new to brewing recipe idea

[thechambo]

hi ive been reading about homebrewing a lot and am about to start but i want to try an original recipe. and so the one i came up with is an imperial IPA and it goes like this

fermentables
10 lbs warminster floor-malted maris otter
2 lbs cane sugar
8 oz carafoam
8 oz briess caramel 40l (for color)

hops
2.5 oz challenger (60 min)
1.5 oz fuggles (40 min)
2.5 oz east kent goldings (20 min)
1 oz east kent goldings (5 min)
3 oz fuggles (dry hop 7 days)

with wyeast 1275

1 tsp irish moss for 15 min
1 tsp yeast nutrient (wyest)for 10 min

how does that sound would really like feedback and advice thanks all

edit: now going to use 2 lbs. of muntons DME instead of cane sugar and dry hopping for 3 days instead of 7

 

[JoshuaW]

10.5oz of hops seems like a bit much for starters. I'm assuming you enjoy IPAs. Have you had something that strong? If not, you might want to get into it gradually. Your grain bill looks fine, although most people don't really like using cane sugar.

 

[brockettbrews]

I wouldnt use cane sugar. Get corn sugar or get 2lbs of dme. I dont add sugar only when im bottling.

 

[brockettbrews]

i wouldnt dry hop for 7 days either. i dry hop 3 days at the most.

 

[beerman0001]

I have never made a iipa with any of those hops. Sounds interesting. Grain bill is a little on the light side. What og are you trying to hit?

 

[helibrewer]

Those are not typical IPA hops, the ones you chose tend to be milder. Challenger should work for bittering but for your late addition you might look toward the more typical IPA hops for aroma/flavor.

If you stick with your recipe I think it would be a British IPA.....maybe you're on to something

 

[thechambo]

Thanks everyone this is great advice so only dry hop for 3 days use dme instead of sugar cane and also to answer a question posed to me im shooting for a 1.076 og with a 1.017 fg

 

[thechambo]

ok so i redid the bitterness calculations and when i do it on my calculator i get an IBU of 93.35 but hopville tells me that it will be an IBU of 135.8 i dont know what im doing wrong

edit: on my calculator i used john palmers isomerization table for og over time. and used the function ibu= AA x (og/time) x 75 / 5 gallons which is my recipe volume

 

[BrewinHooligan]

i wouldnt dry hop for 7 days either. i dry hop 3 days at the most.

I always dry hop for 7 days and have never had an issue... Many people here dry hop up to 14 days and report no problems. I don't think you would get as much aroma as you could with 3 days as opposed to 7.

 

[BeerChef17]

how big of a boil are you doing? When I plug it all into beer smith for a 5gal batch using a full boil I am getting 178IBU which seems a little ridiculous to me. Id would also switch the hops around. Maybe sub the Challenger for Target and have a hop schedule something like this:

Target - 1.5oz - 11% - 60m
Fuggles - 1oz - 4.5% - 40m
East Kent Goldings - 1.5oz - 5% - 20m
East Kent Goldings - 1oz - 5% - 5m
East Kent Goldings - 1oz - 5% - Dry Hop 7 days

This will yield just over 95IBUs assuming a full boil for a 5gal batch

Also I would up your 40L to 1# or sub it for 0.5# of 60L or 80L

 

[chickypad]

Thanks everyone this is great advice so only dry hop for 3 days use dme instead of sugar cane and also to answer a question posed to me im shooting for a 1.076 og with a 1.017 fg

Sugar is fine to use in a bigger IPA if you are looking to dry it out and boost the abv. 2 lbs may be a bit much in this recipe though. If you don't want that effect then use more malt, but if you are doing all grain why use DME and not just up the base malt? Unless you've got mash tun restrictions.
I also don't see a problem with a 7 day dry hop, I do it all the time and get great aromas on my IPA's.

 

[thechambo]

Im doing a 4 gallon boil then diluting to 5 gallons or is that a bad idea? And after i realized i had miss calculated i started the recipe on hopville and when i realized the bitterness was so high i reduced my schedule down to

2 oz challenger for 60
1.5 oz fuggles for 40
1.5 oz east kent goldings for 20
1 oz east kent goldings for 10
1.5 oz fuggles for 7 days dry hopping

And the bitterness dropped down to 111.4 IBU's
Why would you up the caramel 40l to a lbs? Jw cuz I already have an estimated abv of 7.9

 

[thechambo]

I just looked into target hops and may change to those for bittering but i like the spicy kick that challenger will give to the more floral/grassy, earthy aroma and flavor created by the fuggles and ek goldings
On another point is dry hopping length more of a personal preference thing then? And is 7 days the average?

 

[thechambo]

also from what I understand the carafoam helps with head retention and clarity is that right?

 

[chickypad]

Im doing a 4 gallon boil then diluting to 5 gallons or is that a bad idea?

This is an all grain recipe, is that what you are planning? It is typical to collect about 7 gallons of wort for a 5 gallon batch. Collecting only 4 gallons would pretty much be no sparge, you're going to have to up your fermentables to hit your target.
To change it to extract you would sub the maris otter for about 6 lb DME or 7.5 lb LME (plus whatever more extract or sugar you decided to use).
Then steep the crystal malts.
I've not used carafoam but it's supposedly like carpils in that it adds body and head retention but with a little sweet flavor.

 

[Newbeerguy]

I wouldn't sub DME for the sugar....actually DME isn't a "sub" for sugar in the first place. You use sugar to up the ABV without adding any residual sweetness and you'd use DME to give the beer more body. Just like others said, no sense in adding DME in an all grain recipe when all you'd have to do is up the base malt. I'd cut the sugar to 1lb and up the Crystal 40 to Crystal 60 or 80. The Marris Otter is going to provide all the biscuity, toasted, bready flavor and the Crystal will just provide some color (and a tiny bit of flavor) You may even want to up the Crystal to 1lb as well depending on how sweet you like your IIPA's. You didn't say what temp you were mashing at, but personally, I like my IIPA's a bit dry and I'd recommend mashing at between 148-150. I think it really let's the hops shine through.

As for the hop schedule, looks good. I don't see a problem dry hopping for 7 days, but I have noticed that the longer they sit, the more grassy like flavor it takes on. I'd do a taste check on the 3/5 day to see how it is comming along.

 

[thechambo]

This is an all grain recipe, is that what you are planning?

ok so i forgot how different all grain was from extract brewing with specialty grains so if i changed my fermentables to

7 lbs muntons DME
2 lbs maris otter
1 lbs caramel 40l
8 oz carafoam

would that make it an extract with specialty grains?

 

[Newbeerguy]

ok so i forgot how different all grain was from extract brewing with specialty grains so if i changed my fermentables to

7 lbs muntons DME
2 lbs maris otter
1 lbs caramel 40l
8 oz carafoam

would that make it an extract with specialty grains?

No that would make it a partial mash. The marris otter needs to be mashed to convert the starches to sugar. The carafoam and caramel 40 are specialty grains that do not need to be mashed, only steeped.

 

[BeerChef17]

Im doing a 4 gallon boil then diluting to 5 gallons or is that a bad idea? And after i realized i had miss calculated i started the recipe on hopville and when i realized the bitterness was so high i reduced my schedule down to

2 oz challenger for 60
1.5 oz fuggles for 40
1.5 oz east kent goldings for 20
1 oz east kent goldings for 10
1.5 oz fuggles for 7 days dry hopping

And the bitterness dropped down to 111.4 IBU's
Why would you up the caramel 40l to a lbs? Jw cuz I already have an estimated abv of 7.9

Is up the caramel to a pound to get a darker beer. As it stands I don't even think you are at 10srm. It would add some needed body to balance out the hops

 

[thechambo]

Ok so ive read about doing a mash but can anyone explain its in simple terms or tell me if what ive understood from reading is correct it seeks like what you do is have a big bucket with a spigot on the bottom and a straining device in place about an inch from the bottom then put your grain in there and run the desired temp of water through there to release the maltose then u recirculate the first quart or two of water maltose mix cuz it has some crud in it that escaped the strainer an you repeat that process as many times as necessary while filling your boil pot is that about right? And where can i find instructions to buil this mash device ( sorry for not knowing technical term off the top of my head :/ )

 

[thechambo]

Nvrmind i re-read john palmers chapter on all grain brewing and it makes a lot more sense now and he even tells you how to build a luater tun so im gonna do this as an all grain and heres the latest tweek to the recipe

Fermentables
12lbs warminster floor- maris otter
1lbs cane sugar
8 oz briess caramel 40L (for color)
8 oz carafoam

Hops
2 oz challenger 60min
1.5 fuggles 40 min
1.5 ek goldings 20 min
1 oz ek goldings 5 min
Dry hop 1.5 oz fuggles for 7 days

Yeast
wyeast thames valley ale (1275)

Misc
1tsp irish moss 15 min
1tsp wyeast nutrient 10 min

The estimated og is 1.078 the estimated fg 1.018 srm of 10 ( gold to copper) 109 ibu and an estimated abv of 8%