Recipe Critique...IPA? APA?

[Kitchi Gumee]

Hey folks,

It's time to use up some ingredients. Here goes:

6lbs Light DME
1lb Amber DME
.5lb Crystal 40L
.5lb Belgian Aromatic
.5lb Carapils

2oz Perle (60 min)
1oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz Cascade (5 min)
2oz Centennial (Dry hop)

I have not put together too many recipes (probably pretty obvious). But essentially this is what I have left to use up of the extras i've accumulated. Is this WAY too much hops for this beer? And any other suggestions for changes I could make???

Thanks alot for your help!

 

[StankAle]

Hey folks,

It's time to use up some ingredients. Here goes:

6lbs Light DME
1lb Amber DME
.5lb Crystal 40L
.5lb Belgian Aromatic
.5lb Carapils

2oz Perle (60 min)
1oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz Cascade (5 min)
2oz Centennial (Dry hop)

I have not put together too many recipes (probably pretty obvious). But essentially this is what I have left to use up of the extras i've accumulated. Is this WAY too much hops for this beer? And any other suggestions for changes I could make???

Thanks alot for your help!

The hops are waaaaayyyy too much for a APA. Also the grain bill will probably muddy up the simple malt flavor you want with that style. use one ounce of Perle to bitter and cascade (and/or) centennial for flavor and aroma. You can also dry hop an ounce of cascade if you want. Use the Light DME and crystal 40 only. I know it sounds too simple but if you have ever had Sierra Nevada that is pretty much all they use.

 

[scinerd3000]

waaaay to hoppy in my oppinion. Right now it looks like around 90 IBU's which if thats whats your looking for is fine. The grainbill looks solid. It puts you at about 1.065 ish. My experience with centenial is its strong stuff. I think you would probably be fine with only one oz of perle and cut out the centenial dry hop. If you really want to dry hop i would dryhop with the 5 minute cascade addition and save the centenial for another brew but thats just me...

 

[thedude123]

Just download beersmith.

 

[King of Cascade]

This would make a good IPA

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.00
Anticipated OG: 1.070 Plato: 16.98
Anticipated SRM: 11.1
Anticipated IBU: 68.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes



Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
75.0 6.00 lbs. Briess DME- Gold America 1.046 8
12.5 1.00 lbs. Briess DME- Amber America 1.046 13
6.3 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
6.3 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Centennial Whole 10.50 38.5 First Wort Hop
1.00 oz. Perle Whole 8.25 11.3 20 min.
1.00 oz. Centennial Whole 10.50 14.4 20 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Whole 5.75 4.7 10 min.
1.00 oz. Perle Whole 8.25 0.0 0 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Whole 5.75 0.0 Dry Hop

 

[gwood]

Hey folks,

It's time to use up some ingredients. Here goes:

6lbs Light DME
1lb Amber DME
.5lb Crystal 40L
.5lb Belgian Aromatic
.5lb Carapils

2oz Perle (60 min)
1oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz Cascade (5 min)
2oz Centennial (Dry hop)

I have not put together too many recipes (probably pretty obvious). But essentially this is what I have left to use up of the extras i've accumulated. Is this WAY too much hops for this beer? And any other suggestions for changes I could make???

Thanks alot for your help!

Too much hops? Is there such a thing?

If you are sticking to the ingredients you've listed here you could shoot for either style. If you're a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale fan you're well on your way to hitting a close clone of it if you drop the aromatic and bring down the IBUs a bit. I believe the hops are Magnum/Perle/Cascade in that order with a bit of crystal and some carapils for some added head retention etc, really quite a simple and delicious beer IMO but you wouldn't get that nice minty hint from the Perle at that early of an add (you'd just get the bitterness).

If I were to try and shoot for an IPA with these ingredients I think that I'd dump the amber DME and aromatic altogether to keep the color lighter and the backbone simple (in order to showcase the hops a bit more).

Centennial is one of my favorite hops to use for dry hopping (in fact I do a super hoppy SNPA clone that uses massive amounts of it for dry hopping). That said, I think that it might add a more interesting hop profile to an IPA if you were to move it from dry hop to a late add and move the cascade to the dry hop slot.

 

[Chriso]

FWIW I thought Sierra Nevada was just Perle and Cascade, with no Magnum. I sure could be wrong though, my bad.

My personal taste tells me to dry hop with the Centennial, because I don't like Cascade as a late addition. But that's just my weird freakin' taste buds. Gwood is probably right with idea of switching them.

Oh and I don't know two shakes about Extract, so listen to them thur guys, they's smart peoples, they are.

 

[TexLaw]

That actually sounds like a nice beer and is very similar to the very first recipe I ever designed.


TL

 

[phissionkorps]

FWIW I thought Sierra Nevada was just Perle and Cascade, with no Magnum. I sure could be wrong though, my bad.

I think it was, but it got changed a year or so ago (I could be wrong). Yeah its
0.5 magnum 60min
0.5 perle 30min
1.0 cascade 10min
2.0 cascade 0min

 

[gwood]

FWIW I thought Sierra Nevada was just Perle and Cascade, with no Magnum. I sure could be wrong though, my bad.

My personal taste tells me to dry hop with the Centennial, because I don't like Cascade as a late addition. But that's just my weird freakin' taste buds. Gwood is probably right with idea of switching them.

Oh and I don't know two shakes about Extract, so listen to them thur guys, they's smart peoples, they are.

Bittering is Yakima Magnum and Perle finishing is Cascade.

OP: In terms of the extract, if you can't do a full boil make sure to do a late addition and adjust your hops for utilization. There are several great threads here on the subject that I read through prior to moving to all grain. It was a huge improvement to my extract beers.

 

[Chriso]

Aha, my bad. I think I was remembering BM's Nierra Sevada clone recipe. Either way - They sound damn similar to me!

 

[gwood]

Aha, my bad. I think I was remembering BM's Nierra Sevada clone recipe. Either way - They sound damn similar to me!

They would be very similar. I think it's the Perle that really makes SNPA stand out for me. Cascade notes in beers are a dime a dozen but the combo of the two is just perfect...that minty citrus goodness.

 

[Kitchi Gumee]

TexLaw, which recipe are you referring to as making a nice beer? The IPA that was posted I presume?


Also to everyone else, I know I can sit on some of these hops and maybe throw together a Centennial Blonde later. But what on God's green earth do you folks do with Belgian Aromatic? I ended up with a 1/2lb due to a mistaken order.

 

[Yooper]

TexLaw, which recipe are you referring to as making a nice beer? The IPA that was posted I presume?


Also to everyone else, I know I can sit on some of these hops and maybe throw together a Centennial Blonde later. But what on God's green earth do you folks do with Belgian Aromatic? I ended up with a 1/2lb due to a mistaken order.

It's nice in 4 ounce increments to give an intensely malty taste to beers. I'm using it in some beers to bring about that maltiness. You could even use 2-4 ounces of it in your IPA to help bring it into balance. Not any more than that, though, in my opinion.