IPA recipe ok?

[Roobiedoobiedoo]

I made an English IPA recently that I wasn't very happy with, so I was hoping I could get some input to avoid learning another lesson the hard way.

I'm using a blend of Galaxy and Cascade with an average (blended) a.a. of 11%.
My current recipe (1gallon):

Canadian 2 row: 1.5 pounds
Light Munich: .75 pounds
Carafoam: 2 ounces
Rolled oats: 4.5 ounces
Cane sugar (@ flameout): .25 pounds

Will use 1 oz total of a blend of cascade and galaxy hops. .25 oz @ 40, 15 & 1 minute, and save the remaining .25 oz to dry hop @ 7 days

I'm planning a single infusion @ 152F and I'll be using half a smack pack of Wyeast 1333 Northwest Ale yeast.

Any thoughts, tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The hops are blended already, so bear that in mind.

 

[ong]

Not sure what you're hoping to get from the oats? That's also a pretty high proportion of Munich for an IPA, although I guess not using any crystal will help keep sweetness down.


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[Roobiedoobiedoo]

Not sure what you're hoping to get from the oats?

The oats were one of the things I was on the fence about. They apparently add to body and head formation/retention. I've used 3 oz in 1 gallon batches before to good effect. Before I decided to add the cane sugar I upped the oats to get the OG in the appropriate range.

 

[roastquake]

what was it about the other brew you didn't like?

 

[jeff13]

The hops should also be noble hops to follow the guidelines for a English IPA

 

[Queequeg]

First off its the wrong hops for an English IPA. Traditionally English IPA is made with East Kent Goldings, or sometimes other English varieties.

Secondly an English IPA is made with English pale ale base malt, which is sweeter, more malty, usually both biscuity and bready.

You don't need the Oats, they don't belong in an IPA. In fact british ales styles are served with very little head normally so I peronally wouldn't put any grains in specifically for head retention, so you can drop the caraform/pils if you wanted to.

An EIPA would normally have sugar added, so you are right in that regard.

My advice would be to source some maris otter, or golden promise. These are the big bodied UK base malts. And some UK hops. Bitter with Challenger and then for flavour/aroma additions use the more citrusy UK hops like Pioneer, Pilgrim, first gold and bramling cross.

A sweet malt like crystal is optional and can be used to balance the IBU/FG ratio to about 0.8.

If you can't get maris otter, use 2 row with an addition of munich and victory malt

hope this helps.

 

[Roobiedoobiedoo]

The hops should also be noble hops to follow the guidelines for a English IPA

Sorry for the confusion, the batch I was disappointed in was English (I used EKG and fuggles) and the recipe I'm asking about here is American.

what was it about the other brew you didn't like?

The English IPA was barely bitter and too sweet. I used a similar hopping schedule (dry hopped for a week). My best guess is that there was too much crystal malt in that batch (tho I made a special bitter with the exact same grist which came out quite well), I jumped the gun on dry hopping before the wort had attenuated enough or I just got a weak batch of hops.

I used some leftover malt to make up a small starter, since I was using yeast saved from a smackpack I'd used two weeks prior. The malts I used to make the starter wort likely had a lot of c-malts. Could this predispose the yeast to under attenuate?

 

[Queequeg]

If its an AIPA I personally won't put sugar in. The reason its included in the EIPA is to boast the AVB whilst drying the beer. US 2 row is less malty in character than UK base malt, so you can forgo the sugar. You can balance residue sweetness with crystal or in your case Munich. Again the bitterness ratio should be about 0.8.

 

[Roobiedoobiedoo]

I appreciate the quick responses and apologize for the lack of clarity. I did carbonate very low on both the special bitter and EIPA. I will follow the advice on the sugar addition and more carefully consider when I use oats and how much.

 

[Yooper]

The oats were one of the things I was on the fence about. They apparently add to body and head formation/retention. I've used 3 oz in 1 gallon batches before to good effect. Before I decided to add the cane sugar I upped the oats to get the OG in the appropriate range.

I;ve heard some people say that about oats too- but in my experience oats are oily and cause a "slick" mouthfeel. Great in an oatmeal stout, but not so much in IPAs. They kill head retention for me, probably because of the oiliness, and don't provide any body at all, just that rich creamy mouthfeel, so I have to add flaked barley to my oatmeal stouts to make up for the oily and creamy oats.

That's too much sugar, also, if it's 4 ounces in a 1 gallon batch. It's weird to have things that reduce body and maltiness (simple sugar), and then add a rich malty grain (Munich) to put it back. I'd definitely revamp and simplify the grain bill.

As others have mentioned, the hopping is definitely US so I assume you're making an American IPA.

For an American IPA, I'd go with 95% US two-row, 5% crystal malt if you like it or the Munich malt or another character malt (victory malt is nice). If you want a lighter body, you could replace some of the two-row with simple sugar- but I'd keep that under a total of 3 ounces or so at the most if you're using some character malt (like Munich malt).

I'd run this through some free brewing software (I like Brewer's Friend) to check your IBUs and OG. For an OG of 1.050 or so, I'd look at 40-50 IBUs (APA level). For an OG of 1.065 or so, I'd try for 50-55 IBUs for an IPA.

 

[Roobiedoobiedoo]

I re entered a modified version of my recipe in the software I use.

"American" IPA:
1.5 pounds Canadian 2-row
.75 pounds Munich light

.25 oz of galaxy/cascade blend @ 40, 15 & 1 minute, and .25 oz to dry hop.

This leaves my abv and srm a little low. I'm still not sold on this so I'm open to suggestion. My local hbs is a pain to get to and I'd rather not have to order any additional ingredients. I have the 1.5 of 2-row, .75 of Munich light, 6 oz of carafoam to play with as well as any oats and/sugar. If anyone can develop a better recipe with this, I'm all ears

 

[Queequeg]

What is the AA content of your hops? you need to know this to get an accurate measure of the IBU's.

I programmed your batch into beer smith. Taking the AA values for galaxy and cascade in the database and assuming the blend is 50/50. Usually beer smith is pretty close to actual AA content, so as an estimate it not bad. BUT ITS JUST AN ESTIMATE

As it stands you do not have enough IBU's and your bitterness/sg ratio is to low for style guide lines

Personally the amount of Munich malt looks too much at 33%. The last IPA I made had a total of 18% combined crystal and munich and that was quite a full bodied IPA. That said if you lower the amount of Munich your gravity will be too low as you don't have more base malt.

I would suggest then you lower your Munich slightly and replace it with a little sugar. The sugar will have a drying effect to you can use the Munich more liberally than on it own.

I would also lower the gravity of the beer, to get the right amount of IBU/SG ratio. You will also need to push the bittering hops back to 60mins and move the 15 min addition to 20.

Here is what I ended up with in beersmith

0.68Kg 2 row 70%
0.24Kg Munich malt 25%
0.05Kg Sugar 5%

Hop additions

7g 60min
7g 20min
7g 1min
7g dry hop

Est SG 1.057
Est FG 1.011
Est AVB 6.1
IBU's 46.7
IBU/SG ratio 0.813

The only thing that's out of style is the colour.

The munich is still to high, but unless you get more base malt I you can't do much about it. Alternatively you could lower the gravity and make a pale ale, which might be a better option given what you have.

Edit:

If you want to do it as a pale ale, you can simply lower the munich down to 0.1Kg (12.%), keep the sugar and base amlt the same as above, and move back to your original hop bill. This will be right at the bitter end of the pale ale range, just reduce the 40min addition a little if your want it a little sweeter. The avb of this would be about 5.

Personally I would go with the pale ale.

 

[Roobiedoobiedoo]

What is the AA content of your hops? you need to know this to get an accurate measure of the IBU's.

The galaxy hops were really high a.a. I don't recall the % of each off hand, but I know the average a.a. of the blend is 11%.

I would suggest then you lower your Munich slightly and replace it with a little sugar. The sugar will have a drying effect to you can use the Munich more liberally than on it own.

This sounds like a good simple recipe and close to what I'm trying to achieve.