IPA Recipe Try

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noreaster40s

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Using Beersmith I've been trying to come up with recipes on my own. I'm doing them all grain, batch sparging and 5 gallon batches. I have tried 2 other of my own recipes so far but they haven't come out like I had hoped. So now I've been looking to try an IPA that has a nice hoppy/citrusy/piney taste with a good hop aroma. This is what I've put together so far ...

Ingredients

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 42.9 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 16.4 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (2 min) Hops 0.8 IBU
0.50 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (2 min) Hops 0.8 IBU

I'm looking at mashing @ 154 and doing a 60 minute boil.

Comments?
 
I would change the hop schedule so that you just have chinook at the 60 min addition. Leave the cascade and centennial for the 15/2 additions, .5oz each perhaps, and I'd use centennial instead of the glacier altogether (just because centennial/cascade go so well together, why mess with something that works).

So it would look more like this:

1.00 oz Chinook (60 min)
0.50 oz Cascade (15 min)
0.50 oz Centennial (15 min)
0.50 oz Cascade (2 min)
0.50 oz Centennial (2 min)

You might need to make that 60 min chinook 1.5oz to get your desired IBUs.

With your grain bill, I'd probably reduce the caramel by at least 8oz, maybe even a full pound, and reduce the carapils by 4-8oz. You could make up the reduced malt with more 2-row, or maybe some victory (which I really like in IPAs).
 
Agreed with the previous poster on reducing the cara/crystal malt to reduce the sweetness, I'd also lower the mash temp.

For the hops I think the hop combo looks fine, I think you just need to turn up the volume. For an IPA a few ounces at flameout and a few ounce of dry hops are what you need for the big/fresh hop aroma. I don't do mid-boil additions on hoppy beers, just bittering and flameout.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. Playing with some of the changes on Beersmith I lowered the Cara/crystal by a pound and added a pound to the 2 row but that left the color lighter than the style calls for. I checked the Victory and am not sure I'm looking for that particular "biscut" characteristic in the beer. And yes, I may even do a little dry hops too. Any other input is welcome. Thanks!
 
If you want a really citrusy/piney character, you're going to need more late hop additions. I would double or TRIPLE all the additions after 20 minutes.

Using 25% crystal malt will give you a very sweet beer I think. I would switch the C10 to C40 so you can still hit your color but use way less grain, cut the carapils in half. Make up the difference with base malt.
 
The recipe is more of a pale, hopped, Amber Ale than an IPA. I wouldn't worry about the color being too pale because of style guidelines. However, from a mash pH point of view, you might not want it super pale. Easy enough to change, simply use much less of a darker crystal. For instance, 1 lb of caramel 40 instead of your 3 lbs of super light crystal. I'd also move the mash temp. lower. IPAs should be drier than what you would be making. If you want more flavor, then maybe use some munich, vienna, or victory malt.
 
OK, I've been playing around with the recipe some trying to take into account your input and this is what I have come up with at this point.

10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.96 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.70 %
.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 43.6 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 8.3 IBU
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (2 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (2 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier (5.60%) Dry Hop 7 Days

I'm looking at mashing @ 148 for 60 minutes and doing a 60 minute boil.

Does this sound a little better than the previous version?
 
I really don't think you'll need any CaraPils at all. If you're worried about color, why not toss in some Vienna or Munich malt? That'll add some maltyness and maybe a touch of sweetness without raising your FG too much.
 
Oh yea, the yeast. Duh. I'm looking at the White Labs California Ale V. I also took out the CaraPils and put in 1# of Munich 20L.

Now, I'd like to add a bit more alcohol to this. Is there a way to so this without adding too much more to the grain bill? If not I'll probably just go with it as is.
 
Boil some table sugar in a little bit of water, cool, and add to primary after a few days of fermentation. A pound will add about 1% more alcohol and dry it out some.
 
Your recipe is just fine, but even better without the carapils. In my experience and the experience of other brewers both amatuer and professional crystal malts and specialty malts can create competing flavors that can mask and interfere with the hops. An AIPA is all about the hops flavor and aroma.

It was hard for me to learn, when I first brewed IPA's I was always throwing in a pound of crystal, sometimes more, and specialty malts as well....creating complex grain bills for AIPA.....

I have decided on basically one simple grain bill that works, time and time again for AIPA

13# two row
.50 pound Crystal malt (whatever flavor you like, I go C40 as my base)
.50 pound victory
.50 pound table sugar
WLP007,WLP001, PACMAN...etc..etc....


your recipe is darn simple and should be good...
 
Thank you permo and all that had some input. I greatly appreciate it and am looking forward to trying this fairly soon. As a filler I picked up an extract kit from my LBH yesterday and will be brewing that up today. A Sierra Nevada clone. Thanks again.
 
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