need more caramel on my IPA

[Chefjp]

I love IPA´s. I´ve brewed several ipas, and they turned ok. but Im not geting the rich caramel flavor at the end like in some great ones like stone, victory or dogfish. I think a great IPA is where the bitterness is mellowed by the rich caramel after taste.
here is my recipe, it a clone for stone IPA from BYO, modified a bit:

5 gallons
11.2 lbs pale malt
18 oz crystal 20L
8 oz crystal 60L
.5 oz magnum 90 min.
.5 oz perle 90 min.
1.75 oz centennial 15 min.
1oz centennial dry hop
.5 oz chinook dry hop

OG 1.065
IBUs 64
SRM 10
ABV 6.8%

what I´m I doing wrong?

 

[Squirrels]

What is your mash temp? For me I've noticed when I mash at a higher temp (154) I get a sweeter beer. When I mash at a lower temp (148) I get a dryer cleaner finish beer.

It could be your mash temp.

 

[Chefjp]

What is your mash temp? For me I've noticed when I mash at a higher temp (154) I get a sweeter beer. When I mash at a lower temp (148) I get a dryer cleaner finish beer.

It could be your mash temp.

I mashed a bit on the colder side, around 150, ill try mashing next time at 155

 

[strambo]

Yeah, if you like everything else about it, just mash higher. You could also bump up the base malt to get it around 8% ABV nudging into Imperial range, this will also have a sweeter finish.

 

[Yooper]

You know what's funny? I have NO crystal/caramel malt in my DFH clone. I don't get much at all in DFH.

I'm not a huge fan of caramel flavor in an IPA, but there is one beer (Surly Furious) that has quite a bit of it and I love it. I have a clone-ish recipe posted, if you want to take a look at the grainbill and see how much crystal and what times work well. The other thing is, it uses Golden Promise basemalt. If you want more backbone in the IPA, sometimes using a basemalt like Maris otter or GP works to bring out some of the malty flavor that is perceived as almost caramel.

 

[chickypad]

I think Yooper hit it on the head, it's probalby that malty character you are after. In addition to her suggestion you could try adding a lb or so of Munich (I'm pretty sure Victory hop devil contains uses Munich or a like malt), or you could even brew one of Yopper's dogfish clones with the amber malt.

 

[mrmuskie]

Are you letting your beers condition long enough for the malt characters to meld and come out? I have a buddy that drinks his way to early and he is always complaining about this problem. Ive tried to get him to sit on them a little longer but.... he gotta have NOW! lol