Formulating my first Imperial IPA recipe

[cakey]

I've been brewing for about 10 months now, 6 months all grain. We (two friends and i that all pitched in to buy the equipment) started brewing this and that to see what style relay grabbed us. Well it turned out to be Imperial IPA something that i only acquired a taste for about 6 months ago. We've brewed "Hop Hammer" from Brewing Classic Styles a few times and it always goes over well. Much of this has to do with the fact that really good Imperial IPA's are either hard to get, expensive or past their prime when they get to were i live (Alaska), often all three. Brewing someone elses recipes is only so fun though and i really want to branch out and try experimenting with my own Imperial IPA recipe. Being rather inexperienced though i thought i'd try and run my ideas by the more learned to get some feed back first. So here's the gist of the recipe thus far.

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain
1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain

0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 85.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 70.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 65.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 50.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 40.0 min Hop
0.25 oz Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Mosaic [11.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Meridian [6.50 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop
0.75 oz Mosaic [11.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop
0.75 oz Meridian [6.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop
0.75 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop
1.25 oz Meridian [6.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop
1.00 oz Mosaic [11.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop

3.00 oz Mosaic [11.50 %] - dry hop Hop
3.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - dry hop Hop

I plan to do a 90 min Mash at 150F, a 90 Min boil and use Wyeast 1056. i was also thinking about aging for two months before dry hopping than aging another month before bottling. I've also had some very good IPA's with Bret in them and have been debating trying that out, possibly after the initial 2 month aging period. I have never done a hoping scheduled such as this, or used any of those hop variates or for that matter used British pale malt or Vienna Malt before so this hole recipe is really designed to be a completely different set up than i have done previously. Any feed back would be much appreciated in particular how the hop variates i chose might marry together. Thank you

 

[motorneuron]

On the hops schedule, I don't think there is much reason to have all those bittering additions. You won't get much other than pure bitterness from anything boiled over 45 minutes, so it's simpler to just figure out an IBU target and achieve much of that with a 90 minute addition. It'll be a lot simpler to brew, and it shouldn't affect the flavor really. Same goes for the later hop additions--it's fine to just use a 20 or 30-minute addition for flavor, and then a 0-minute addition for aroma (plus a dry hop).

Is this for a 5 gallon batch? What's your calculated OG and FG? You want to make sure that you don't go too high, or you'll wind up with something more like American barley wine. 1056 is a great yeast, but you probably don't want to finish at anything above about 1.016. So consider dropping the base malt a bit and/or replacing some of the base malt with white sugar, which will keep the beer dry.

I personally would not age a very hoppy beer, unless you have some specific reason. I know that there is a tradition of aged IPAs from England, but for my money, you're missing out on the best aroma with every day that passes.

Finally, as for hop types, I personally would sub out Meridian. I've used it a bunch and I don't think it's the best IPA hop. I'd go with something more classically American--Simcoe and Amarillo are both great IPA hops, as is Cascade, or for a bit of punch, Centennial.

Looks good, though! Good luck.

 

[cakey]

Thanks for the feed back motorneuron, i ran the recipe through beer smith, the exact numbers are on a different computer. the OG though is in the upper 1.080's and FG around 1.014 with an abv of 9%. i chose that hop scheduled after reading about contentious hopping methods. though i get what your saying about the pre 45minute hop additions and for ease that sounds like it would be a good idea to do just one large addition.
The idea behind aging it a bit was because so for the IPA's ive brewed seem to improve with about a month or two of age so i thought if i age it a bit pre dry hop and get that out of the way i'll loose less of the dry hop flavor as compared to aging it post dry hop.

 

[motorneuron]

Yeah, if you plan on aging, I think it's smart to let it sit before adding the dry hops. I haven't personally found that my IPAs improve with age, but if it works for you, I think that's a good compromise.

1.08x to 1.014 is asking a lot of your yeast, so just make sure that you do what you can to help it: proper pitch rate, good oxygen and perhaps yeast nutrient. I would still recommend using a little sugar as insurance. And I'd mash low--maybe 148 instead of 150.