Extract IPA Grain Bill / Recipe Help

[Germainium]

Hi,

My first post to the forum after consuming so much good information. I'm about to brew my 4th extract batch and second time creating my own recipe. I'm hoping for advice on anything that will help me make a great, intensely hoppy IPA. The one thing I really struggle with is how the specialty grains and fermentables should be assembled to give a light body that allows the hops to shine. I think I'm comfortable with my hop selection, but am also open to having other recommendations on timing, etc.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/486851/cms-ipa-columbus-mosaic-simcoe-

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
6.5 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 68.4%
0.75 lb Corn Sugar - Dextrose - (late addition) 46 0.5 7.9%
1 lb Dry Malt Extract - Wheat 42 3 10.5%
8.25 lb Total

Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
0.5 lb Belgian - Biscuit 35 23 5.3%
0.75 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 33 1.8 7.9%

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Columbus Pellet 15.5 Boil 60 min 35.99
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 15 min 7.32
0.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Boil 15 min 7.2
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 10 min 5.35
0.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Boil 10 min 5.26
0.5 oz Columbus Pellet 15.5 Boil 5 min 3.59
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Aroma 0 min
0.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Aroma 0 min
0.5 oz Columbus Pellet 15.5 Whirlpool at 140 °F 0 min 5.28
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Dry Hop 10 days
0.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Dry Hop 10 days
1 oz Columbus Pellet 15.5 Dry Hop 5 days
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Dry Hop 5 days
0.5 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Dry Hop 5 days


Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Attenuation (avg):
81%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
54 - 77 °F
Starter:
No
Fermentation Temp:
68 °F
Pitch Rate:
0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P)
118 B cells required
Yeast Pitch Rate and Starter Calculator

 

[kev211]

First off, welcome to HBT!

5 gallon batch I presume? I think your corn sugar is a little on the heavy side. I would drop it down to ~6% if it were me. You said you were looking for a grain bill that lets the hops shine. I find biscuit malt to be very pronounced and, well, biscuity. So maybe change it to munich 10L? It will still give some malt backbone without overpowering things. Carapils is fine as is.

Hops. Im sure some will disagree, but thats fine, disagreement and discussion grow us as homebrewers. Ditch the 10, 15 and 20 minute additions. Move them all to flameout (be sure to adjust your 60 min addition to compensate for the loss of IBUs with those intermediate additions). At those intervals they dont know whether they want to be flavor/aroma hops or bittering hops. My preference is to do a 60 minute addition and flameout addition. Bittering and flavor. Boom.

Last note on hops. Take all of your dry hops and double them. You said you want hop flavor and right now its pretty under-dryhopped for an IPA IMO. Good call on the double dry hopping. Should add some nice depth.

Other than that, looks like you're squared away! Good luck!

 

[Germainium]

Thanks for the response and guidance! I'll lighten the corn sugar as you said as well as go with munich. Munich wont contribute any type of english or belgian IPA flavor will it? Probably a super noob question... For whatever reason I don't at all enjoy those style IPAs.

On the hops, I thought the hop schedule times would help create a more layered/complex hop flavor versus putting them all in at once, but of course that was just my own logic in thinking about the recipe. Certainly would like to hear more on that subject from your experience.

I'll also up the dry hops as you stated. I really do want an pronounced aroma which should also help with perceived bitterness.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

 

[kev211]

Typically grains arent really where you get your English or Belgian flavors. That comes from the yeast. The yeast you are using will be just fine for what youre doing/want. Munich has a slight sweetness to it. Very mild malt that offers some color.

For the hops, some would argue that it does offer more layering, I tend to disagree. I did my house APA with a staggered hop schedule and also with a 60 min and flameout addition and kinda went the exBEERment route and gave them to family and friends to try (one of the friends is a BJCP judge) and the results were inconclusive. Only because people said they tasted the same. The only difference was that the one with all flameout hops and the 60 min charge had a more hoppy finish and more hope aroma. But even with that, they were basically the same beer. So, could it give it some layering/depth of flavor? Maybe. Probably. Is it detectable by normal palates? Probably not. So I just say, use a neutral bittering hop (I like magnum and warrior) and then hit it with a bunch of flameout hops. That being said, I do have some beers where I stagger the hops just to get different IBU amounts out of them

 

[bobbrews]

I'm of the opinion that you don't have much room to edit the grain bill as an extract American IPA brewer before the costs start to outweigh the benefits. Any combination of light, extra light, wheat, pilsner extract, and a small portion of simple sugar is fine. That's all you need to brew a great extract AIPA. Once you've mastered extract--and if you want to get more creative with grain bills, maybe delve into some more complex double IPAs--then you should really step up to partial mash or all grain for better results.

Also, Carapils, Crystal Malt, and other fillers or filler grains are already included within the manufacturer's original recipe of the DME or LME you purchased. By steeping more of those specialty grains, you're essentially doubling up and likely going to end up with even darker, toastier, and sweeter IPA than you anticipated.

Low attenuation is also an uphill battle for extract brewers since you have zero control over the mash temperature. Extract, I believe is typically mashed at an average of 154F for 60 minutes.

On your hop schedule... you paid good money for those hops. Do you want the flavor and aroma of them to last? If yes, then don't boil them. Buy hop extract or a cheapo high alpha pellet hop to bitter your beer. Save the expensive hops for post boil, including dryhop.

Unless you have a temperature regulated chest cooler, ferment in a room or basement a few degrees lower than 68F. The wort can rise up to 10 degrees F (don't quote me) during the first 3 days of active fermentation.

 

[Germainium]

Thanks both for the advice. Based on your recommendations and a trip the the LHBS, I've decided to cut the batch and half and do BIAB all grain. I did buy some magnum hops so I'll bitter with those and throw the rest in at flameout, whirlpool, and dry hop. I'm on my phone now but will add the updated recipe from brewers friend. I really appreciate the help folks.

I fortunately do have a chest freezer rigged with a Johnson temp controller so I can control temps. I've been just setting to 68 with the probe covered in bubble wrap and taped to the fermenter. I'm going to try painters putty this time. I do all my fermentation in primary as well right now.