"Single Hop" IPA recipe critique

[liamw]

Hey all,

Planning on doing my first AG brew this week, so my plan was to do a "hop series" of beers to get my technique down, while learning the individual hops. I plan to use the same grain bill and bittering hop (warrior, because thats what I happen to have). Would love some feedback on the following, so I know i'm at least starting out ok.

5.25gal batch (assuming efficiency of 70%)

Grain Bill:

11lb 2-row
1lb Crystal 40L
0.5lb CaraFoam

Mash @ 153 for 60 minutes, batch sparge

Hops:

1oz Warrior @60min
2oz "hops" @5min
2oz "hops" @0min

1oz "hops" dry hop for 7 days.

in the "hops" space I will be substituting whatever hops I'm using for that particular ale. Probably first I will do a galaxy, then maybe citra, then who knows.

I'm fairly comfortable with the hop additions, as I've done several extract brews to date. I'm planning to leave as many variables the same as I can, so I can focus on the individual hops. What I'm mainly looking for advice on is the grain bill. I want something simple and relatively light that wont overpower the hops, but with a light-medium body that lends a bit of mouthfeel and backbone. Any input would be fantastic (about any portion of the recipe or process, as well as any tips for a first AG brew).

 

[Dirtyoldguy366]

Sounds fine to me. Your grain bill sounds like it will give a nice backbone to just about anything you throw at it, and won't get in the way of the hops.

153 sounds a smidge high for where I like to mash on this kind of beer, but from the looks of things you've done your research. Best of luck to you.

 

[Matteo57]

I usually like mashing my IPAs around 148-150

 

[liamw]

Thanks for the feedback. I kind of arbitrarily picked that number. Perhaps I'll lower the mash temp to 150 or so. That won't leave it too dry will it?

 

[Dirtyoldguy366]

Thanks for the feedback. I kind of arbitrarily picked that number. Perhaps I'll lower the mash temp to 150 or so. That won't leave it too dry will it?

Kinda depends on the yeast and how dry you like your beers. What yeast are you going with? 150 should be fine for just about anything appropriate for the style though.

 

[liamw]

I'll be using us-05 dry yeast

 

[Matteo57]

I like my IPAs really dry so, 148 is perfect for me. That yeast will be just fine

 

[Matteo57]

Might also dry hop with a bit more. depending on how much hop flavor/aroma you want. Maybe 2oz.

 

[rlmiller10]

The crystal malt should help from getting too dry as it will add some non-fermentables it help with body. So I second a 150 mash temp.

I am in the middle of doing a similar series of single flavor hop IPA. I have done chinook (my favorite), fuggles, citra, and centennial. Next up are cascade and Amarillo. I do them in pairs, single mash but then split the wort and do separate boils and fermentation. I use magnum for the bittering additions.

I like to get my malt backbone with about 43% Maris otter in my grain bill. Just a matter of taste though. One thing I like about it instead of using crystal is that it gives the flavor but not the color. I end up with about 3 SRM and by cold crashing with gelatin addition I get a very clear and light looking beer.

Please report back your results.


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[rlmiller10]

One other thing you might want to think about is matching IBU between batches. Rather than all 2 oz flavor and aroma additions adjust that so each batch has the same calculated IBU. Leave the bitter addition the same for all. That will let you compare the hops flavor between batches without the intensity affecting that.


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[liamw]

Hey All,

The first AG brew is done and in the fermenter! Here's what went down:

Grain Bill:

11lb 2-row
1lb Crystal 40L
0.5lb CaraFoam

I mashed in at 149.5ish (next time I'll have to heat my strike water way higher than beersmith suggested). I have a 36qt Coleman Xtreme mash tun. I lost about 2 degrees over an hour mash, which probably isn't that big a deal. I had some iodine lying around, so I did a quick test, and it appears I got 100% conversion.

There was a tiny leak in my mash tun bulkhead, so I will troubleshoot that in the days to come.


Hops:

1oz Warrior @60min
2oz Galaxy @10min
2oz Galaxy @0min

I plan on adding another Oz of galaxy once primary is done as a Dry Hop (some have suggested more, but I only have an Oz on hand).

My boil off was a little higher than expected (1.5gal/hr). So I ended up getting 5 gal in the fermenter compared to the expected 5.25. My efficiency was higher than expected as well (76%), so I added a bit of water as a top up. I topped up to 5.5gal, and then measured an OG of 1.062 (i'll adjust my volumes/grain bill in the next one to avoid this).

Overall, the first AG was a success (at least I think it was. I'll really see in 3 weeks or so).

 

[liamw]

Very happy with the results of this one. Finished quite dry at 1.008 so u got a calculated abv of around 7.1%. I got a strange plastic-y flavour out of it which was very strange (not from my beer lines, cause I got it out of my hydrometer sample as well). I panicked for a bit, but I left it for a couple days in the keg and it was gone.

All in all, a success. I may lower the 2-row for the next batch just to aim for a slightly lower abv of around 6. I'll probably move the ten minute addition to 5 minutes for my next single hop (citra) just to lower the ibus a bit.