End of School Year IPA

[baumer64]

Designing my first IPA. What are people's thoughts? The mix of 10L and 60L Crystal is because I don't have any 20 or 40L. Also not sure on yeast. 1028 is the only liquid yeast I have. I have US04, US05 and Nottingham. This is a 5.5 gallon batch.

11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

Mash In Add 18.82 qt of water at 164.0 F 150.0 F 75 min

Fly sparge with 4.30 gal water at 168.0 F
Add water to achieve boil volume of 7.01 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.055 SG

1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 39.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 20.3 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 3.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 4.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

 

[baumer64]

Looks like I'll be using US05. I was mistaken, instead of the 04, I had a 06.

 

[paco313]

I'd totally recomend dry hopping. In my IPAs I dry hop with at least 4 oz. Your grain bill looks good. Personally I dont use caramel malts in my IPAs but I have try very tasty ones with caramel in the grain bill.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

12.5% crystal malt is high, not undrinkable high but will certainly sweeten your beer. What is your goal with the flavor? Why do you have 3 different crystal malts in the beer? Remember that everything you add to your beer should be there for a reason, not to just add it to add it.

Hop schedule needs adjustment. Your 30 min addition does nothing but add extra bittering. You want to move all of that to 5 min or flameout. You're not going to be very happy at all with the hop flavor with only .5 ounces of flameout hops. That isn't nearly enough for an IPA. Pound the hell out of the kettle with late additions, show no mercy....especially if you're using Willamette which isn't a super strong flavor hop to begin with.

So to surmise:

1. Dial back on the crystal malt, or figure out what you're gunning for in the first place with so much of it.

2. Move all your 30min centennial to flameout

3. Increase your flameout additions if you are looking for big hop flavor. Right now that is how I hop my american blonde ale.

What is your target OG/IBU?

 

[baumer64]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, I plan on dry hopping just forgot to add that in.
As for the Crystal, yes, I was going for a little sweetness to the final product. The last (and only IPA) I made was a Stone IPA clone and it had 11 lbs. of pale 2 row and .75 lb of Crystal 20. When I compared my finished IPA to an actual Stone IPA, the Stone came off with just a bit of a sweeter taste compared to mine. Mine was good and it was a hit at a party we went to but I wanted just a bit more sweet this time. (Not sugary, I don't want a dessert) The cara-pils I added in for head retention.

As for the dry hopping? Suggestions? What I have in the freezer is Chinook (8 oz), Cascade (15 oz), Centennial(5.5 oz) and Willamette (7 oz).

Thanks guys!!!

 

[baumer64]

So we had our end of the year staff party and this IPA was a hit! Being the end of school, named it Alice Cooper IPA. Served this and a keg of Cream of 3 Crops. Both came out great. Lots of "You made this?" and "This is homebrew?" comments. The IPA isn't heavily hopped but did dry hop with 2oz. Cascade for 7 days. Not sweet but just a hint of it from the crystal which was what I was hoping for.