Best IPA yet, how to make it a liiiittttlllle better...

[Nefariis]

Im 6 batches of IPA's in and I've tried AG, DME, LME, a few combinations of the 3 - all with different hop combinations (My dart board strategy).

All of them have been drinkable but this last batch has been by far the best.

I wanted to share the recipe, say what I didnt like about it, and see if you guys could help me improve on it because I think this is going to be one of my keeper recipes.

My recipe -
- Seeped Crystal 80 for 20 mins in 2.5 gallons of water.
- When that was done, I put that in a strainer and poured .5 gallons of boiling water over it
- Now I added the 9lbs of LME and did the hop timing below
- Chilled to 70
- Put it in a bucket
- Added water until 5 gallons
- Yeast is S-05

Hop Timing -
The 4 hops that I used were equal parts (1oz) Centenial, Chinook, Columbus, and Fuggle.

I did .25oz of each at 60, 25, 10, and flameout

The IPA tastes great but its maybe a little too bitter on the back end and it didnt exactly have the clean floral/herbal taste I was looking for on the front end.

I still have 1oz of each hop left over, so how I was planning on hopping the next batch was one of three ways -

Way 1:
.25oz of each at 60, 15, 5, and dryhop

I figure this would make it less bitter as well as help the flavor notes with the later and dry hopping

Way 2:
60 - 1oz chinook
15 - .5 columbus/.5 centenial
05 - .5 columbus/.5 centenial
Dryhop - 1oz Fuggle

Chinook is one of my favorite hops, I love the pine tree taste - but I was thinking it might be better to move it to 60 minuets and let the other aroma hops come through.

Way 3:
60 - 1oz chinook
15 - .5 columbus/.5 centenial
05 - .25 columbus/.25 centenial/.5 Fuggle
Dryhop - .25 columbus/.25 centenial/.5 Fuggle

I really do enjoy all of these hops and I really feel like I can pick out the unique flavors of each of them - this was an attempt to balance out the flavors of all of them.

Anyways, what do you guys think?

 

[mrdauber64]

I would do this:
60 - 1 oz Columbus
15 - .5 Fuggle/.5 Chinook
5 - .5 Fuggle/.5 Chinook
dry hop: 1 oz Centennial

I really like the aroma of Centennial and the other hops in my opinion are good boil hops. Centennial will give you a nice nose, while the other additions will give you the Pine flavor you like. Columbus is a good clean bittering hop. I've heard Chinook can get too harsh at 60 min.

That just my opinion though based on what you have. Ideally you should have more dry hops and a flameout addition, but what you have should work nicely.

 

[jerbrew]

Personally, I'd bitter with the Columbus. I would try way 3 you got there switching out the chinook with the Columbus. But hey, that's just my opinion and personal preference i'm sure many people will disagree. Otherwise, if you'd like to keep them in there current boil additions, I still like way 3.

 

[jerbrew]

ideally you should have more dry hops and a flameout addition, but what you have should work nicely.

+1

 

[prrriiide]

Another thought...

Are you totally married to this hop combination?

I ask because you say that your desired flavor profile is floral/herbal. If I were looking for that flavor profile, Chinooks probably wouldn't be my first choice. Big, piney, dank and bitter...sure. But if floral/herbal is what you are going for, I would suggest something like:

1 oz Columbus for 60
1 oz Centennial for 15
1 oz Fuggles for 5
.5 oz Centennial @ flameout
.5 oz Fuggles @ flameout
Dry hop with 1.5 oz each of Centennial and Fuggles.

Disclaimer: I've never been a huge Chinook fan. I have never been particularly satisfied with any beer that I have used them in. I have used them early, late, often and sparingly. Just can't like them.

 

[Nefariis]

Yeah after this batch I think I am going to switch out Chinook for Cascade and try two batches with that combination (The 3 C's + Fuggle/Target).

For this combo though I want to see if I can improve upon this hop combination (Chinook, Cent, Fuggle, Columbus)

And from the consensus, Im going to switch Columbus and Chinook and probably go route 3

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Do a search for hop stand. It's not quite the same as flame out and gives great flavor. Just do a 60 min bittering, some <15 min aroma, 2 oz hop stand and 2 oz dry hop. This will give you good aroma and flavor and you basically adjust your IBUs with the 60 min addition.

Oh, and don't use boiling water to rinse your grains. Keep it 170F or less.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd use a lot more Fuggles if I was determined to use it with those other strains, as it's so easily dominated by bold notes...

Cheers!

 

[masskrug]

Chinook is one of my favorite hops, I love the pine tree taste - but I was thinking it might be better to move it to 60 minuets and let the other aroma hops come through.

Have you considered an all-Chinook (Arrogant Bastard) beer?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=176191
http://www.brew365.com/beer_stone_arrogant_bastard.php

 

[BrewChaCho]

Just my $0.02, but increasing the amount of hops in your dry hop can really make a killer IPA. Maybe double/triple the amount?

 

[Dan_K]

I would use Columbus for the 60 minute hop.
1st Flavor hops addition at 10 minutes (skip the 25!) (Cascade + fuggles)
2nd Flavor hops at Flameout (Centennial + Cascade)

Dry hop with 2 ounces of Centennial 3 days before you plan to bottle.

You also might dry a different yeast strain, such as Wyeast American Ale II and do at least a 1 liter starter.

 

[JordanKnudson]

This is totally unrelated to the other suggestions (all good) that have been given so far, and doesn't use the hop varieties you have, but if I want floral+herbal, a combination that I really like is Nugget and Amarillo. Maybe you could give it a try on one of your future IPAs and see how it strikes you (sorry that it isn't directly related to your OP).

I like to use this hopping schedule as a template/jumping-off point:

- Nugget @ 60 min or FWH, targeting 75% of my total IBUs
- 2 parts Amarillo + 1 part Nugget @ 10 min, targeting 25% of total IBUs
- 2 parts Amarillo + 1 part Nugget @ hopstand 170F for 20 minutes
- Dry hop with several ounces of Amarillo and maybe 1 oz Nugget for 3 to 7 days