I'm a SEVERE aroma junkie...Need advice.

[jay29]

Love the great perfume some women wear that walk by. I want to collapse sometimes....
Love the incense at church. Oh so good....
I especially love the aroma of hops that I can smell across the room from a pint glass...

Going to brew this (http://www.brew365.com/beer_stone_ipa.php):

All Grain Recipe - Stone IPA::: 1.063/1.010 (5 Gal)
Grain Bill
13 lbs. - 2 Row Pale Malt
1/2 lb. - Crystal Malt (10L)
1/2 lb. - Crystal Malt (20L)

Hop Schedule
1 oz - Magnum (75 Min.)
1 oz - Centennial - at Flameout
2 oz - Centennial - Dry Hop in secondary

Yeast
2x Packets of Nottingham

Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash at 150° to 152° for 60 min.
Sparge as usual
Boil for 75 minutes (remember to compensate your water if you normally do 60 min boils)
Cool and ferment at 66° to 68°
======================

I'm going to use all Centennial Pellet hops and hop bursting. I have a pound to play with. I want to MAXIMIZE aroma as well as flavor...How much hops would you use? Where and When?

I like my home brew on the drier side. I don't like sticky sweet beers. Should I drop the Crystal Malt? Should I replace it or just stick with the base malt?

Any additional advice for this IPA? It would be my second IPA so I don't have much experience with them.

jay29

 

[passedpawn]

Me too. Try hops in the keg (if you keg). Use a SS tea ball (it'll hold 1 oz). You'll definitely get the aroma.

 

[Yooper]

Try buying cryo hops for the aroma/flameout/dryhops. It really does make a difference!
I don't know if they come in centennial yet, but I'd definitely try to find them, or use one of the varieties that does come in the cryo version.

 

[day_trippr]

Centennial wouldn't have been my choice for an aroma-bomb brew, but if that's the hop I'd at least double the original schedule, and do everything possible to eliminate post-fermentation O2 uptake...

Cheers!

 

[SEndorf]

Citra is my goto aroma fix…….

 

[MrPowers]

I’d go with that recipe, but just use caramel 10 instead of 10 and 20.

However for the hop schedule I would do:

(Assuming all centennial)
1oz at 60 (depending on AA)
1oz at 10
3oz at flameout (whirlpool 20 min)
3oz whirlpool 10 min
Chill
4-8oz dry hop (single addition) for 3 days. Added toward the tail end of fermentation (probably 48-72 hours with North) to help minimize oxygen intake.

 

[GPP33]

sounds like you already know this but the original hop schedule is really going to let you down. I use about 13oz in my current favorite IPA.

 

[aprichman]

There's a few things that have a great impact on aroma. Broadly speaking the two main things you should concentrate on is the recipe and limiting exposure to oxygen as much as possible.

As others have said the recipe is not designed for having a large aroma. I would suggest 4-6 ounces for a 5 gallon batch at minimum split between the knockout and dryhop additions for an IPA. I personally use 5.5 ounces between flameout and dryhop on most IPAs and they are generally in line with most commercial examples but still lacking compared to some of the better examples. Multiple dryhop additions can be used to further drive aroma but dealing with the large amount of hops can start to become difficult to manage without proper filtration.

The other thing that is absolutely critical for driving aroma beyond a couple of weeks is avoiding oxygen. It's freaking hard and largely unavoidable without access to the proper equipment. Lots of good resources on HBT for avoiding oxygen pickup. There are some general tips that apply to managing transfers and if you have kegs and CO2 you can really start to go down the rabbit hole with closed transfers, spunding, etc.

 

[thehaze]

There is too much Crystal malt in that recipe. You are better off with only base malt ( if you want a bit more colour, mix some 2-row/Pale with MO or Vienna ). There are not enough hops in that recipe, nor are there hops that really can make a beer pop with aromas.

MrPowers above has some good hints, especially in terms of how much hops.

Personally, I would change the hops to something with more ooomph, like Citra, Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic, Eureka!, etc. Don't do secondary. You want to minimize oxidation, hence you do not want to move the beer around too much. 2 packs of Nottingham are too much for a beer with an OG of 1.060. Stick to one. Better yet, go a bit lower on the gravity and by taking out the Crystal and mashing low, Nottingham will take it down to 1.008, posibly lower and make it dry and crisp.

Do a whirlpool once you've cooled down the wort and dry hop. 5-7 oz hops each should give you enough aroma and flavour.

Cheers!

 

[hopularkid]

Like Everyone has said, kill or limit the crystal and add more hops near the end of boil/flameout.

 

[RPh_Guy]

do everything possible to eliminate post-fermentation O2 uptake...

I hope this includes using Brettanomyces instead of the Notty!

...which also adds great aroma all on its own.

 

[Jako]

i just did a DIPA it was my best beer and the aroma on it was nuts.

1OZ falconers flight boil 15min.

3OZ of falconers flight and 2OZ of CTZ at flame out and did at 20 min hop stand.

1oz of Mosic and Citra cryo hops just as primary starts to slow.

once primary was over i did another oz of Mosic and Citra cryo hops for a week then bottled.

i ended up with a smooth bitterness tons of flavor and aroma.

 

[GPP33]

What does the crystal have to do with aroma? It'll affect bitterness a little but shouldn't affect aroma should it? I'm on the other side of the fence on this one, I like a little crystal in my IPAs, I mash at 152 and find about 1 to 1.2 lbs of C20 gives a nice balance without being cloying. I prefer the balanced version over the straight 2 row, not that the straight 2 row is bad by any means.

 

[Jako]

What does the crystal have to do with aroma? It'll affect bitterness a little but shouldn't affect aroma should it? I'm on the other side of the fence on this one, I like a little crystal in my IPAs, I mash at 152 and find about 1 to 1.2 lbs of C20 gives a nice balance without being cloying. I prefer the balanced version over the straight 2 row, not that the straight 2 row is bad by any means.

i like a Straight 2 row. possibly some biscuit or munich 10. have you looked into imperial A24 for the yeast?

 

[secondbase]

For a drier beer, try mostly 2-row with some munich, half pound to a pound depending on your preference. 4oz at flameout, 4oz dry hop. Centennial is a great hop but maybe not the MOST aromatic. You could get away with less at FO and DH if you used a more potent aroma hop