New England IPA sanity check, are my hops overboard?

[Silver_Is_Money]

For the following recipe (from which I'm anticipating only ~67% overall Brewhouse Efficiency, thus the 17 lbs. of grist), is my planned hop schedule insane? My equipment and techniques are early 1990's level primitive, so I'm not sure that I can extract all of the hop goodness of a modern brewing system. Mashing in a 52 qt cooler with braid, and using a single batch sparge. Boiling in a turkey deep fryer with an 8 gallon SS pot. Cooling via a copper coil.

 

[ProblemChild]

I love hops - lots and lots of hops. This goes about 3 to 4 oz above anything I have tried for 5 gallons, but that is not necessarily bad.

I would maybe try first with a bit less - like take an ounce or so out of each of the flameout and after boil additions. Not because it is too much, but because the difference in taste will likely be negligible and you will be better on cost and trub loss.

 

[Morrey]

My NE IPA uses a total of 13 ounces of hops in a 5.5G batch. I use some bittering hops of which you use none.....so that's one big factor right there. I don't personally think you are off base at all. Your hop utilization will be different based on your late additions so my opinion is a thumbs up.

I use Mosaic and Citra as well and know this is a good choice. I do blend Galaxy into the mix so maybe you can play around with that in a future brew as the G/M/C hop combination is none short of amazing.

Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[Oophaga]

I don't think its crazy. I do 10 oz dry hop charge, with a total of 18oz in a 6 gallon batch.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

My thanks to all who posted above for their helpful comments.

It appears that all of the conventional math model tools (Tinseth, Rager, Garetz, Mosher, etc...) for calculating IBU's fail miserably when applied to this style. Any guesses as to the IBU range that I might expect if I brew it as is? Or do matters such as this not need to come into play for NE IPA's?

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/

 

[filthyastronaut]

I wouldn't do it myself but I know people put 18+ oz. of hops in 5 gallon batches and report good results. I say go for it.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Should I consider moving some of the hops to an earlier point in the boil. Such as 20 minutes remaining perhaps?

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/

 

[day_trippr]

I wouldn't do it myself but I know people put 18+ oz. of hops in 5 gallon batches and report good results. I say go for it.

Damn, folks are brewing some pricey beer!

 

[theheroguy]

I would say this a a good amount of hops for a 9 gal batch. To be honest you could go about 4-6 oz higher w./o being too much

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Damn, folks are brewing some pricey beer!

Citra is on sale at my LHBS for $16.99/Lb. right now.

https://mashmadeeasy.yolasite.com/

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I would say this is a good amount of hops for a 9 gal batch. To be honest you could go about 4-6 oz higher w./o being too much

But this recipe is only for 5.75 to 6 gallons to the fermenter.

 

[hottpeper13]

There is no way you get more then 4.5 gal in the fermenter. Follow this.... 9.29 gal total brewing liquor. ~2 gal grain absorbtion,(don't know your dead space,mine is less then 4 oz) so 7.29 in the boil, ~1.5 gal evaporation = 5.79 in kettle when done. With that amount of hop residue you leave behind at least .5 gal in kettle and with 8 oz dry hops ~.75-1 gal in fermenter. For me to get 5 gal in a keg I need to finish with 6.5 in kettle, and then sometimes I'm still short.

 

[hottpeper13]

That's what she said!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I almost always yield 59 x 12 ounce bottles (+/- 1) from a batch, and I'm leaving a bit behind in the bottling process. That is a nominal 5.6 gallon yield. But I'll admit that I've never tried this level of hops before.

I've begun listening to Martin Brungard's advice to only minimally boil the wort. I've abandoned the massively rolling boil upon his advice. I get noticeably less boil loss that way. I've also abandoned separating trub and hops from my wort post boil and cooling, and I'm letting the yeast feast upon it in the fermenter instead. Everything in the kettle gets poured into the fermenter post wort cooling, with zero loss. Much less loss in the end that way, and I can't tell a difference in the taste, nor do I notice much if any difference in the ending yeast cake volume. That means the yeast are consuming essentially all of the trub. At the start of fermentation my nominally 7 gallon Fermonster is generally filled to where the wort extends a bit above the straight side. I'm estimating 6.2 gallons overall at that juncture, but that volume admittedly includes the trub and the hop residue.

At that level in the Fermonster I alway need to keep my fermentation temperatures on the low side, and be on the lookout to remove the airlock and install the blow-off tube set-up if fermentation gets too violent. I'm not leaving much headspace, though I surmise that the Fermonster actually holds a bit more than 7 gallons.

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