Richbrau IPA - need help

[todd_k]

I was able to get my grubby little fingers on a scaled-down version of Richbrau's IPA. It's a seasonal brew and they don't sell it in stores so I would like to give it a shot so I can have it during the off-season.

Only thing is, it appears to be set up for All Grain. Can anyone help me convert to a partial mash? Note the hops are followed by a #, do you think he actually meant for that to be ounces? Here it is:


"5 gallon batch
Starting Gravity= 1.054
Malts=
2 row 6.5 #
caramel 40L- 3.75#

Hops

90min-

amarillo- 0.06 #

45 min-

amarillo, cascade even blend- 0.05 #

0min-

amarillo, cascade, centeniall even blend- 0.07#

after primary ferm-

amarillo, cascade, centential and columbus even blend- 1.5#

fermented with european ale yeast at 68 degrees.

recipe inspired by New River Pale Ale."

 

[todd_k]

ok, i did some research on this and I concluded that I should replace the 2-row with 4.875# of LME. Is this right? Basically, just multiply the 2-row# by .75.

 

[todd_k]

Also, what AA% should I ask for when buying my hops?

Also, should I treat the # in the recipe to mean both "pounds for grain" and "ounces for hops"? It calls for 1.5# of hops for dry hopping so if I convert that to ounces, that is 24 ounces! That's a lot of hops!

 

[Brewsmith]

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The 0.06 comes out to about an ounce, the 0.05 is about 0.75 oz. and 0.07 is close to 1.25 ozs so that looks fine. But the 1.5 lbs is a little suspicious. I know Dude did an IPA where he used a ton of hops for dry hoppping and did it in three installments, but I don't think it was that much.

As for AA%, Cascades are usually 5-6%, Centennial 9-11% and Amarillo are about in the same neighborhood as Centennial, if I can remember off the top of my head. Just get them. The amounts of hops, not counting the dry hops, look fine for an IPA.

 

[Brewsmith]

The #'s for grain looks right, although thats a lot of crystal. Where'd you get the recipe?

 

[Brewsmith]

Dude's called for three 1.25 dry hop additions. For your recipe I would say 1.5 ounces total dry hop would be fine.

 

[todd_k]

I got the recipe from Mike Banks, the brewer at Richbrau. I was thinking for the dry hopping it would be 1.5 oz total, an even blend of amarillo, cascade, centennial, and columbus.

 

[Brewsmith]

That sounds right. Let us know how it comes out.

 

[davy]

where do yo buy your grains from do you mail order or do you go to the weekend brewer?

 

[todd_k]

where do yo buy your grains from do you mail order or do you go to the weekend brewer?

I go to weekend brewer. Actually, I'll be there tomorrow.

Where in Richmond are you?

 

[davy]

i just moved i am off of w broad street behind the big beer and wine store just down from parham road. are you planning to make the IPA this weeked?

 

[todd_k]

You are close! I live in an apartment complex behind TJ Maxx. I don't know if I'm making this IPA or the 1982 SNPA.

 

[Blender]

That does seem like a lot of cyrstal malt for a 5 gallon batch but I don't know the brand of beer. 4.875 pounds of LME will not give you a gravity of 1.052 though, you will need more.

 

[todd_k]

I've decided to postpone this brew pending further clarification from the Richbrau brewer. I picked up ingredients for the 1982 SNPA and Hop Whompus.

 

[todd_k]

here is the response from Richbrau:

I average the aa if there is a blend of two or more hops. # means pounds. Oops. the last hopping should be 0.1 # not 1.5 #. My bad. the other hoppings are correct. Here are the alphas for what I used. So hopping number two would be 7%aa right. 0.025 each amarillo and cascade.

Amarillo 8%aa
Cascade 6%
Centenial- 10.2%
Columbus- 14%aa

.1# sounds much better than 1.5#! I'm going to do this brew after the Hop Whompus which may not be for a while since I hopefully will be moving next month.

 

[todd_k]

Ok, I'm ready to plan this brew. Is there a way to tell if these are leaf, pellet, or plug hops? He never said in the e-mails.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Good God that's a lot of crystal! Well, it is what it is if you're getting the information from the horse's mouth. All of the breweries I've toured have used whole leaf hops (although pelletized probably aren't uncommon) so I would assume that. Plug the number in some brewing software and see if the IBU's look reasonable.

I see that it's inspired by New River Pale Ale which is a very nice APA IMO. It's pretty mildly hopped by APA standards at 37IBU or so. There is actually a lot of information on their webpage:
http://www.newriverbrewing.com/brews.html

I brewed a "clone" which I worked on in this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=3279

I never really got the hopping right, but wound up with a decent APA anyways (not what I would consider fantastic, however).

 

[todd_k]

I plugged it into ProMash (this is my first time using it and it is the trial version so I can't export it). I got an SG of 1.056. With whole hops I got 53.1 IBU's and with pellet I got 58.4 IBU's. There wasn't an option to add the Amarillo at 90 min so I added them as First Wort Hops. I also used the LME instead of the 2-row.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Well, not really a detectable difference in the hops I don't think.

Did you set the boil time to 90 minutes in your recipe? I can add hops at 90 minutes in Promash, but the boiltime has to be bumped up from the default 60 minutes. You'll probably get significantly more IBU's if you have them at 90 minutes as opposed to FWH.

 

[todd_k]

You're right, I forgot to bump up the boil time. I changed it to 90 and got 72.5 IBU's using whole hops and 79.8 using pellets. Thanks Baron!

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Well, it's definitely not New River Pale Ale-ish, but it does look like a tasty IPA (though I'm still concerned about the crystal)!

 

[todd_k]

why are you concerned? too much?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

That's my thought. I usually limit crystal to 10% or less in a pale ale/IPA. No reason not to try it, though.

 

[todd_k]

I will try it considering, like you said, it's from the horse's mouth.

 

[todd_k]

Ok, I'm ready to plan this brew. Is there a way to tell if these are leaf, pellet, or plug hops? He never said in the e-mails.

Richbrau says pellet hops!

 

[Dude]

Todd, definitely ask Richbrau again about the crystal malt. That is just plain WAY too much.

 

[todd_k]

Upon further review.....

Make the crystal about 20% of total grist so if using 6.5# of 2 row use 1.6 of crystal. Not sure why I told you 3.75#. Can you bring me a bottle after you are done so we can compare the brews.

With all the mistakes in the recipe, I'm a little worried about how it will turn out but I do think it's cool that he wants to try it when it's done.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Sounds like he was doing some quality assurance when he typed out the recipe! 20% is still alot, but certainly more reasonable than 35-40%.

 

[Dude]

Sounds like he was doing some quality assurance when he typed out the recipe! 20% is still alot, but certainly more reasonable than 35-40%.

I still think 20% is a lot too. However, I used 15% in my Old Leghumper clone and it turned out okay.

 

[todd_k]

I'm brewing this today now that I'm back from Jersey. I'm using about 1.4 lbs of the crystal with 5lbs LME and I'm throwing in 1lb Muntons unhopped DME. This keeps me just under the 20% that Richbrau recommended. I couldn't get any amarillo hops so this recipe is already far from what Richbrau said to do. Hopefully it still turns out ok!

 

[todd_k]

Update:

I'll be taking a bottle or 2 into Richbrau for the brewer to sample probably next week. I told him about my problem with the lack of Amarillo availability and he said if I make it again, he would give me some! Sweet! :rockin:

 

[todd_k]

Someone kick me in the face!!!!! I was planning on taking a bottle into Richbrau tomorrow so I put a few in the fridge. I wanted to try one and make sure it hadn't turned to complete crap. I pour it and get about a 1/2 inch of beer and the rest is head. This overcarbing crap is really pissing me off! It's been like the last 5 or 6 batches!!!
My LHBS says to use 5 oz of sugar for 5 gal of beer. They have it pre-packaged so I just dump it in the bottling bucket as I siphon and then I slowly stir. Lately, I haven't even been using the full 5 oz, I try to use 4 and it is still overcarbing. What the hell am I doing wrong?