Lowering SG of IPA - Reduce Grains or LME?

[oljimmy]

Hi All,

I'm making a 5gal extract IPA and shooting for a more 'session' ish ABV. I'm trying to make something that has the crispness of a mild IPA without the crazy ABVs. The recipe I'm using will give me 41 IBUs and I'm hoping to start at 1.055 (and not 1.061), so I have to lose 6 gravity points. Looking for advice on which fermentables to cut down: the LME or the grains? Here they are:

7.7 lbs. Light Malt Extract Syrup

Grains (already mixed):
7 oz 10L Crystal Malt (Crushed)
5 oz Amber Malt (Crushed)
4 oz Torrified Wheat (Crushed)

Hop Schedule:

½ oz Columbus Hops (Bittering, 65 Minutes)
½ oz Zythos Hops (Bittering, 65 Minutes)
¼ oz Columbus Hops (Flavor, 5 Minutes)
¼ oz Centennial Hops (Flavor, 5 Minutes)
¼ oz Amarillo Hops (Aroma, 1 Minute)
½ oz Cascade Hops (Flavor & Aroma Hop, After-the-Boil Steep, 10 Minutes)
¾ oz Amarillo Hops (Dry Hop, Flavor & Aroma)
¾ oz Centennial Hops (Dry Hop, Flavor & Aroma)
½ oz Cascade Hops (Dry Hop, Flavor & Aroma)
½ oz Zythos Hops (Dry Hop, Flavor & Aroma)
¼ oz Columbus Hops (Dry Hop, Flavor & Aroma)
Yeast: S-05

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[frazier]

Keep all those grains, you want them for flavor and color. My quick-and-dirty math says you should drop 0.7 lbs of LME which will drop your gravity by about 5 points.

This will also alter your IBUs - raising the bitterness. Honestly, the change in gravity is not much, I'd recommend leaving the recipe as is instead of tinkering. You'll have a nice beer in either case, so enjoy!

Cheers,

 

[rodwha]

Do you know if your fermentor will handle a little more volume than the 5 gals? You could just increase the volume, which will decrease all of your numbers a bit.

I see there's no flavoring addition in the recipe. Were it me I'd redo the whole hop schedule. Do you have the AA numbers for the hops? Can you purchase another ounce of hops if need be?

I also find it a bit strange that there's an ounce of hops for bittering, and such little hops for flavor/aroma.

If you can increase the volume by 1/2 gal it ought to get you to about 1.055.

 

[oljimmy]

Hi guys, thanks for the input. I am in a 6.5 gal fermenter so I might just increase the volume, but I was a little worried about bumping up the hop utilization even more (it's already just supposed to be a 2.0 gal boil). I'll plug it all into Beersmith and figure it out. Thanks!

 

[Queequeg]

If you want to make the same beer but lower gravity (if there is such a thing) then you should proportionally reduce them all, anything else will be a different beer completely. You will need to reduce the hop bill to keep the IBU/SG ratio the same and the aroma hops too.

That said given you talking only 6 points diffence, I would drop those points from the extract and keep the hop bill the same. It will be a different beer but not that much