English IPA review please...

[WaltG]

I'm new at building recipes and this is my 1st IPA. Thoughts please.

Also how to bring FG down? This is at 148 mash temp. What else in recipe will lower it.

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[saltymirv]

Also how to bring FG down? This is at 148 mash temp. What else in recipe will lower it.

Use a more aggressive yeast like WLP007

 

[WaltG]

Use a more aggressive yeast like WLP007

That brought it down to 1.014. If beersmith is accurate.

 

[saltymirv]

That brought it down to 1.014. If beersmith is accurate.

That seems like a fine FG. If you want it lower try adding 1/2lb of some type of sugar or honey

 

[dyqik]

I think that's a very high starting gravity for an English IPA, which is why the FG is also high. 1.050-1.055 would be much more common in the UK, and things like Green King IPA (which is arguably merely a hoppy bitter) are more like 1.040. I've never seen an British brewed commercial English IPA over about 6% ABV*. 1.075 is right at the high end even for American IPA. IMO it's more in IIPA territory.

IPA would usually be brewed in the UK with some sugar as well, at maybe 5% of the gravity points, which will help bring down the FG. If you really want to bring the FG down, replace half the caramel malt with a dark invert sugar, either Lyle's Golden Syrup or make your own medium to dark invert sugar.

*in my opinion as a Brit and former CAMRA member, the 2008 BJCP guidelines table of gravities are wrong on this style, and refer to some mythical historic style that was barely, if ever, brewed, rather than actual English IPA that you can buy. A few breweries in the UK may now be brewing stronger English IPAs, but that's probably mostly as a response to the US craft beer scene, not a link to English IPA as it was say 10 years ago.

 

[WaltG]

That seems like a fine FG. If you want it lower try adding 1/2lb of some type of sugar or honey

Maybe reduce caramel and add amber candi?

 

[Frodo]

I think I'd reduce the crystal malt, down to maybe a lb at most; I think with 1.75 lb of crystal 60L it'll finish really high, and to balance the sweetness it'll take too much hops and could be tricky to balance it. Instead of that much crystal maybe add a couple/few oz of chocolate malt or up to 1/2 lb of biscuit malt for some malt character, maybe replace some of the base with a lb or two of munich. Just my thoughts...

edit: and I wouldn't add any sugar...

edit again: with the reduction in crystal malts I think you could bump the mash temp up into the lowish 150s.

 

[Hanglow]

I'd call that a barley wine. Remove all/most of the crystal and some of the base malt and that should get you to a better OG and more appropriate flavour for an IPA . The hopping looks a bit odd too, not to say it wouldn't work though - I'd probably up the 60min addition to get about 45 IBUs and move all the late hopping to about 15 minutes or so. Consider using some of the challenger to bitter and some of the target in the dry hop too

If you want a higher than normal abv then definitely use sugar, otherwise you can take or leave it depending on what you want

And yeah, post war british IPA was/is just a bitter and not particularly strong one at that. But for the modern take on it you want it stronger and more assertive- think Bengal Lancer

 

[WaltG]

I'd call that a barley wine. Remove all/most of the crystal and some of the base malt and that should get you to a better OG and more appropriate flavour for an IPA . The hopping looks a bit odd too, not to say it wouldn't work though - I'd probably up the 60min addition to get about 45 IBUs and move all the late hopping to about 15 minutes or so. Consider using some of the challenger to bitter and some of the target in the dry hop too

If you want a higher than normal abv then definitely use sugar, otherwise you can take or leave it depending on what you want

And yeah, post war british IPA was/is just a bitter and not particularly strong one at that. But for the modern take on it you want it stronger and more assertive- think Bengal Lancer

?

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[JKaranka]

The new recipe looks good. Much better than the first one. The hops look very good, but I'd mix it up and add a bit of EKG to the boil as well (and maybe a tad of Fuggles to the dry hop). The way around you have it is the classic, though!

I personally think it's a tad high in crystal malt, maybe more like 6-8oz would be ok, specially as the OG is very high which will leave it very malty anyway. The small amount of sugar is good; you do want a decent dry finish after all. If you scaled it down to 1.065 it might work better.

 

[rhys333]

I just skimmed through the above comments so I may be repeating, but the gravity is really high for an IPA. You're into DIPA territory and then some at 1.071 OG. 1.012 is a reasonable FG considering. You ratio of fermentables in the revised recipe seems good, but for me I'd be tempted to get the OG below 1.060. Also, another ounce of late addition hops wouldn't hurt. EKG as mentioned directly above would be a fine choice.