First brew! Hop suggestions? (IPA/APA)

[Nordman]

I have not yet gotten around to selecting a wort chiller but I went ahead anyway and started brewing today. So I will not be using any wort chiller.
The problem is how will this affect the IBU rate on the hop additions?
I have also tried to make it easy on myself and make a single hop beer but I am open to suggestions if anyone would think some of the hops I have would be suitable with Centennial.

I am using a 30 liter (ca 7.5 gallons) kettle for the boil and the mash was done in modified fermentation buckets that form a mash tun. I added 17 liters of water at 76.5c to the mash tun and after the malt (6kg pale malt, 190g cara gold 120 ebc, 160g cara munich 90 ebc) was added the temperature of the mash was at 66c.
I mashed for about 75 minutes which brought the temperature down to 64c at the end of the mash.
I then sparged with 14 liters of water at 75c and ended up with 24 liters of pre boil volume. First wort hopped 20g Centennial already.

Waiting for the boil. Might take some time. Planning on a 90 min boil to get rid of the DMS issue I read about related to the no chill method.


I have these hops at hand: 230g Centennial, 250g Magnum, 60g Summer and 60g Waimea.

15m 20g centennial

10m 20g centennial

5m 20g centennial

flameout 20g centennial

transfer to fermentation bucket 20g centennial

dry hop 7 days 20g centennial


Any better suggestions?


EDIT: Forgot to mention, pre-boil gravity reading at 1.050

 

[rodwha]

I've used all Centennial and been very pleased. Many would use Magnum for bittering as it uses less.

At 1.050 there's not enough for it to really be an IPA.

I'm curious as to how you are cooling the wort. I use a sink with cool tap water a few times, and then switch to tap water I bottle and chill the day before along with ice. And I top off so that's been chilled as well.

 

[Nordman]

I went with all centennial, it's cooling in a sealed fermentation bucket in the bathtub. It will be interesting to check the OG, haven't checked gravity since pre-boil. The setup barely has room for more grain so I guess I will have to purchase some DME for my next batch to get up the gravity if this doesn't get high enough.

 

[rodwha]

What were your calculated IBU's?

Low gravity IBU IPA's seem to be a thing here, which are typically just higher IBU pales (40-45 IBU's). I've been thinking of trying a 4.8-5.3% 50-60 IBU beer for when I want a lot of hop flavor but lower alcohol.

 

[Nordman]

The calculated IBU is at 43, but chilling it slowly for 3 hours in the bathtub might have an effect on that.

Took another reading. Gravity at 16 now... Tasted harshly bitter... Hope that will change...

 

[KepowOb]

The calculated IBU is at 43, but chilling it slowly for 3 hours in the bathtub might have an effect on that.

Took another reading. Gravity at 16 now... Tasted harshly bitter... Hope that will change...

I remember the first "IPA" that I made. It was either my 2nd or 3rd brew, and done with a kit. I remember when I made it thinking that there didn't seem to be a lot of hops, but what did I know? Looking back, I just have to laugh as it just had 1oz bittering and 1oz for 10 minutes... and looking at my notes, I was hoping that it would mellow a bit because my post-boil sample tasted way too bitter. Needless to say, it didn't taste so bitter when all was said and done.

All that to say it'll mellow out nicely, and while going with a no-chill to cool it down might have raised your IBUs a bit, I doubt it would be anything too substantial.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I'm a no-chiller myself. There's almost no difference in IBUs once you get past 45 minutes or so, so I just plug my bittering hops in at 60 minutes on the software and don't worry about the tiny difference not chilling would have. For almost all my beers, I save the rest of the hops until the boil is over and the temp has dropped a bit. I don't know how many IBUs I'm adding when the temp is under 200, although I know it's not many. I suppose enough high-alpha hops at that temp would add enough IBUs to care about, but the only time that situation arises is when I'm making a DIPA that I want a lot of IBUs in anyway.

 

[Nordman]

I just ordered a 15m(50') immersion cooler so I won't be doing any more no chill brews, unless the malt and hops I ordered from another supplier arrives before the cooler that is...

As for the bitterness... It's not that I don't like bitter beers. Right now I'm drinking on a commercial ipa with 100 ibu and 10% abv and I'm loving it. It feels so balanced, while the one I just made feels harsh and unbalanced. I don't know if it's the centennial or if the batch has gotten infected (was really thorough with the use of starsan though).
Maybe it's just wrong to start tasting it while measuring gravity out of the fermentor, I'm sure it will improve somewhat.

I dry hopped it with 50g (1.7oz) centennial, hoping it will help with the flavor.

 

[Nordman]

Just did another hydrometer reading 1.012 and after that I cooled the sample for a while and it actually tastes good! How?

 

[KepowOb]

The wonders of fermentation .