Rough Draft Recipe Attempt....please critique!

[brentt03]

Flame or give a thumbs up! lol

Here is my first rough draft attempt at an IPA recipe. My goal is to create a recipe that taste unique, one with dry, crisp, citrusy aromas, nice flavor and great body.....

Grains
8lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
2lbs Vienna Malt
1lbs Rye Malt
.5lbs Cara-Pils
.5lbs Crystal Malt (40L)

Hops
.5oz Simcoe (60 min)
.5oz Simcoe (45 min)
.5oz Cascade (30 min)
.5oz Centennial (15 min)
1.0oz Centennial (Dry Hop)

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

FG Estimate 1.016
Estimated Color 7.1
Bitterness (IBU's) 56

From the looks when plugging in these numbers, the end results look to be in the guidelines of the IPA...my concern here is the hop combination. I want aroma, and citrus with some bitterness. I'm wondering if the addition of Centennial if it will take away from the Simcoe

 

[KevinW]

Probably won't taste much of the Simcoe due to the length in boil. I personally, would do some late additions of cascade(at least 1oz at flameout) since you are at the bitterness you want.

Coupled with the dry hop you should get a good rounding of hops character, but as usual it is just my opion!

Good luck!

 

[kanzimonson]

Yeah I'm not a huge fan of 45min additions, or even 30 for that matter. I feel their flavor/aroma contributions are really low, but they don't have the bittering of a 60min. Shift them up or down to get better usage of your hops.

I typically add most of my late hops in the 20 min or less mark. IMO an IPA should have at least 1oz at 0min and 1oz at 10min... usually more than that, and also a third addition could be nice at 15 or 20.

Grain bill looks good, and I love that yeast.

 

[brentt03]

Awesome! Thanks for the input!!

Keep em' coming!

 

[PorterIdontknowher]

I agree with the other posters... I'd move to .75 at 60 and move the other 1/4 oz of Simcoe to 20 min to get some of the piney flavor into it... It won't change the total IBU contributions all that much

 

[reddskinnfan]

Yeah I'm not a huge fan of 45min additions, or even 30 for that matter. I feel their flavor/aroma contributions are really low, but they don't have the bittering of a 60min. Shift them up or down to get better usage of your hops.

I typically add most of my late hops in the 20 min or less mark. IMO an IPA should have at least 1oz at 0min and 1oz at 10min... usually more than that, and also a third addition could be nice at 15 or 20.

Grain bill looks good, and I love that yeast.

+1.060!!!

I would move the .5 oz Simcoe addition that you have at 45 min and add it to your 60 min addition. Then do a Cascade/Centennial mixture at 20, 10, and 0 min. Probably want at least 1 oz at each addition.

 

[brentt03]

I like the idea of adding some Simcoe (.25oz) at 20min in order to get some of the piney flavor in there.....by adding Cascade/Centennial and Simcoe all at 20min will one over power the other???

New hops bill looks like this:

Hops

.75oz Simcoe (60min)
.25oz Simcoe (20min)
.50oz Cascade / .50oz Centennial (20min)
.50oz Cascade / .50oz Centennial (10min)
.50oz Cascade / .50oz Centennial (0min)
1.0oz Centennial (Dry Hop 7 Days)

Bitterness is now at 63.1

How crazy would it be to dry hop with .5oz Simcoe / .5oz. Centennial????

 

[PorterIdontknowher]

How crazy would it be to dry hop with .5oz Simcoe / .5oz. Centennial????

Not at all crazy... I'd say about right... there are those that would say it is far too little for an IPA

 

[brentt03]

Not at all crazy... I'd say about right... there are those that would say it is far too little for an IPA

I'll go wild and bump them up to .75 oz

 

[brentt03]

Got a quick question on this dry hop.....instead of a 5gal batch I brewed a 3.5gal batch and beersmith scaled everything down for me, so my original dry hop of .75oz simcoe/cetennial went down to .50oz.....so question is, although it is a smaller batch should I keep the dry hop amounts at .75oz???

 

[lokiesque]

I brew half-batches (2.5 gal) because I can do all grain on the stove with my size kettle. I've been known to throw in 2 oz dry hops in a 2.5 gal batch. I dumped in an ounce each of simcoe and nugget. No ill effects. If you want big hop aroma, that'll do it.

 

[brentt03]

I brew half-batches (2.5 gal) because I can do all grain on the stove with my size kettle. I've been known to throw in 2 oz dry hops in a 2.5 gal batch. I dumped in an ounce each of simcoe and nugget. No ill effects. If you want big hop aroma, that'll do it.

I am currently at .50oz and I am just not convinced that that will be enough.

If you have had good results, I will up this to 1oz. a piece.

 

[kanzimonson]

You can do whatever you want, but just as a check against yourself I ask you this: why do you think you need more dry hops just because the batch is smaller?

 

[brentt03]

You can do whatever you want, but just as a check against yourself I ask you this: why do you think you need more dry hops just because the batch is smaller?

I don't necessarily think I need more dry hops because the batch is smaller. Beersmith calculated a scaled ratio of .50oz, I am fine with using this, just didn't know if it would hurt to up to the original .75oz.....maybe its best to stick with the scaled ratio, just trying to gather some opinions

 

[kanzimonson]

Well, 1-2oz is pretty typical for 5gal of dry hopping. It's not like you're going to ruin the beer by going more, but if you're using this as a learning experience I'd recommend a normal amount.

 

[lokiesque]

You needn't up it to a whole ounce each, I was just saying I have dry hopped with more than you were planning with no ill effects. Basically I was saying you'd be fine with .75 (or even .5) each. As others have said, it's an experiment. So try what you feel comfortable with (you're not gonna ruin it with .5 or .75 each). In my first few IPAs, I only dry hopped with an ounce total in 5 gal. I discovered I like more, a lot more. I like a really robust aroma. It should be appropriate to the beer, but in this case it's just a matter of degrees. So, it's up to you and your palate