My first "On my own" IPA

[EtchyLives]

I've been doing kits for as long as I've been brewing. Sometimes I've modified the recipe a little bit and called it my own but I'm branching out. I bought Beersmith and took a look at some hop charts and I've put together an extract recipe. Let me know what you think.

Steeping grains:
2 pounds Rye Malt
1 Pound Car/Crystal Malt 10L

Fermentables:
2 pounds light DME
9.9 pounds Light Extract

Hops:
2oz Summit @60 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @20 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @15 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @10 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @5 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @1 minutes
1oz Magnum Dry hop for last 5 days
Yeast: WLP001 California Ale with 2L Starter

Full Boil in an 8 gallon kettle.

Your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions are appreciated. I'm aiming for something along the lines of Flying Dog's The Truth.

 

[chickypad]

Is this for 5 gal? If so you look to be into "triple IPA" range - what are the specs? I think you're going to want to swap out some extract for sugar to dry it out a bit. The rye should also be mashed, so you would need to steep those 3lb grain in about 4-5 qts water at mash temps, say 150-152. The hopping looks closer to a single IPA, I think you need more for this beer. I'd at least up the dry hops and I'd use something with better aromatics than magnum.

 

[Travestian]

Disclaimer: The below info regarding style is purely based on BJCP standards.

I don't necessarily agree that the rye and 10L needs to be partially mashed. Doing a partial mash puts you at 1.102 at 72% efficiency. Not mashing it puts you at 1.087%. Your IBU's are high enough to be a Imperial IPA but your final gravity is way too high. An Imperial IPA should finish low closer to 1.012 or so. The corn sugar previously mentioned would do that for you if you dropped some of the malt extracts.

I agree also that you need something other than magnum for your dry hop. Magnum is really only good enough for bittering. It has no good aroma capabilities. I would add a few ounces of each simcoe and zeus hops if that's the flavor you're looking for into the dry hop.

 

[EtchyLives]

This is exactly the feedback I'm looking for. Thanks.

I'll have difficulty (due to lack of proper equipment) to do a partial mash so I'll look into the corn sugar substitution. As for the hops, I had no idea other than what I read on the chart. I'm new to this so I appreciate all the feedback.

 

[chickypad]

I meant that rye is a base malt, and to get anything from it you need to mash - not that you need the extra fermentables as it's plenty big already as mentioned. If you're not going to mash I'd just leave it out and steep the crystal. If you do want to include it you don't need any extra equipment to partial mash, it's just steeping at a more precise temp. You can wrap your pot in blankets or put it in a preheated oven on low and turned off. If you include these as partial mash you can drop down your extract a bit if you don't want to go that big.

 

[EtchyLives]

I meant that rye is a base malt, and to get anything from it you need to mash - not that you need the extra fermentables as it's plenty big already as mentioned. If you're not going to mash I'd just leave it out and steep the crystal. If you do want to include it you don't need any extra equipment to partial mash, it's just steeping at a more precise temp. You can wrap your pot in blankets or put it in a preheated oven on low and turned off. If you include these as partial mash you can drop down your extract a bit if you don't want to go that big.

Thanks for the clarification on the base malt. I've changed it up a bit. In order to raise the bitterness I am adding the ounce of Magnum to the first boil and exchanging in Citra hops for the dry hop. (everybody else is doing it so why can't I?)

I also changed the Rye Malt to Chocolate Rye Malt and lowered that to 4oz for color. Finally I swapped out one 3.3# can of extract and replaced it with 2.5 pounds of corn sugar which, according to beersmith, does dry it out considerably while raising the ABV. So the current recipe looks like this:

Steeping grains:
4oz Chocolate Rye Malt
1 Pound Car/Crystal Malt 10L

Fermentables:
2 pounds light DME
6.6 pounds Light Extract
2.5 Pounds Corn Sugar

Hops:
2oz Summit @60 minutes
1oz Magnum @60 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @20 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @15 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @10 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @5 minutes
0.5oz/0.5oz Zeus/Simcoe @1 minutes
1oz Citra Dry hop for last 5 days

 

[chickypad]

You should have already been over 150 IBU to start so I don't know you need the extra 60 min addition, I was thinking more hops late. I would up the dry hop for sure to at least 3 oz. That's definitely a lot of sugar at about 20%, if it were me I'd probably go more like 1.5 lb sugar but I don't brew extract and you may need the extra sugar to get the FG down.

 

[Travestian]

That looks a lot better but your IBU's are through the roof at 203.3. Not that it's a bad thing. Just REALLY high. I think you'd do even better with more in the dry hop. IBU's stay high at 153.2 with only 1 oz of Summit at the 60 minute point. That gives you an extra oz to put in the dry hop also. Just to give you an idea... I have 3.25oz of 3 different hops in my dry hop for the double IPA I'm doing today.

The sugar was a nice add. It is a lot but it does dry out the recipe nicely to finish around 1.012 but still gets your og up to a good level of 1.085.

Again, this is your recipe so do what you like with it. Just keep us posted what you end up with and how it comes out!

 

[EtchyLives]

That's strange. I thought it was a lot of hops but beersmith has me at around 100 IBUs (away from my home computer so no beersmith right now.

I'll plug it in again under a new template and double check. I also considered lowering the sugar but I like my beers like I like my lovers: strong and hardy.

Thanks again for the input. This has been a great learning experience and I'm sure I'll check in a few more times before I buy supplies and brew it up in about two weeks.