Galaxy IPA Recipe Help

Hojo3322 · Jun 20, 2012

About a year ago I had my first experience with Galaxy hops. It was a Galaxy Imperial Single Hop IPA from Hill Farmstead http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22511/67760 I was completely blown away with this beer and have since hunted out other beers displaying this wonderful hop. I am attempting to showcase this hop in an over the top manner without making this too high in the alcohol department. Below is my first shot (ever) at a recipe and was hoping you guys could offer up any suggestions/techniques to make this recipe better. :mug:

Steeping Grains
1.0 lb Belgian Carmel Pils
0.50 lb Briess Carmel 120

Extract
6.0 lb Pilsen Malt Syrup
1.0 lb Pilsen dry Malt extract

Hops (All Galaxy)
0.50 oz 1st wort hop (added with steeping grains)
1.5 oz 60 min
2 oz 10 min
3 oz flame out
3 oz dry hop (5 days)

Yeast
1273 American Ale II

smiller · Jun 20, 2012

Why are you mixing DME and LME of the same malt? Why not use just one or the other for your extracts? If you have access, I would recommend just using all DME, as you get a better bang for your buck since there's some water in LME. Also, that's a lot of caramel malt, which will result in a very sweet beer. If you really want to showcase the hop with low alcohol, go for 6 lbs pilsen DME, and at most 0.5 lbs of a caramel malt. Definitely try to keep it simple, so don't add a lot of specialty grains. You could try adding some corn sugar when you start the boil (about 0.5 lbs) to help keep the beer drier. Your hops look pretty good, but I would do something like this: 1 oz at 20, 1 oz at 15, 1 oz at 10, 2 oz at flameout. I would also dry hop with 2 oz for 7-10 days and then add 3 more for another 10-12 if you really want a lot of aroma.

bobbrews · Jun 20, 2012

C120 will mask the Galaxy hop character, especially in that amount you're using. I would recommend nixing it altogether or using 1/2 lb. of C10 instead. Also, Carapils is unnecessary if you're using extract since it is already in the extract.

Hojo3322 · Jun 20, 2012

thanks for the response smiller :mug:

as far as using DME and LME it was just an easy way to get the correct amount of extract I wanted without storing extra extract. My LHBS is not very good and mainly rely on northern brewer for most of my supplies.

good call on the carmel malt, I think I might knock that down to 0.25 lb and keep it at 7lb of extract.

As far as the hops go, what is the reasoning behind spreading the hops out over the last 20min? Would it add more hop flavor vs using a 20 min and flameout addition?

Hojo3322 · Jun 20, 2012

bobbrews said:
C120 will mask the Galaxy hop character, especially in that amount you're using. I would recommend nixing it altogether or using 1/2 lb. of C10 instead. Also, Carapils is unnecessary if you're using extract since it is already in the extract.

thanks for the heads up. I figured this being an extract recipe I would try to add some specialty grains to add a little depth but not sure of which ones to use

smiller · Jun 20, 2012

If you're worried about storing extract, just always go with DME. It can easily be sealed and stored for later uses. As for the hop additions, spreading them out over the last 20 mins will layer the flavor a bit more and allow you to squeeze some more bitterness out of the hop schedule.