First Brew Day (West Coast IPA) ???

[grassfeeder]

So, about to approach my very first solo brew in the coming weeks and I'm looking to finalize my recipe and brew day guidelines. Trying to start easy here. Let me know what you would change in either recipe or stages.

Recipe:

Per Brewers Friend this should give me a the following

OG:1.077 FG:1.022 ABV: 7.2 IBU: 73.92 SRM: 6.36

Malt Bill:
7.5 lbs of DME (light)
.5 lbs CaraPils
.5 lbs Crystal 20
1 lb of Dextrose

Hop Schedule:
1.0 Mosaic @ 60 minutes

1/2 Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) @ 15 minutes



.75 Mosaic @ 5 minutes
.75 Citra @ 5 minutes
.75 Amarillo @ 5 minutes
.75 Simcoe @ 5 minutes

.5 Mosaic @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Citra @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Amarillo @ flame out for 20 minutes
.5 Simcoe @ flame out for 20 minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1968 or WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast (White Labs)
Fermentation at 68 degrees

Dry Hop (at Day 7 for another 7 days)
.75 Mosaic
1.25 Citra
.75 Amarillo
.75 Simcoe

Stages:

Yeast starter 2 days prior.

Thinking of starting with steeping all grains in 2 gallons of water @ 150 degrees for 45 minutes.

Add water to total 6.5 total gallons and bring to full boil. Add 5 lbs DME at initial boil.

Add first hop addition. (Follow above hop schedule)

With 7 minutes left on the boil add remaining DME and dextrose.

Once full boiled for 60 minutes kill flame and 2.5 lbs of DME and Dextorse, once mixed add final hop addition once around the 180 deg mark.

Let flame out sit for 15 minutes or so before running wort through a plate chiller and into fermenter.

take initial gravity reading.

let ferment for 5 days and add final dry hop additions and sit for another 7 or so, take gravity reading.

Bottle or keg then drink!

What do you guys think? Recipe look OK? Steps alright? Any suggestions>?

 

[ol-hazza]

That will make you beer.

I do have a couple of suggestions though,
- give your yeast starter 2 days
- dont rely on time for the fermentation to be complete, take a gravity reading.
- there is no need to add dme to your steeping grains... Just add it to the boil.
- you will lose some water steepin grains so so be too surprised if you need to add more than 4.5 gal to get up to your 6.5 target.
- i add irish moss at 15 mins.
- i would replace the dextrose with dme.

Nothing major, good luck with your brew

 

[nettekdl]

I would start your hop stand with your wort below 180*. Also don't rely on days for fermentation, rely on gravity

 

[Yooper]

As the others said, except I would simplify the grainbill. I'd probably take out the melanoidin malt, as it's intensely malty, but it's ok if that is what you want in the aroma and flavor in your IPA for a malt backbone. I'd take out the Munich II for sure, as with that and the melanoidin you're looking at a darker, maltier beer, and not an IPA grainbill. Using melanoidin and Munich II to beef up the maltiness and then using sugar to thin and dry the body of the beer seems to be counterproductive.

I like the hopping!

I'd add 3 pounds of the DME at boiling, and the last 3 pounds at flame out, and stir well. Then do the hopstand.

 

[grassfeeder]

thanks for the advise. I've updated the original post to reflect some changes and advice from the gallery...

let me know if you think they're the right moves?

 

[ol-hazza]

Looks good to me

 

[bobbrews]

Revised your recipe, which will make a better IPA:


1.073 OG
1.015-ish FG
7.62% ABV

57.1% or 5 lbs. Light DME @ boil start
5.7% or 0.50 lbs. Crystal 20, steeped
8.6% or 0.75 lbs. Dextrose @ flameout
28.6% or 2.5 lbs. Light DME @ flameout


10-12 oz. total recipe hops

1.5 oz. hops at boil start
Room to add some hops at the 10 minute mark
25-40% hops by weight for flameout
40-50% hops by weight for dryhop for 5 days.


No need for carapils in extract IPAs. The maltster already used a portion of carapils when they made the extract. Adding more would just be doubling up on that amount to give you roughly 10% carapils total.

Good luck!

 

[grassfeeder]

Thanks!

The initial malt bill with the DME and CaraPils was taken from the Zombie Dust Extract Clone as found here:

https://davidrpatterson.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/zombiedustclone.jpg

I basically took that and changed the hop profile to something I thought would play well and hops I tend to gravitate towards.