NE IPA w/Lemon & Graham Crackers - Help!

[Ncangey0514]

First post here, looking for some help brewing a beer. I’m looking to do a 2.5 gal (post-boil volume) BIAB NE IPA with lemon, graham crackers & lactose, kind of like a lemon cream pie. Starting with distilled water & getting a water profile of approx 150 ppm Cl, 50 ppm SO4 & 35 ppm Mg. I’m looking at using something like 65% 2-row, 15% oats, 15% flaked wheat & 5% CaraPils w/5.21 lb total malt hill & an ABV around 7%. Planning on doing a FWH of Citra, Vic Secret & lemon drop with a 60 min whirlpool with 3 additions of each & DDH with all three as well. Was also planning on adding lactose to the boil & fermenting for 2 weeks in a small conical w/London III or A38 juice. The tricky part is obviously the lemon and the graham crackers, particularly since I have never brewed with food items. Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions on how to go about this, particularly quantities & when to add each? Also, I’m not sure if lemon zest would give me what I’m looking for so I was considering maybe even adding lemon curd? Again, I admit wholeheartedly that I only have a few batches under my belt (which I’ve been very pleased with) and have little clue how to get this thing where I want it! Any help is greatly appreciated! Also, the beer the closest beer I’ve had to what I’m looking for was Pie Assassin by Anchorage although it wasn’t exactly what I’m trying to replicate. They used 100% galaxy hops in theirs and I’m concerned that if I use the citrus forward hops I mentioned + some type of lemon it might be too much citrus?

 

[kye77]

The grain bill is solid for a NEIPA. I’ve had success adding zested Lemmons to the boil at 2 min to flameout. As for the graham crackers... I would crush them up and stick them in the mash. Should get some flavor from that.
Let us know how it turns out!

 

[ong]

One point to consider is that graham crackers have a lot of added oil, which is going to be a pain to deal with. Maybe at least get the low-fat kind.

And I would do lemon zest in a bit of vodka added with your dry hops. Definitely not the curd, which has eggs and butter.

 

[Ncangey0514]

Thank you guys for the input! I’m still debating which hops I want to use but once I end up giving this a go I’ll be sure to report back on how it turns out.

 

[ong]

For what it’s worth, you might want to go really easy on bittering hops for this style. Most of my best NEIPAs have had only whirlpool and dry/biotransformation hop additions, or sometimes with something at 5 minutes or flameout.