Honey Chamomile IPA?

[Tska]

Well I'm finally (I think) ready to delve into AG brewing, and I've been hankering to brew my first IPA as well...I've got a few questions as I sit here (with a Southern Tier "Extraordinary Ale" in hand) contemplating the meaning of beer.

Here's the basics - feel free to add any thoughts...that's what I'm looking for!

First Draft IPA (hmm - new name?)

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

Fermentables
10# Pale 2-row
1# Cara-pils
1# Crystal 20
0.5# Honey Malt

Hops
I'm a big fan of floral, citrus IPA's (but have fairly limited experience choosing hops) - from doing some research, Centennial and Amarillo seem like good choices; I haven't used either personally, though.

0.5 oz Centennial @ 60
0.5 oz Amarillo @ 60

1 oz Centennial @ 15
1 oz Amarillo @ 15

1 oz Centennial @ Flameout
1 oz Amarillo @ Flameout

1 oz Centennial (dry-hop 7 days)
1 oz Amarillo (dry-hop 7 days)

^How do my hop additions look time-wise? IPA's I've seen around here seem to be all over the map with their timings - some have 60-30-15-0-DH, some have 60-5-DH, some have 30-15-DH...I'm looking to get some decent bitterness and a full-flavored IPA out of this. Does 60-30-15-DH make sense?

This is a 5.5 gal boil. New calculations:
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
SRM: 7.2
IBU: 55.9

I also considered throwing some Chamomile in to add to the floral element...what do you think? I'm adding the honey at flameout to try to preserve the flavor and aroma. As for taste notes, I was hoping for a crisp, floral IPA with a subtle honey sweetness. Will this get me anywhere near that goal? How does a chamomile & honey IPA sound? Am I missing the mark? If a tree falls in the woods, do the other trees laugh?


TIA, guys and gals...I'm getting a little mischievous and "ballsy" in creating my own recipes from scratch, so I like to run them by those with FAR more experience than I!

 

[manortc]

I'm fairly new to hopping as well, but from what I've researched, Centennial is more of a bittering hop and should be added earlier in the boil, like the 60 and 30 mark. Amarillo is more of an aroma hop and should be added towards the end of the boil, possibly with 5 min left or at the end of the boil. I'm not 100% sure on this, but the boiling releases the oils from the hops, causing the bitterness of the beer, but boils off a lot of the aroma of these hops. Therefore, adding the aroma or finishing hops at the end of the boil or as a dry hop, you don't get the bitterness of the hop oils, but the aromas of the hops remains intact.

 

[dcp27]

adding the honey late may preserve some of the aroma, but honey is nearly 100% fermentable so you won;t get much taste from it. if you want honey flavor, I suggest using honey malt instead.
I'd cut way back on the crystal tho, 1lb max, unless of course you want a sweet IPA but that'll interfere with the hops.
for the hops, I'd move the 30min add to 15mins and the 15mind add to flameout, this will get you more flavor/aroma.

 

[phished880]

The honey you have will most likely ferment out totally, leaving little to no honey flavor. Might I suggest a product called honey malt, it has this amazing ability to leave a honey like sweetness. I would probably use a half pound. more then that, in my opinion, is too sweet. You might also consider priming with honey if the honey flavor is not where you want it.

 

[Tska]

Thanks for the replies (especially the Meffid/JP guys!) - I've never brewed with honey or honey malt (I knew honey is almost 100% fermentable, but that makes sense as to why you won't get much flavor from it). I'll change the original recipe to 0.5# honey malt instead of straight honey.

I've got 1 lb Crystal in there now - should I cut it to 0.5 lb? Like you said - I don't want the sweetness to overpower the hops. I changed the honey to honey malt, and my OG/FG dropped a few points, so that will dry it out a bit.

EDIT: I also upped the hops a bit to compensate for the decrease in IBU's resulting from shifting the hop schedule back 15 mins.

 

[dcp27]

honey malt & carapils are both crystal as well. when using crystal malts, i dont see a point in using carapils as well as it basically does the same thing, but with no added flavor.

 

[Tska]

honey malt & carapils are both crystal as well. when using crystal malts, i dont see a point in using carapils as well as it basically does the same thing, but with no added flavor.

Ahhhh OK - I didn't know they were all crystal malts...very good to know. If I knock those back to 0.5 lb Honey Malt and 0.5 lb of Crystal 20, should I make up the difference in 2-row? I.e. 12 lbs 2-row?