA's, since you are using DME you wont need it. I would recommend 10-20L which will give you some caramel but also a sweetness to compliment the hops.

I personally would also included wheat malt at around the 1-3% mark this gives good mouthfeel and a really nice head. If you worried about conversion you could mash with a Lb of base malt or exchange for carapils.

Bring the Magnum back to 60mins and decrease the amount to get the right IBU's. You going to need around 62IBU's to get an BU/SG ratio of around 0.93 which is ideal for an IPA.

That doesn't look enough hops at knockout imo, I would normally at least do 1.5oz. Given this is quite a big IPA you should Hop heavy because it going to have a big malt flavour to compete with.

I would also add, 3rd of the DME before the 60min and bring to the boil and the rest 10mins before knockout.

You can dry hop more if you wish, if you do split them in to two separate addition, a couple of days apart, say 5 days before bottling and 3 days before. This will maximize hop aroma. I wouldn't go more than about 5oz in total.

That's how I do an IPA well how I used to before I went all grain.

 

[Yooper]

I agree with everyone else about the honey malt- either remove it and replace it with something much less sweet, or reduce the quantity by a lot.

Go with no more than 8 ounces of honey malt, as it is noticeably sweet. If you would rather have more character and no sweetness, you can use some toasted type of malt like victory (.5 pound there also) or some home toasted two-row (a pound or two).

Add at least half of your extract at flame out to preserve the color and not have a "cooked extract" flavor in your beer.

The hopping looks really good to me!

 

[MrHadack]

I knew everyone would have beaten me to it-- the honey malt needs to come down. I typically use 4oz in a 5 gallon batch.

 

[Boris2012]

Don't use all of your DME in the whole boil. 60 mins just darkens it.

Don't late extract addition methods result in higher hop utilization and a more bitter brew? I had a cream ale turn out like an IPA once. WOW! That said, for terrific aromatic notes and a slight flavor addition, I love to add 3 pounds of pasteurized mango to the secondary. CAREFULLY rack from secondary to bottling so that you don't take mango puree with it. Really clouds up the beer, but my soul does it smell amazing!