Frankenstein-esque Red IPA recipe

[sogrady10]

Hey guys -

I'm still not taking my brewing too seriously and have lucked out with untraditional, fly by the seat of my pants recipes that I've brewed...

For the past two, I've been taking different parts of recipes from the Forums, my local brew shop and general curiousity (subsituting Centennial for Chinook, etc).

I think I might be in over my head on this one and just wanted to get some feedback from those with more knowledge (my fiance already told me I'm an idiot, so keep that in mind with your response).

5.5 gallon yield

Grains
1 lbs Vienna
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
2.0 oz De-bittered Black (Carafa III)
8.0 oz Honey Malt

Malt Extract
7 lbs. Light Malt Syrup
1 lb. Light Brown Sugar

Hops
2.5 oz Chinook 60 min
1.5 oz Chinook 15 min
1 oz Chinook 5 min
(Planning on dry hopping with either Centennial or Chinook before I rack into secondary)

Yeast
2.0 pkg Safale American US-05 Yeast

I was kind of leery of using 1lb of light brown sugar as I've never used that before. Let me know how you think this would come out and any advice on added efforts while in the carboy.

If this one comes out well, I'll be asking for advice for my Crunchberry Ale idea... 'a beer that won't cut the roof of your mouth!'

Thanks!

 

[TahoeRy]

Based on what I see your beer is going to be a bit amber in color and sweet with the brown sugar addition. You need more extract or Vienna though to get a decent beer as you will be around a 1.030 or 1.040 with what you have. I have never used Chinook to flavor or impart aroma before but I love it for bittering. I would back off a bit of that though and stick to around 1 - 1.5 oz for your bitter and then switch to another hop for your 15, 5 min and dry hop additions. Your going to be around 65 IBU's in just bittering if you stick with 2.5 oz at 60 minutes. Then again, I have no experience using Chinook other than bittering with it. I see that you have Centennial, I would use that for the 15, 5 and dry hop with the Chinook for bittering. Those work really well together. You might be able to make a decent IPA if you upped the fermentable's (while keeping the same color), dropped the brown sugar addition, lowered your bittering a bit and hopped it heavy in your late additions with the Centennial. You could also do a black ale by adding more CarafaIII to darken it, then just do the same as I mentioned for an IPA. Or go with a stout by adding about 2 lbs of the CarafaIII, keep the brown sugar and just slightly hopping it to balance the sweetness. Then again, I am no expert and could be wrong. I am sure others will disagree with me but to each their own. The way I look at it is you never know until you try. Make good notes with each brew and make changes if needed based on the finished beer. Some of my best recipes have came from throwing stuff together. Just try to think about it a bit and you'll be fine as long as you up your fermentable' s. Other wise your are going to end up with about 4% ABV, which is great for a session beer, I just like mine around 6% +/-.

Good Luck.