Bells Two Hearted question

[brew703]

I've brewed this recipe, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=91488, a few times now and really like it.

What I would like to do is make this more of a session IPA to say 5% ABV and drop the IBU's a bit.

What would be the best way to do this? Would I simply cut back on the grain bill?
I played around with the numbers and in order to get down to under 5% i come up with this:
7.5 lb pale 2row (77.3%)
1.5 lb vienna (15.5%)
4.8 oz Carapils (3.1%)
6.4 oz C20 (4.1%)

Would this work or would I need to make additional changes? My goal is to keep the same flavor profile with just a reduced ABV.

Would mashing at 154 help with the body?

 

[Yooper]

I would go ahead and scale it down, and make sure the hops have the same SG/IBU ratio. The great flavor comes from the balance of hops and malt, so you'd want to keep that the same. You should have plenty of body and head retention without raising the mash temperature and raising the FG.

 

[brew703]

I would go ahead and scale it down, and make sure the hops have the same SG/IBU ratio. The great flavor comes from the balance of hops and malt, so you'd want to keep that the same. You should have plenty of body and head retention without raising the mash temperature and raising the FG.

If I use the original recipe's gravity and IBU that puts the SG/IBU ratio at .95. That seems a bit on the high side right?

 

[Yooper]

If I use the original recipe's gravity and IBU that puts the SG/IBU ratio at .95. That seems a bit on the high side right?

Maybe- It’s not all that bitter to my tastebuds but I love the centennial hopping. You could probably reduce that a little, keeping the late addition hops the same but reduce the bittering addition a tad. Maybe, .800-.875 or so?

 

[brew703]

Maybe- It’s not all that bitter to my tastebuds but I love the centennial hopping. You could probably reduce that a little, keeping the late addition hops the same but reduce the bittering addition a tad. Maybe, .800-.875 or so?

Thanks Yooper. I cut it back to .850.

 

[stickyfinger]

Try doing a really high mash temp - 165F for 45 mins and then ramp up to 170 for a 10 min. mashout. the ABV will be much lower.

 

[brew703]

This is what i came up with:
75.9% Pale 2Row
15.2% Vienna
3.8% Carapils
5.1% C20

.4 Centennial @ 60 (16.39 ibu)
.25 Columbus @ 60 (14.36 ibu)
3-4 oz centennial @ 0 > thinking about doing a 20 min hopstand starting at 160*. 10% Util shows 58 IBU's. Is this correct? That's way too much and if that's what the hopstand produces then I'll stick with the zero addition>
2-3 oz DH

Thoughts?

 

[don_bran321]

I brewed this same receipe several times. (two hearted is my favorite)
If you cut the bittering hops in half and add the second half at 30min it mellows out the bitterness to match more like the original two hearted.
I also have done exactly what you are saying by cutting the receipe to make it 5.3% Abv.
The latest one turned out perfectly.

 

[brew703]

I might go ahead and try cutting the bittering in half and add the other at 30 min to see how it works.
Did you add hops at zero or did you do a hop stand or something?

 

[don_bran321]

Hop stand for 20-30 min at around 200 degrees. A lot of people like to do it at 180 but I get impatient sometimes.