first IPA and dry hopping

[jrakich87]

I'm doing my first IPA in a week and I'm trying to put together a recipe that's going to drive me to HOP HEAVEN. I used BeerAlchemy and threw this together... and suggestions? I only have a small-ish pot that can't take more than 1.5 gal without having overflow problems...

Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract 4 lbs 54.8 % 2.4 Start Of Boil
Extract - Amber Liquid Malt Extract 3.3 lbs 45.2 % 10.8 End Of Boil

Hops

Variety Alpha Amt IBU Form When
US Chinook 10.5 % 1 oz 19.6 Bagged Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
US Chinook 10.5 % 1 oz 18.0 Bagged Pellet Hops 45 Min From End
UK Golding 5.5 % 1 oz 3.7 Bagged Pellet Hops 10 Min From End


Should I dry hop and lower the amounts of hops added to boil? Any suggestions?

 

[jrakich87]

Ah sorry, the formatting on that table I entered screwed up I hope you all can make it out.

 

[Coastarine]

1.5 gallon boil? What size batch is this going to be?

I can't brew in metric.

 

[jrakich87]

5 gallon batch... is that going to be a big problem? I'll convert them all in a sec.

 

[carnevoodoo]

The hop bill doesn't seem to impart much hop flavor to me. EKGs are good, but the bitterness from the chinook will be dominating that beer. Look at some recipes floating around, and see if you can maybe pirate something better.

 

[jrakich87]

Use less Chinook hops or add them later? Would that balance flavor and bitterness better? Would it be better to use different hops for flavor and only 1 oz of chinook?

 

[BarleyWater]

5 gallon batch... is that going to be a big problem?

Maybe. Definately don't add less bittering hops. From another thread I posted in...

The maximum threshold of IBUs in a given batch of beer is 100, anything over that is only adding to flavor (and head retention and mouthfeel). This maximum number is also only in worts of around 1.050. Now if you are boiling 3 gal down to about 2.5, and adding 2.5 gal of wort, then your maximum is already sliced down to 50 IBUs in a batch, and that is still with a wort gravity of 1.050 or below.

Now, with a full boil if you are trying to reach a final gravity 1.050, then you will have near 100% efficiency when it come to alpha acid isomerization and IBU absorption, and you can reach the 100 IBU mark, since you would be starting the boil around 1.044. When using LME, this will be about 7 lbs. If you put 7 lbs of LME into only 3 gallons of wort, then you are starting with a pre boil gravity of 1.084, boiling down to probably around 2.5gal at 1.100 before topping of with water to reach your OG of 1.050. Far above the ideal IBU efficiency gravity. This will leave you with a wort that has a max IBU rating of approx. 82.7, not too bad, but wait. After topping off, you will have only 41.4 IBUs.

So without doing a late extract addition you maximum IBU level would be 41.4, not quite the hop bomb you may have thought you were making.

Now, if you add say, half at the end, lets see what that does. You pre boil gravity will be around 1.042 (very close to that of a full wort boil), and you will boil off around to about 2.5 gal at 1.050, perfect. So now you have 100 IBUs, top off and you are at you maximum of 50 IBUs, still not the hop bomb you thought, but better. If you are only adding 2 gal of top off water, then you max IBU will be 60, 1.5 gal and the max IBU is 70, 1 gal is 80, .5 gal is 90 and not topping off can get you the maximum IBU level of 100.

Now, your pre-boil gravity will be 1.096 with the late extract addition, giving you around 76.6 IBUs, but after topping off, you will have only 23 IBUs (max is 30 with a 1.5 gallon boil).

 

[jrakich87]

Wow that's very helpful thanks, I had no idea how much doing a small volume boil could affect bitterness.

 

[BarleyWater]

You still get all the hop flavor, so the hop pressence is there, it will just be on the sweet side without the bitterness of the hops to alter the balance.

 

[jrakich87]

Would you suggest any changes in my timing of hop additions?

 

[Coastarine]

If you need to do that small of a boil I'd say make a hop tea. This means you have a smaller pot doing another 60 minute boil right beside your wort, but it's just water. You add your hops to that, then combine the two after flameout/cooling. I did it for my double IPA which is pretty good and I did it for my belgian tripel which took third place in a contest where that was the only style.

This wouldn't be necessary for a malty beer but for a hoppy one you just won't be getting your money's worth out of your hops.

 

[TeleTwanger]

I'd get a bigger pot. You can get a 22qt pot at WalMart for around $40. This will save money you'd have to spend on hops with the low effeciency you're gonna get with a 1.5 gallon boil. Also I'd get rid of the bags and dry hop. Your hop AA efficiency is going to be horribly low already and the bags will make that even worse.

 

[blacklab]

I see you're living in IV...burn any couches lately?

 

[jrakich87]

Haha not recently, although rest assured several other students have undoubtedly filled that role.... Halloween is coming up and my car will be a LONG WAY away from Del Playa Dr. (not to mention my brews will be BARRICADED somehow).

Coastarine: Will the hop tea extract a good deal of AAs? I thought I needed some malt in the boil to utilize the hops best? Would I add NO hops to the wort and only in the tea, or a combo? Would I time them the same for bitterness/flavour/aroma?

 

[jrakich87]

TeleTwanger: If my AA efficiency is going to be bad, why would dry hopping help? I thought that extracted no AAs.

 

[Coastarine]

Coastarine: Will the hop tea extract a good deal of AAs? I thought I needed some malt in the boil to utilize the hops best? Would I add NO hops to the wort and only in the tea, or a combo? Would I time them the same for bitterness/flavour/aroma?

Both times I did a hop tea I used the assumptions that the volume didn't matter and that the utilization was as good as it could be. No hops in wort, all in tea. I didn't worry too much about the volume of the tea, I used about a gallon I think. In beersmith I made two recipes. One was the wort which was set to 5 gallon batch size so that it would indicate the actual OG, and the other was the hop tea set to 5 gallons to compute the IBU's after dilution and 1.000 gravity so the extraction would be correct.

 

[jrakich87]

Yes or no on the muslin bag for the hop tea? I'm using pellets (replacing Chinook with Amarillo for bitterness, adding Cascade mid boil, and keeping Golding for aroma). Same rules for bitterness/flavor/aroma in terms of boil time in the tea?

 

[Coastarine]

Yes or no on the muslin bag for the hop tea? I'm using pellets (replacing Chinook with Amarillo for bitterness, adding Cascade mid boil, and keeping Golding for aroma). Same rules for bitterness/flavor/aroma in terms of boil time in the tea?

Personal preference on the bag, and same rules as far as I can tell.

I have to contain my hop solids somehow, whether that means using a free floating hop bag, a paint straining rig, or just dropping everything in and using a paint strainer after the fact, because I use a CFC and now a pump. Otherwise, I might just let the solids fall out in the fermenter.

 

[jrakich87]

Syke, I'm using AHS instead of LHBS (45 min away), So I'm getting the Chinook (2 oz), Golding for aroma (1 oz), and 1 oz of both cascade and amarillo for flavor (or should I do 2 oz of just one of those?)

 

[jrakich87]

If I can let the solids fall out, that'd be a lot easier for me, will that take forever? I'm getting a Better Bottle to start this one in so I don't have to rack to 2ndary, should I get the porter version and skip the bottling bucket too?

 

[Coastarine]

If I can let the solids fall out, that'd be a lot easier for me, will that take forever? I'm getting a Better Bottle to start this one in so I don't have to rack to 2ndary, should I get the porter version and skip the bottling bucket too?

No, the hop solids will sink pretty quickly on their own before fermentation is even finished.

I have ported better bottles but if you're bottling you still need a bottling bucket unless you just want to use another better bottle; either way you need to rack to bottle. You need to be able to stir in the priming sugar a bit. I enjoy my no-siphon setup.

 

[jrakich87]

Oh yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself I suppose. I'm gonna go for the unported one... but can I just use the racking cane I use with a plastic bucket on the BB and rack into my existing bottling bucket?

My question is if my existing racking cane will reach down far enough in the 6 gal BB?

 

[Coastarine]

Oh yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself I suppose. I'm gonna go for the unported one... but can I just use the racking cane I use with a plastic bucket on the BB and rack into my existing bottling bucket?

My question is if my existing racking cane will reach down far enough in the 6.5 BB?

Yep, the same way everyone who has glass carboys does it. It'll reach.

 

[jrakich87]

I have the option of getting a red carboy cap for the BB or a drilled universal medium stopper. If I'm using it for primary I want to set up a blow-off tube, should I go for the red cap? What's the best way to set up the blow-off tube? Should I get an airlock too to have handy?

 

[Coastarine]

I have the option of getting a red carboy cap for the BB or a drilled universal medium stopper. If I'm using it for primary I want to set up a blow-off tube, should I go for the red cap? What's the best way to set up the blow-off tube? Should I get an airlock too to have handy?

The best way to do it is to use whatever universal carboy cap you want (I use the orange ones that stretch around the neck) and put the main body of a 3 peice airlock in it the way you normally would, but take some of your clear tubing and jam it in the hole of the airlock (it just so happens to fit perfectly) and you have a blowoff tube ready to be changed into a regular airlock.

 

[Coastarine]

Here's one way to do it:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/what-size-tube-airlock-blowoff-62276/#post635176

You can get 1/2" ID tubing to fit around the piece, but I think I got 3/8" OD to fit inside it.

 

[jrakich87]

Does it matter if i get the thick or thin walled tubing? Will thin be easier to bend around where I want?

 

[TeleTwanger]

TeleTwanger: If my AA efficiency is going to be bad, why would dry hopping help? I thought that extracted no AAs.

It's not you're right. Dry hopping is just good in general. The seperate issue of hop bags should be considered though too. Hops like to be moving around bumping into things in the boiler. Not only do hops contribute oils for aroma/flavor/bitterness but they react with proteins and can help with clarity and stability.