IPA recipe help

[aaronius79]

I want put together a good recipe for an iPA using centennial and citra hops. Here's what I have so far. I'm looking for a nice hoppy IPA but balanced. Here's what I have so far.

BIAB

Batch volume - 5 gallon
Desired OG - 1.070
Desired final gravity - 1.010

9lbs rahr 2 row
1lb crystal 40
1lb crystal 20
1 lb corn sugar

Safale s-05. Yeast

1oz centennial 60 minute boil
1 oz centennial 30 minute boil
1 oz citra 20 minute boil
1 oz citra 10 minute boil
.5 oz citra flameout

1.5 oz Citra (dry hop in secondary for 7 days)

Thoughts and tips please. Is it too much hops or not enough? What kind of IBU's should I shoot for with an IPA AT 7 percent Abv? I was thinking 80 or so is that recommended?

 

[frozennorth]

I would cut way back on the crystal malts, maybe .25 lbs each. Just me, I like them strong, up the 2 row to 11-12 pounds. Looks good though.

 

[photobru]

Someone from my home brew club just told me about the idea of BU/GU ratios, being your bitterness units/gravity units. In this case your OG is 1.070, so GU=70, and you're thinking 80 IBUs, meaning your ratio is 80/70=1.14. From what I understand that's on high end of the range for IPAs, so you'd have an extremely hop forward beer. A search of the forums or google for BU/GU should bring up more detailed info and a better explanation.

 

[mbobhat]

Not sure you want corn sugar either. I would go all malt, or use extract. Also cut back on the crystal to .5 lb total like said earlier. If you want to add some character to it you can put a lb of vienna or some other base malt that isn't going to be all sweet but will add some maltiness.

 

[aaronius79]

Thank you all for the advice. So, the crystal 40 I'll definitely cut back. How much more grain would it take for me to reach 1.070 estimated OG? That was why I was going to add the corn sugar. Will it dry it out too much if I use the corn sugar? Also, it seems I should cut back on the hops a little. Should I drop an ounce or so?

 

[bowserm]

@aaronius79 you are going to need 14 or 15 pounds total of grain to get 1.070. If you cut back the crystal 20 and 40 back to .5 each, then you are going to need about 11 pounds of 2-row if you include the dextrose (corn sugar)

I just did an IPA and my total grain bill was 13.5 pounds. My efficiency was about 60% so I missed my 1.068 target and ended up with 1.060.

I would highly recommend using Brewers Friend recipe calculator. I use it all the time for my recipes. It is super easy to use too.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/