Partial Mash IPA Help!

[Brew_Queen]

Hey all,

I made a partial mash IPA, and it didn't turn out as full as I hoped. It was good, but it could have been better. I'm looking for suggestions:

Morgan's IPA Malt kit
Safle S0-5
1 KG of Light DME
1 lb of Canadian Two Row(LOV 2-3.5)
1/2 lb Munich Malt (LOV 9-12)
1/4 lb of Crystal Malt (LOV 13-16)
1/4 lb of Caramunich Malt (55-65)

Hop Additions:
1 oz Centennial @ 45 m
.8 oz Amarillo & Centennial @ 10 m
1.6 oz Cascade @ 5 m
.8 oz Cascade & Centennial @ 0 m
1.2 oz Cascade Dry Hop (7 days, Secondary)
.8 oz Amarillo Dry Hop (7 days, Secondary)

I really liked the hop additions, but I felt the body was low, the malt flavor wasn't there, it was just.. thin?

Any suggestions to make this better would be great!

 

[Yooper]

What size batch is this?

The basic answer for beers lacking in malt is to add more malt or malt extract, but since you want a good balance of hops to malt (and vice versa), it's important to make sure that there are enough hops (IBUs) to balance the amount of malt in the recipe.

 

[sendai]

Assuming a 5 gallon batch, I calculate an OG of about 1.050. That is low for an American IPA. Try adding another half kilo of DME. If it's still too thin, try a full kilo.

A couple other things you could try:

• Do your partial mash at 160º
• Add 4-8 ounces of Carapils

All three of those options should give you a bit more sweetness but also more body.

 

[chickypad]

Assuming a 5 gallon batch, I calculate an OG of about 1.050.

Would be more like 1.030. So I assume this is a 2.5 gal batch OP? Did you check the OG of your mash? Looking at that recipe I wouldn't expect it to be thin if you got good conversion and were in the 1.060 range.

 

[Brew_Queen]

Hey, it was a 5 gallon, OG was 1.040.

How do you calculate your OG at first? (Sorry for the newbie question)

 

[chickypad]

Well I guess that answer's the question of why it's thin bodied. I think though that either your volume or weights were off, or your sample was not well mixed. I don't think it's possible to hit 1.040 with that recipe in 5 gals, even at 100% efficiency I'm getting about 1.034 in Beersmith.

Most folks use a calculator or software (like Brewer's friend, Beersmith, etc.). If you know your approximate efficiency you can estimate by hand as well. Like this:

- DME has approx 45 pts per lb. 2.2 x 45 = 99 pts from the DME.
- Grain you can estimate has approx 36 ppg (some a little more, some less but close enough to estimate at 36):
2 lb x 36 = 72 pts if 100% efficiency
Adjust for your actual efficiency (say 75%): 72 x .75 = 54 pts
Then 54 + 99 = 153 pts, divide by 5 gals = 30.9 pts per gal, or 1.031

So you've probably got a beer around 3% ABV. You need to approx double your malt/grainbill to be in IPA range.

 

[sendai]

chickpad: You don't seem to be including the 1.7 kg of LME in Morgan's IPA Malt kit in your calculation. Include that and you'll be around 1.050.

Brew_Queen: I used Brewer's Friend to do the calculation, but chickypad shows how to do it by hand.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/

 

[chickypad]

Ah, good catch. I was reading that as the full ingredient list for the kit. I'm actually getting around 1.058 in 5 gal with that additional LME (3.75 lb x 36 = 135 more gravity pts). OP, I suspect a measurement error on you OG, even with zero from the mash you should be higher than that. Where did it finish? Looks like a nice pale ale recipe actually.