attempting first brew to date - west coast IPA

[grassfeeder]

I've helped out on a couple of brew days before but never done anything myself. I'm limited in that I can't do full grain at the moment. I've been trying to put together a recipe that will result in a 5 gallon batch.

Here is what I've got thus far - any comments/input? I'm completely confused about the Malt bill and what to do there. I found this off of someones recipe but it sounded kind experimental so who knows what it yields.

Any and all advice would be awesome!

BU: 84.31 ABV: 7.48 O.G.: 1.083 F.G.: 1.026

Malt:
7 lbs Alexander's Pale Malt Extract (add at beginning of boil)
3.3 lbs Munich Malt Extract (add @ 15 mins)
.25 lbs of Crystal 20 steeped
.5 lbs of Dextrose

Hops:
1.0 CTZ or Bravo 60 minutes

.5 Centennial @ 30 minutes

1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) @ 15 minutes

.5 Citra @ 10 minutes

.5 Mosaic @ 5 minutes
.5 Citra @ 5 minutes
.5 Amarillo @ 5 minutes
.5 Simcoe @ 5 minutes

.5 Mosaic @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Citra @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Amarillo @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Simcoe @ flame out for 20 minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1968 or WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast (White Labs)
Fermentation at 68 degrees

Dry Hop (at Day 7 for another 7 days)
.75 Mosaic
.75 Citra
.75 Amarillo
.75 Simcoe

 

[Devilsnight]

little more malt to balance the amount of hops?

 

[grassfeeder]

little more malt to balance the amount of hops?

I could certainly do that. When it comes to malts I'm completely clueless. I know what I like hop wise but I haven't a clue about malts, types, best practices. I could steep some specialties and then add extract?

What do you think would be best for a 5 gallon net results?

 

[grassfeeder]

any further input??

 

[Yooper]

It's really helpful to run a recipe through a brewing software tool, as then you'd know the OG (from how much extract you use), and if it's enough extract. You also would know your IBUs, and those things are important to look at when trying to give advice. Brewer's Friend is a few recipe software calculator, and it would make it easy to look at the OG and the projected IBUs and tell you if it's enough hops for bittering, or too much.

It's hard to guess off of the top of my head what the OG will be and if you need more or less extract.

 

[grassfeeder]

It's really helpful to run a recipe through a brewing software tool, as then you'd know the OG (from how much extract you use), and if it's enough extract. You also would know your IBUs, and those things are important to look at when trying to give advice. Brewer's Friend is a few recipe software calculator, and it would make it easy to look at the OG and the projected IBUs and tell you if it's enough hops for bittering, or too much.

It's hard to guess off of the top of my head what the OG will be and if you need more or less extract.

Thank you very much for the insight on that website. I had no previous knowledge of it before.

In accordance to that - it looks like I needed to almost doubt the malt bill t0 8 lbs. to get an O.G. of 1.079 and a F.G. of 1.025 - 7.16ABV and 86.23 IBU

I guess I'm more at a loss of if I should change the malt ingredients completely. I'm trying to get a try West Coast IPA beer out of this.

 

[timrox1212]

I would personally change your yeast if you are going for a west coast IPA taste. 1968 is a English yeast. I personally like pacific ale yeast. Also I would add some sort of steeping grains. Maybe just 1lb of crystal 10 to add a little more taste in there without adding more color.


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[grassfeeder]

I would personally change your yeast if you are going for a west coast IPA taste. 1968 is a English yeast. I personally like pacific ale yeast. Also I would add some sort of steeping grains. Maybe just 1lb of crystal 10 to add a little more taste in there without adding more color.


Sent from my iPhone

I thought about the yeast as well, however I've learned that some of my favorite west coast ipa's are actually using the 1968. I may back away from it and go the safe route.

If I were add the Crystal 10 and steep them, how many pounds of the LME would you suggest I subtract?

 

[timrox1212]

I wouldn't subtract any LME. 1lb of steeping grains will only add +/- .3 to your ABV. just put them into a grain bag and let them sit in your water at 150-160 for 1/2 hour then discard them. Then boil as usual.


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[estricklin]

One question here is, how sweet/malty do you like your IPAs? If you like them more sweet than I would try to add some Crystal 40 or 60, though no more than 8 oz.

 

[grassfeeder]

One question here is, how sweet/malty do you like your IPAs? If you like them more sweet than I would try to add some Crystal 40 or 60, though no more than 8 oz.

I like mine a little more sweet. A true West Coast IPA. I'm in Oregon so we do big, hoppy, fruity IPA's but well balanced.

I've updated the original recipe.....hows it look now?

 

[Bramstoker17]

In my opinion, if you're looking for a West Coast style IPA, you're looking for a dry, very hop forward beer. To that end, I'd suggest adding maybe another pound of light DME, and half a pound to a pound of corn sugar. The sugar is going to fully ferment and dry out your beer. This will get you closer to the style. With extracts, you get what you get, and can't mash lower to get a more fermentable wort. The sugar will make up for that.

As far as steeping goes, I'd really only do a quarter of a pound of crystal 20 or 40. The Munich extract will give you a nice malt backbone, so you don't really need much else. I'd keep any crystal addition to at most a half pound and preferably under. You don't want to add too many unfermentable sugars, the aim is to keep this beer dry.

That hop bill looks nice! Good luck with the brew!

 

[grassfeeder]

In my opinion, if you're looking for a West Coast style IPA, you're looking for a dry, very hop forward beer. To that end, I'd suggest adding maybe another pound of light DME, and half a pound to a pound of corn sugar. The sugar is going to fully ferment and dry out your beer. This will get you closer to the style. With extracts, you get what you get, and can't mash lower to get a more fermentable wort. The sugar will make up for that.

As far as steeping goes, I'd really only do a quarter of a pound of crystal 20 or 40. The Munich extract will give you a nice malt backbone, so you don't really need much else. I'd keep any crystal addition to at most a half pound and preferably under. You don't want to add too many unfermentable sugars, the aim is to keep this beer dry.

That hop bill looks nice! Good luck with the brew!

Thanks for the input - I've adjusted the recipe a little bit with your advice and added the specs it lists in Brewers Friend

 

[Bramstoker17]

Looks like an awesome recipe, let us know how it goes!

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