Franklin's Winter IPA (Recipe Check)

[FranklinsBeerTower]

Hi all, long time listener first time caller. I'm looking to get away from my usual obsession with hazy NEIPAs and want to brew a bigger (old school?) West Coast IPA with a little bit more malt backbone for the winter months here in the American northeast. Also targeting a big Piney/Citrusy hop profile.

I've cobbled together the below recipe and would greatly appreciate input on (1) the malt bill (specifically the use of Victory malt), and (2) the hop schedule (again, I'm more of a NEIPA guy, so I feel more comfortable with the classic stone fruity/juicy hop combos and less confident with the classic "C" hop combos). No pride here, any and all input is appreciated!

Title: Franklin's Winter IPA
Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.069
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV (standard): 7.06%
IBU (tinseth): 78.06
SRM (morey): 9.62

FERMENTABLES:
13 lb - Pale 2-Row (88.1%)
0.5 lb - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (3.4%)
0.5 lb - Victory (3.4%)
0.75 lb - Caramel / Crystal 60L (5.1%)

HOPS:
1.5 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 39.27
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.48
1 oz - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 5.22
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 4.42
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Whirlpool for 0 min at °F, IBU: 6.81
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Whirlpool for 0 min at °F, IBU: 8.65
1 oz - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Whirlpool for 0 min at °F, IBU: 10.21
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days
1 oz - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days

 

[JohnSand]

Looks alright to me.

 

[BeerAndTele]

Hello and welcome to the party!

I also enjoy an IPA with a solid malt backbone, so I can relate to your quest.

Lots of fun ways to beef up your backbone, which that hop load can easily stand up to. Sometimes I change up my base malt and add a hefty dose of Golden Promise, Pale Ale malt, or I especially enjoy a big dose of Vienna. You could use any of those 3 as your lone base malt if you chose.

Crystal malts are nice additions but lately I’ve been reducing my usage of them or removing them altogether - and going for more additions of dark Munich. A bit of Biscuit/Victory - which I see you have - or Aromatic or Amber is also nice, but a little goes a long way.

No wrong answers, of course, just have fun experimenting. For me, I’ve found that less is often more, and trying new ingredients one at a time tells me more than throwing the kitchen sink at it; a malt bill with too many line items makes it tougher to tell what’s what.

Cheers!

PS: I really like your hop combo. For me, I generally prefer a little less “flavor” addition, which I back up to the 10 or 15 minute mark, rather than 5. I’m usually in the 1-2 oz per 5 gal range, especially with high alphas. I’m usually in the 2-3 oz range for my flameout/whirlpool and dry hop additions … but that’s just me - some like more, some less. Good call on the Magnum to bitter - that’s my go-to bittering hop for a WC IPA.

 

[hottpeper13]

I use pale ale malt for my IPA's, it's kilned to ~3.7 like Vienna but with a less biscuity flavor. I get a nice copper color without any crystal malts. That being said your recipe is solid.
The fall beer for me is my Helles In A Bocket, 80% Munich and ~8% abv. Not an IPA, but at least I'm enjoying the ride

 

[tracer bullet]

Agree overall looks like a great recipe.

Only suggestion, for what it's worth, is to consider Chinook hops? Perhaps in place of the Columbus - which I like, but maybe not quite as much as I like Centennial or Simcoe for this kind of recipe.

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

Hi all - thanks for the responses on this one! I brewed the recipe as posted above and have been quite pleased with early samples. The beer is just wrapping up bottle conditioning, so I will post a photo and full tasting notes shortly.

I like the suggestion of using Chinook going forward. Early samples lack some of the piney punch that I had hoped to get, but I think a strong Chinook charge would do the trick. But, it could be the case that the beer is still coming into its own and just needs some time for certain notes to pop.