Should I dry hop?

[Zak]

In the next week or two I'll be starting my 4th batch. It's going to be an IPA specialty grain/extract batch. The recipe doesn't call for dry hopping in secondary. I do like hoppy beers. Should I dry hop this?

Grain:
3/4lbs American 2 Row
3/4lbs US Pale Malt
1/4lbs Crystal 10L
1/4lbs Munich Malt
1/2lbs White Wheat
1/2lbs Carapils

Extract
6.6lbs Pale Malt LME

Hops
2oz Centennial 60
1oz Warrior 30
1oz Magnum 10

any suggestions of what to do and if I should dry hop in a secondary. If it matters all my hop additions so far are pellet.

 

[JLem]

I would definitely dry-hop any IPA. However, I'm surprised at your hops selection/schedule for this - honestly does not look very IPA-like to me. I've never seen Warrior nor Magnum used for anything but bittering. Centennial is more for flavor/aroma, but this recipe uses it for bittering. Personally, I would use the Magnum or Warrior at 60 min, and then use Centennial later in the boil. I'd also increase the hop additions - maybe cut out the 30 minute and then add flavor/aroma hops at 20, 10, 5, and flame-out (or something like that). Plus dry-hop.

I'd also recommend dry-hopping right in the primary instead of secondary. But there's plenty of debate on that subject.

 

[chickypad]

JLem gives sound advice.
One thing - are you planning a partial mash? Looks like everything except the cyrstal needs to be mashed. Bit of an odd grain bill, seems unnecessarily complicated with pretty small amounts of each. Makes more sense to me to pick one American 2-row or pale malt, pick either wheat or carapils (for head retention), and then either a little crystal or munich.

 

[JLem]

JLem gives sound advice.
One thing - are you planning a partial mash? Looks like everything except the cyrstal needs to be mashed. Bit of an odd grain bill, seems unnecessarily complicated with pretty small amounts of each. Makes more sense to me to pick one American 2-row or pale malt, pick either wheat or carapils (for head retention), and then either a little crystal or munich.

Good catch on the need to mash most of those grains. Definitely not an extract + steeping grains recipe. Looks like a partial mash recipe. I think the grain bill is fine, though I agree that you don't need both carapils and wheat. And I don't know if there is a reason to use two different kinds of pale 2-rwo malt (unless it's an inventory thing)

 

[Zak]

The recipe is supposed to be a Stone IPA clone, I did end up dry hopping it, and after opening the first bottle tonight I can say it failed as a Stone IPA clone but did not fail as an IPA. It was my first batch that at least hit the category of what I was going for. Definitely my best batch to date.