Recipe Help! Imperial IPA Extract Brew

[11oclockBrewery]

Hey beer peoples,
I am hoping I can get some advice on the following recipe, this is about my 17th extract batch, but the first with an expected abv above 6.5%

Any comments related to the recipe would be great, thanks!

Recipe:

***Adjunct Grains: (Steep for 20-30mins)
8 ounces carapils
4 ounces C-40
4 ounces C-60
4 ounces Victory or Munich Malt

***Fermentables:
3 lb Dry Extra Light DME - add at (before) 60mins
6 lb Gold LME - add @ 40mins
1 lb corn sugar - add @ 20mins (aid in uping ABV without leaving residual sweetness)

***Hops: During boil all 1 ounce additions
60min - Simcoe
45min - Chinook
25min - Centennial
15min - Chinook
10min - Centennial
5 min - Simcoe
(Should be ~92 IBUs)
Dry Hop - 2ounces of Simcoe and 2 ounces Centennial for one week at end of secondary

***Extras:
Maltodextrin 4 ounces - add @ 10mins
1/2 Whirflock tablet - add @ 10mins

*** Yeast:
1.5-2 packets of Safale US-05
Want to ferment at low end of range, shoot for pitching around 70-75deg
and letting it come down to 60-65 (Adjust Room temp if necessary)

______________________
According to BeerSmith
Estimated O.G. = 1.081, 92 IBUs, Color 11 SRM, Estimated ABV=8.7%
Expected F.G. = 1.015


***Primary Ferment for 2 weeks
***Secondary 3-4weeks (last week dry hop with 4 ounces simcoe/centennial)
***Bottle

 

[jammin]

I'm not an extract brewer, so my knowledge is somewhat limited.

The dextrose sounds like a good idea considering that extract isn't super fermentable.

The dextrin malt (carapils) seems counter-intuitive to me though. Are you wanting more unfermentable sugars or do you want the beer to dry out a bit? Those 2 ingredients are competing with each other and neither adds flavor.

I think you should replace the c.pils with more extract and take notes on your attenuation so you know what to expect on beers of this size in the future.


Hops look good. My 2 cents is to move your 25 and 5min additions to 0 and conduct a 20-30min hop stand.


Good luck!

 

[Yooper]

Definitely don't use the maltodextrine- it's a thickener and this beer should be thick enough. You may want to consider even reducing the body, and not adding more to it. However, you can always add maltodextrine at bottling if you want to so I would wait and see how the beer comes out first.

I'd add the vast majority of the extract at flame out. Your LME can go in when you turn the heat off. That will make the boil less thick as well, and keep it from darkening. You can add the sugar then, too. Adding it during the boil will stop your boil and sort of screw up the hops additions, so I'd add it at flame out.

I like the grains you have!

What is your boil size? That makes a difference in hops utilization as well as how much room in your pot for the extract later.

For hopping, I'd change it up a bit and use less bittering hops and more flavor/aroma hops, like this:

.75 ounce- 1 ounce bittering hops @ 60min (to get IBUs of 30ish from this one addition
1 ounce hops 15 minutes
1 ounce hops 10 minutes
1 ounce hops 5 minutes
2 ounce hops flame out
Dryhop with 2 ounces

 

[11oclockBrewery]

thanks for the input so far,

3 gallon boil
then up to 5 gallon with water

 

[jammin]

Wow I didn't even see that malto - yeah scratch that

 

[11oclockBrewery]

Ok the malto is out.
I thought LME needs to boil for at least 20 mins? No?

 

[Yooper]

Ok the malto is out.
I thought LME needs to boil for at least 20 mins? No?

No.

If you're paranoid that it need to pasteurized though, consider that I pasteurize raw milk at 160 for 30 seconds, chill it quickly, and then give it to children to drink!

If you add LME to boiling wort, it's way over 140 degrees (pasteurization temperature also, only at a longer time). Boiling it at all is unnecessary, but certainly an ok thing to do as a precaution, but it's definitely not necessary to boil it for at least 20 minutes!

 

[11oclockBrewery]

Can anyone comment on the use of adjunct grains for an Imperial IPA?
Ive seen several recipes with little or no adjunct grains, presumably because they can get the body/flavor from the malt extract alone and want the final product to be dryer?

I'm thinking of using some in my recipe (see above) to provide some backbone and flavor to the recipe, i.e. not trying to just make hop juice

what do you guys think/suggest?