intro and Recipe thoughts please?

[wallacebw]

Hi:

I'm new around here (1st post) and wanted to get some thoughts about my upcoming recipe, but first a little background. I used to brew about 7-8 years ago, but life happened and I moved and lost my free time for brewing (it was easier just to buy it at that time... I know, I know). Anyway, I have 'found' my free time again and plan to get started this week. I'm giving up on the whole bottling with priming sugar and dealing with sediment and will be installing 2 tap s in my garage fridge. One for 'my' beers, and the other for the BMC style clones I will be brewing for my wife and friends until I manage to convert them. Thats the history, so here where I'm at:

I want to brew an IPA for my first batch and developed the following recipe that I would like some advice on. It's a basic middle of the road IPA (not to bitter)

• Briess Gold Unhopped Liquid Malt Extract 6 lbs
• Light DME (1.5 lbs.)
• Carapils (dextrin malt) 1.3-1.5L 1/2 lb.
• Caramel 60L Briess (USA) 1/2 lb.
• Chinook Pellet Hops 1 oz. (13.6a) - Bittering (60min)
• Cascade Pellet Hops 1 oz. (5.4a) - Flavor (15 min)
• US Goldings Pellet Hops 1 oz. (4.5a) - Flavor (15min)
• Cascade plug Hops 1 oz. (6.3a) -Dry Hop (Secondary 7-10 days)
• Safale US-05 yeast
• Irish Moss

Ok, here's the questions.

• Based on my calculations, this should end up around 50IBU assuming that the Chinook boils 60 min and the cascade and Goldings boil 20 min. Am I close?
• I want the resulting brew to have hop flavor without being too bitter (something like a BJ's Pizza Parana Pale ale) do the hop levels look good?
• Should I add the flavoring hops in two installments? at 30 and 45 (15 remaining) min? This would bump the IBUs a little, right?
• I'm starting to think that the beer may be to light to make use of Oak chips and keep thing in balance, thoughts?
• Overall, does this look like a go?

Sorry for all the questions about a 'boring' brew, but it's been awhile...

Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

[JMSetzler]

Need a boil volume to calculate it... you might want to download the free demo of the BeerSmith software. You can plug these values in and it will tell you everything you want to know about your recipe...

 

[wallacebw]

Need a boil volume to calculate it... you might want to download the free demo of the BeerSmith software. You can plug these values in and it will tell you everything you want to know about your recipe...

I use a 4Gal pot so lets call it 3gal water to start....

I also updated the initial post to add the yeast (American Ale Wyeast W1056) also looking at (American Ale II Activator Wyeast ACT1272 though)

Overall though, this doesn't seem like it would result in a crappy IPA does it... I developed this on paper only, trying to remember things from ~8 years ago... I just want to make sure I'm on the right track for an initial batch prior to tasting and tweaking.

Thanks,

 

[JMSetzler]

Overall though, this doesn't seem like it would result in a crappy IPA does it... I developed this on paper only, trying to remember things from ~8 years ago... I just want to make sure I'm on the right track for an initial batch prior to tasting and tweaking.

Thanks,

I'm not much of a source on IPAs. They aren't my favorite beers. What I do know is that, if you make it, it won't be crappy beer. It may not be exactly what you wanted or expected, but you will certainly enjoy drinking it.

I would still give the BeerSmith demo a try. I'll run your numbers and see what it comes up with....

Your estimated OG is 1.053 which is a bit lower than the American IPA style range from 1.056-1.075. Your bitterness is a good bit low at 32 IBU when the range is normally 40-70. If you double your Chinook hops to 1 oz, you come in at the bottom at 48 IBU. If you go to 2oz of chinook hops, You come in at 82 IBU. 1.5 oz of chinook hops would get around 66 IBU. 1.25oz would get you in the middle at around 56 IBU.

If you decide to increase the amount of fermentables to get your gravity up, the hop efficiency will come down some as well...

 

[Bob]

I think you're looking pretty good for a middle-of-the-road hoppy beer.

I agree that you should push your flavor-hops additions to 15 or 10 minutes boil time; the dry-hopping will push up aroma and flavor, too.

Instead of using the 1056 smack-pack, I suggest using the dry yeast S-05. It's the same strain as Wyeast 1056. If you're not going to build a starter with your liquid culture, I think dry is the way to go in this case, that is.

Cheers,

Bob

P.S. Welcome back to the obsession!

 

[PhlyanPan]

Looks like a delicious 'merican pale ale to me.

Not sure about the oak chips though.

 

[wallacebw]

Agreed on the dry yeast.

I thought that the lighter body of this recipe might not play nicely with the Oak... If i were making something like a digfish 90min (I like it, just not 5 gallons like it) or a ruination IPA it would make more sense.

Updating the original post now with the changes.

Thanks for the update and keep them coming.

 

[wallacebw]

I would still give the BeerSmith demo a try. I'll run your numbers and see what it comes up with....

Your bitterness is a good bit low at 32 IBU when the range is normally 40-70. If you double your Chinook hops to 1 oz, you come in at the bottom at 48 IBU. If you go to 2oz of chinook hops, You come in at 82 IBU. 1.5 oz of chinook hops would get around 66 IBU. 1.25oz would get you in the middle at around 56 IBU.

Will do on the BeerSmith...

AS for IBU...

I tried my own method and ended up with 50.5

My method assumes a 30% conversion for the bitters and about 15% conversion on the flavoring hops. The dry hops are not considered.
​

Rooftop Brew IBU Calculator

method 1 assuming 60 min bitter 15 min flavor = 52.1
method one states:

I wanted to be more accurate with the calculations, so I picked Jakie Rager's IBU formula, which calculates Hop Utilization dependent upon specific gravity, boil time, and hop type. Its more appropriate for partial wort boils.​

method 2 (same numbers) = 39.4

How did you come up with 32IBU?

I'm not looking for an exact number, I just know that I want to be a little under that of a Dogfish 60min for my first run. I'm targeting 40IBU-50IBU

​

Thanks again for all the help,
Brian

 

[Bob]

Those methods are fine considering a full boil.

IBU is a measurement of dissolved alpha acids in a given quantity of wort. The amount of alpha acids which can be isomerized in wort (utilization) is dependent on that wort's gravity: The higher the gravity, the lesser the utilization. When you concentrate the wort - which is what happens when you put 5 gallons worth of extract in 3 gallons of liquor - gravity goes up and utilization goes down.

Were you to reserve the lion's share of the extract syrup until the very end of the boil (search "late extract addition" on HBT), your utilization will increase to the levels you've calculated. For example, if all the specified extract is added for the entire boil, IBU by my calculation is ~30. If you boil just the DME and a pound of the LME, you go back up to ~50 IBU. That's because the gravity of 3 gallons with all the extract is ~1.093, vs. 1.032 with one pound of each.

You dig?

Oh, and I wouldn't bother with the oak. Brew this batch and drink it first; if you decide it needs je ne sais pas, you can add something different next time.

Bob

 

[wallacebw]

Yeah, I dig... it's the OG of the boiled volume, not the OG of the diluted wort. (Final Volume)

As such, I think that I will compromise and up Chinook to 1oz and add 1/2 - 3/4 lb. DME (Well see my mood when I brew).

Adjusting the original post

Thanks all,

Brian