Milkshake IPA first attempt

[Dgallo]

I’ve tried a couple of milkshake IPAs in the past and was not very impressed. However I recently tried one from Ingenious Brewing out of Texas called Peach cobbler double froyo and it was quite impressive. They absolutely nailed the peach cobbler flavor with a super bright hop character. Now I want to take a stab at one my self. Here is the proposed recipe. I’m sticking to my guns on the hops, fruit, and vanilla but any suggestion on the grain bill from anyone who has attempted this style would be helpful

Grains:
Pilsner Malt - 70%
Flaked wheat - 10%
Flaked oats - 10%
Honey Malt - 5%
Lactose - 5%

Hops:
Denali
Citra
Mosaic

Yeast:
Imperial Dryhop

Fruit
1.5 lbs - Pineapple
1.5 lbs - mango
1.0 lb - peaches

Adjuct
(2) Vanilla Beans

 

[Wayne1]

My suggestions are to increase oats to about 15%, decrease wheat to 10 % and pump up the lactose to 15%. Add most of the hops post boil. Add fruit to fermenter after initial fermentation. Add Vanilla when you transfer it to keg.
Good Luck.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I just did my first, modeling it after the only one I've had that I really liked. It was primarily a vanilla milkshake IPA, no extra fruit other than hops-derived flavors.
I JUST sampled it for the first time since carbonation a few minutes ago.
Our grain bills differ in percentages, but I also used honey malt (only 2% though). I used CaraHell as well, but since you are using 5% Honey malt, I wouldn't add any more caramalts to yours.
My lactose was only 6% (a pound in my recipe), and I think it is sufficient. I want it drinkable, not heavy or too dessert-like, but your goals may be different.

Our hops are similar - I just used Azacca instead of your Denali, but the two are pretty similar, I think .

I used no boil hops, only one ounce of Azacca at flameout, and all the rest in the DH, and it works - almost no bitterness to speak of, but not overly sweet.
I get pineapple and guava out of the hops.

I used 3 vanilla beans in a tincture of 4 oz of vodka, soaked for 10 days and added with the keg dry hops.

It's only 10 days from brew day, but it is really tasty. I get a little woody flavor from the beans, but not in a bad way.

Good luck!

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Oh, and I used 6% flaked wheat and 6% flaked oats plus 12% Vienna

 

[jaymosbeershack]

In my experience, mango is a lot louder than peach when put into beer. I did a peach mango milkshake a few months back with 3# of each in a 5 gallon batch. Tasted nothing but the mango. Maybe swap those quantities.

 

[Dgallo]

In my experience, mango is a lot louder than peach when put into beer. I did a peach mango milkshake a few months back with 3# of each in a 5 gallon batch. Tasted nothing but the mango. Maybe swap those quantities.

I usually get a huge stone fruit/peach component from the dryhop yeast, so that’s why I have the peach on the lower side. Maybe I’ll drop the mango and make it up with the pineapple

 

[Dgallo]

So the Milkshake IPA hit the keg and I’m very pleased with the results. I ended using 3 vanilla beans by making a tincture with vanilla stoli by splitting and scraping them, then diced the pod and added them as well. The aroma is a perfect balance of vanilla and hops with just enough fruit presenceb. Flavor is a fruit forward creamsicle where the hops support the fruit flavors. Down side for me is the head retention. Loose bubbles that fade quickly with very low lacing. Next time I’m going to remove the oats and up the flaked wheat and try to find a way to combat the oils from the vanilla from killing the head.

 

[WBB]

I’m doing a NEIPA and I’ve got torrified wheat as well as flaked wheat to boost head retention.

Torrified is pre-gelatinized as well.

 

[Dgallo]

I’m doing a NEIPA and I’ve got torrified wheat as well as flaked wheat to boost head retention.

Torrified is pre-gelatinized as well.

Yeah it’s most likely the vanilla that killed it. I always get great head retention in all my NEIPA and West coasts

 

[Rob2010SS]

Yeah it’s most likely the vanilla that killed it. I always get great head retention in all my NEIPA and West coasts

Beautiful beer! Not sure about the vanilla killing the head though... Wouldn't you see the same effect in stouts that go heavy with vanilla beans? I did 5 beans in one of mine and it had great head retention.

Either way, great looking beer and will definitely add something like this to the brew list

 

[Dgallo]

Beautiful beer! Not sure about the vanilla killing the head though... Wouldn't you see the same effect in stouts that go heavy with vanilla beans? I did 5 beans in one of mine and it had great head retention.

Either way, great looking beer and will definitely add something like this to the brew list

Thanks man. It was a really fun beer to put together.

The reason i figured it was the vanilla is because I created a tincture using 80 proof Vodka with the vanilla and split in scrapped all 3 beans. I read by doing this you extract 4 times the amount of oils then you would if you just tossed in split beans. Figured it was the oil. Could certainly be wrong though.

The other culprit I thought it could be was a drop in ph from fermenting ontop of the fruit.

Either way, thats where it needs the improvement. If I can fix it, then the beer will be top notch.