IPA Recipe Feedback

[UGAVet]

So this will be my first batch not following a kit or recipe posted elsewhere and before I get brewing I was hoping to see what you guys thought. I got 2# of local fresh frozen hops (not dried) from a friend, so I've created my attempt of a Fresh Hop IPA. Here's the plan.

36 hours pre-brew start my yeast.
Sterilize growler, boil 2c water and 0.5c light DME for 10 min.
Cool to 70*F and add yeast (Wyeast American Ale 1056).
Put in plug w/air-lock, let sit at room temp (65-70).

Heat 4 gallons water to 155*F
Add Grains; 1# honey malt, 1# munich, 0.5# victory
Steep for 30min

Bring to boil. Add extracts.
3.3# Light LME
3.0# Light DME

Hop Schedule
1 oz Zeus (dried) 60min
5 oz Cascade (fresh) 20 min
5 oz Cascade (fresh) 5 min

Cool to 75*F, Add water to fill to 5 gallons, Add started yeast, Primary for 7-10 days.
Rack to secondary and add 16oz Cascade (fresh) for dry hopping.
Leave in secondary 14 days.

Carbonate with 3/4c corn sugar at bottling.



*One last question I do have; should I use a hop bag when boiling to easily remove the hops before adding yeast or is it easier to use a strainer after the boil is complete? The batches I've done so far have used pellets and I've just left them in the primary.

This is only batch 5 for me, so any feedback would be really helpful. Thanks!

 

[Brewmex41]

You'll probably get a lot of responses saying a pound of honey malt in an ipa is crazy, but I've never added any so I don't have first hand experience.

Are you adding all the extract at once? You will get much better utilization from the hops if you add half at the beginning and half at the end of the boil.

Do you know your expected IBU?


Another thing, don't measure your priming sugar in cups, weigh it out in oz. You'll want about 4 or so oz corn sugar to prime
I'd love to hear your results!


Edit: first time I read this I thought you said .5oz cascade. I see now its 5 oz fresh hops.

 

[UGAVet]

I was planning on adding extract up front, but definitely can add it late if it makes more sense. I've only followed kits where it's all added up front so far. When would you recommend the second half being added? After the 60min boil?

The steeping grains are copied from some Terrapin Hopsecutioner IPA clone recipes. Apparently Terrapin uses a lot of Honey Malt so I figured I'd give it a try.

Using Brewtoad the IBUs should be 122, but I'm not sure the calculations are right. I don't know if the site is able to differentiate fresh leaf hops VS dried.

I'll definitely measure the priming sugar in oz this time.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely let you know how it turns out.

 

[NervousDad]

I personally think that is way too much honey malt. Combined with the Munich it might be overwhelming. I'd look at moving some of the hops later in the boil since they are fresh you want the most out of them.

Edit: I also see that you are making a starter. Don't use a airlock to this, just use some aluminum foil. Your yeast will need the O2. Your pitching rates will be a bit low, based on beersmith you'll need 183 billion cells and you'll be at 133 billion. make sure you swirl it frequently to get this count up. With a stir plate you'd be at 220 billion cells.

I calculate that you OG should be around 153? and I have your IBUs at 72 so your fine.


Also, I've never used them, but Jamil Z. doesn't recommend dry hoping with Fresh hops. I really don't see the different between whole leaf and fresh, but he states there is more wild yeast on fresh hops.

 

[UGAVet]

Thanks for the help. I'm thinking I'll take y'alls advice and change the hop schedule a bit (add 5oz Cascade at 10min and 5 min) and maybe cut the honey malt to 1/2 pound. That and adding the DME later, but I'm unsure of when to add it. At the end of the boil?

I'm gonna take the risk and dry hop with the fresh frozen hops and see what happens.

 

[stpug]

Thoughts I had while reviewing your recipe:
-that's a small starter (2 cups); usually starters are minimum 0.8L (>3.25 cups) and that's still fairly small
-intermittently swirl/shake your starter as often as you can
-2.5 lbs of grain steeped in 4 gallons of water is A LOT of water; additionally 1 lb is munich malt which needs to be mashed and your water ratio is FAR too great to get decent conversion from that grain which means you'll end up with a fair amount of starch haze
-Instead, steep your 2.5 lbs of grain AT 155F in 1 gallon (i.e. you'll probably start with water around 168F) and they will settle down to around 155F once you mix in the room temperature grain with the hot water. Keep it at or very near 155F for minimum 30 minutes (45 would be better). Then sparge (i.e. pour very warm 170F water through the grain) with another gallon. Then top up your kettle to the appropriate volume.
-1# is a lot of honey malt. 0.5 lb would be plenty; 0.25 might be just right.
-Add your LME from the start and save your DME until the very last 5 minutes (or less).
-Assume that 5 oz of fresh hops is equal to 1 oz of dry hops
-Assume that your fresh hops will be at the lighter end of the AA scale
-Cool to 60-65F and then pitch your yeast (after a good aeration of course)
-I've dry hopped a big beer with fresh hops and it worked out okay, BUT they'll float on top forever. You will have to figure out how to get them submerged otherwise you'll provide an environment for bad stuff to grow. They need to get into the beer and periodically be pushed back into the beer (just like the cap on a wine).
-A big strainer bag is nice and easy for removing hops from your wort. Plus you can squeeze the wort out with a sanitized spoon (or sanitized hand as long as they're cool enough to handle).

It looks like you're going big or going home . I say GO FOR IT!! Post back any new questions you come up with.

Edit:
If you're dryhopping in a bucket then you could put your fresh hops in a sanitized strainer bag with something to weight them down (e.g. several sanitized shot glasses, several sanitized pieces of silverware, etc.). The weight will need to be heavier than you think to get them under the beer.

Edit2:
IMHO, an all cascade IPA would not present itself as an IPA to me. I find cascade to be much to "gentle" a hop to stand on it's own in an IPA - at least the way I think of IPAs (hop-forward, very aromatic, very hop flavorful). Now a Pale Ale is another matter. An all cascade pale ale sounds perfect.

 

[UGAVet]

That really helps a lot. I'm really excited for this one; and I'll take the advice and call it a Colorado Cascade Fresh Hop Pale Ale.

Brew day tomorrow; I'll definitely post updates with how it goes, gravity readings and eventually a final product.

Can't say thanks enough for the feedback.

 

[stpug]

Cool. Definitely let us know how your brewday turns out. Expect a few bumps and don't worry about them too much. It's a process thing and the more you do it the better your process becomes.....

....I wish I was brewing tomorrow

 

[UGAVet]

So brew day went overall pretty smooth. Here's what I ended up going with.

Brought 2 gal water to 160*F
Added grains (1# munich, 0.5# victory, 0.25# honey)
Steeped for 45 minutes. Warmed ~1 gal additional water to 170*F
Sparged grains through strainer into wort. (Pic 1)
Added a little water to get 3 gallons before adding extract.
(See pic 2, pre-extract wort color)
Raised temp to boil (at 6400ft, ~201*F)
Once at boil added warmed (to soften) LME.
Returned to boil and started hop schedule below.
(See pic 3 for hop bag set up. first time i did this. I was constantly stirring hops into the wort)
60 min: 1 oz dried Zeus hops
10 min: 5 oz fresh cascade hops
5 min: 5 oz fresh cascade hops
3 min: added 3# DME
**added DME a bit fast, created clumps
**boiled additional 5 min to dissolve all DME.

Removed from heat and began to cool in ice bath.
Took 37 min to get wort down to 70*F.
Poured into sterilized bucket and topped off with ~2gal cold tap water.
Poured into second sterile bucket to mix thoroughly.
Took sample for OG reading: 1.056
Poured yeast from growler started 42 hours prior.
Transferred beteween buckets 5 times to oxgenate/aerate beer.
Placed sterilized lid and air lock.

Checked it out this morning and saw some sediment and discoloration in the water in the air lock. Definitely fermenting stronger than anytime I've brewed before. Checked again this afternoon and I've got significant flow of krausen trying to come up through the airlock. (See pic 4).

*Edit; i cleaned the top of my bucket, re-sanitized it, removed the air lock and placed a clean, sanitized air lock on that was attached to the tube I use to rack. The tube drains into a growler 1/2 full of water. Air is flowing out well again and all seems well. Pretty excited about how active the yeast are!

Thanks again and I'll post again the SG before transferring to my secondary and adding dry hops in 7-10 days.