Recipe Advice

[pdm1982]

I'm hoping to get some feedback on an IPA recipe I designed. I had made one before with so-so results. What I'm going for this time is a clean pale orange color that really lets the hops shine through. I was thinking I should keep the grain bill simple. Any advice is appreciated. Here's what I've got so far:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: US-05
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.061
Final Gravity: 1.013
IBU: 60
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 6ish

Mash Temp: 152 F

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
12.5 lb 2 Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 89.3 %
1 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 7.1 %
0.50 lb Carapils (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 22.1 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (15 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (10 min) Hops 12.0 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (5 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (1 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
3.00 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (Dry Hop 5-7 days) Hops
SafAle (S-05)

 

[badlee]

I would say reduce your crystal by half,if not a little more,as you already have carapils for body.
Or,use about 300gr of crystal 60.
I find it gives a beautiful deep golden/orange hue

 

[Shred]

Agreed with above. Also, I like Nottingham for my IPAs. It's aggressive and clean. 05 isn't bad, it's what I used to use, but I use Notty almost exclusively now with (I think) better results.

 

[Yooper]

The recipe is good! You can use the full amount of crystal 20L if you want, but I'm with the others that I'd cut that a bit for my taste but otherwise it's fine as is.

 

[pdm1982]

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback. That's exactly what I was looking for on the Crystal advice. I still have a limited understanding on ratios/amounts of grains. I'll plan to cut the 20L in half. If it's too light I might look at switching it to 60L.

I'm not dead-set on any particular yeast type. Used to make starters with White Labs yeast all the time until I got lazy and started buying dry yeast. I could look into the Nottingham; I think I've only used it on a stout once.


***Just reduced the 20L in Beersmith and it takes my SRM to 5. Too light? I've recently had Fathead's Sunshine Daydream (very light session IPA) and that's sort of where my inspiration is coming from.

 

[pdm1982]

I brewed this up over the weekend. Hopefully, I get what I'm after. It was a weird day; nailed my mash temp, got the correct volume into the carboy, and hit the O.G. on the number. That never happens to me. Fingers crossed I wrote a good recipe.



Mash Temp: 152 F

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
13 lb 2 Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 92.8 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
0.50 lb Carapils (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 22.1 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (15 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (10 min) Hops 12.0 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (5 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
1.25 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (1 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
3.00 oz Amarillo [8.80%] (Dry Hop 5-7 days) Hops
SafAle (S-05)

 

[pdm1982]

Now that this brew has been in the bottle for over a month, I'm starting to drink it. I'm not sure if its the large amount of 2 row or what but it's got a nagging toastiness to it. It's sort of boring. The initial hop flavor is nice but the beer overall starts to become tedious to finish. I haven't drank 2 of them consecutively yet because I'd rather have something else.

Even though I hit my OG the FG went way lower than expected (1.006) and it ended up being a 7.5% beer.

Some things I might consider to do different next time would be to maybe cut the 2 row back and replace some of it with Munich or Vienna. I was also considering upping the first wort hops to get more bitterness. I could possibly replace the Amarillo at the FWH with Columbus. Maybe lower the mash temp to 149-150? Try a different yeast? I'm really surprised this didn't turn out better.

 

[Shred]

I have no idea where you'd be getting toastiness from. The 2-row shouldn't come across that way. That's a really low FG too... I don't think mashing lower will help that. If anything it would make it worse. Which yeast did you end up going with?

 

[pdm1982]

I used 2 packets of US-05 and fermented around 65-68 in a controlled chamber I made. My last few batches have all fermented down lower than they're supposed to by 10-13 points (regardless of whether or not I used dry yeast or made a starter with liquid yeast). I replaced my thermometer in hopes to fix that (there was a 3 degree difference between the old one and the new one). I'm not sure if I was mashing at a lower temp than I thought I was or what. It would make sense.

Anyways, maybe toastiness isn't the best way to describe it; I'm no expert on describing what I taste. But there is one dominate flavor that I could do with less of and it isn't the hops.

 

[feinbera]

I'd look at your mash temp, but, raise it rather than lower it – 152° is a little on the low side, and if you were actually at 149°, that's way low, which would go a long way toward explaining your lower-than-expected FG.

Yeast-wise, US-05 is a bit of a beast; 90% apparent attenuation is on the high side, but I hear 85% is about par for the course if you do everything right, and I regularly hit 80ish% even doing dumb/lazy stuff. That being said, I just used it on an IPA which didn't come out watery or over-attenuated – 1.064 OG, 1.012 FG, mashed at 153° according to my accurate (if slow) floating dairy thermometer.

As for roastiness... I wouldn't suspect the 2-row, it's pretty bland on its own. Maybe you're getting something from the crystal 60? Especially if you're mashing low-ish, and doing a big pitch of an attenuative yeast, I'd say, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead on that pound of lighter crystal; if you're getting down to 1.006 now, you're not gonna get a syrup bomb with half a pound more.