My first ipa recipe. Critique

[cmeb22]

Abv - 6.6
Og - 1.067
FG - 1.017
Extraxt
5 gallons
Srm - 7.8
Ibu - 68.8

1.25 lb vienna
.75 lb crystal 15
1.5 lb pale 2 row
9.5 lb golden light lme

Steep grains for 30 mins at 68 degrees celcius

Add to boil kettle, bring to boil and add extract.

Hop additions:
-2 Oz Simcoe 60 mins
- 1 Oz centennial 30 mins
- 1 Oz cascade 30 mins
- 1 Oz centennial 15 mins
- 1 Oz cascade 15 mins
- 1 Oz Citra 1 mins flame out

Dry hop in secondary with
- 1 Oz centennial
- 1 Oz cascade
- .25 Oz Simcoe

Any advice would be great. Going for a very light coloured ipa.

 

[skunkfunk]

You might throw out the crystal. If you want it even lighter, anyway, not that it adds much color.

 

[jnacey]

Grain bill looks okay, maybe drop the C15 down to half a pound.

Additionally, do you want this to be on the more bitter side of IPAs or the more "floral" side. If you want it more on the bitter side, this looks fine.

If you want it on the floral side, move your 30min addition to 10 min and move the 15 min additions to flameout. When you are chilling, chill to around 185f and turn off the chiller. Stir it up, let it sit there for a 20 min hop stand and then resume chilling as normal.

 

[m00ps]

I never use any crystals in my IPAs, some like it but I took the advice of Vinnie from Russian River to just eliminate it altogether. The sweetness clashes with the hops which is the focus of the style. You wouldnt add chocolate malt to a pilsner, would you?

Another piece of advice is to drop the mash to 150 and add some simple sugar. I do between 5-10% for every one of my IPAs to get a nice lean body. Again, this helps accentuate the hops

I also agree to drop the 30min addition. It doesnt get you any good hop character. I stick to one bittering addition and massive additions at the end of the boil. It also helps immensely to do a hopstand at flameout to get all the aromatics from your late additions

 

[skunkfunk]

What yeast?

 

[DarthCitra]

I would skip the 30 &15 min hop addition and add ALL bittering hops at 60 and then the rest do half at flame out and half during whirlpool. i make some awesome ipa's with only 3 hop additions(60, flameout/whirlpool & dry hop)

Also i would say throw in some sugar to dry it out in the end, id say around 5%.

 

[kombat]

Using Simcoe for your 60 minute addition seems like a waste. It's such a great hop, it seems a shame to just use it for bittering. I use Warrior or Magnum for the bittering addition in all my IPAs. I also agree with cutting the 30 minute additions and moving them later in the boil (and upping your bittering addition to compensate for the drop in IBUs).

 

[jnacey]

Up your dry hop total to at least 4oz as well.

For yeast, I like White Labs San Diego Super yeast if you want it to be really dry. If you like an IPA with a little bit more of a medium body, something like WLP200 or WY1028 can be nice. Any of the Conan strains of yeast from Omega, Yeast Bay or ECY are great as well.

 

[m00ps]

I would skip the 30 &15 min hop addition and add ALL bittering hops at 60 and then the rest do half at flame out and half during whirlpool. i make some awesome ipa's with only 3 hop additions(60, flameout/whirlpool & dry hop)

Also i would say throw in some sugar to dry it out in the end, id say around 5%.

Looks like we brew similar style IPAs

 

[jnacey]

Looks like we brew similar style IPAs

I do this too, but I do feel like it makes for a different beer than having some addition at 10 min. To me, most of the commercial beers floating around taste like they have something at that 10 min mark, rather than a bittering charge and massive flameout/whirlpool hops. Don't get me wrong, I personally prefer the latter, but they do have a different character.

You can really tell the difference between something like Lagunitas IPA and Modern Times Fortunate Islands.

 

[Redhawk96]

I think a little bit of honey malt gives my IPA's a great character, up to 0.5# for 5 gallons. Ditto on the late hop additions and hop stand for 20 minutes at flameout, this is where I got to on the IPAs I make, going for more hop flavor less hop bitterness. I no longer use 60 min. additions, I add 1 to 2 oz. as FWH, and all other additons at 15 minutes or later.

 

[DarthCitra]

I think a little bit of honey malt gives my IPA's a great character, up to 0.5# for 5 gallons. Ditto on the late hop additions and hop stand for 20 minutes at flameout, this is where I got to on the IPAs I make, going for more hop flavor less hop bitterness. I no longer use 60 min. additions, I add 1 to 2 oz. as FWH, and all other additons at 15 minutes or later.

FWH are awesome, id say you could even save the hops for the end and use a HopShot for your IBU's.