What do you think of my Imperial IPA recipe?

[Hwk-I-St8]

Original Gravity:1.075
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV (standard):7.45%
IBU (tinseth): 60.64
SRM (morey): 4.71


6 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37.5%
8 lb United Kingdom - Pilsen 50%
1 lb Flaked Wheat 6.3%
0.75 lb American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) 4.7%
4 oz German - Acidulated Malt 1.6%

0.5 oz Columbus Pellet 15 First Wort 27.19
1 oz Columbus Pellet 15 Boil 10 min 17.93
4 oz Galaxy Pellet 14.25 Whirlpool at °F 30 min 15.52
4 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Dry Hop 6 days
4 oz Mosaic Pellet 12.5 Dry Hop 3 days

Mash @148 for 60 mins
Boil 60 mins

London Ale III @ 68 degrees

I haven't finalized the water, but I'll target my usual IPA profile built from RO water:

Ca Mg Na Cl SO4
96 12 28 135 67

Target a mash pH of around 5.3, so I may adjust the acid malt once I plug this into Brun' water.

 

[couchsending]

I’d add some sugar to dry it out. Once it gets above 1.016 I think hoppy beers become too hard to drink. You might need to lengthen the mash rest for a little longer than 60 as well.

Don’t waste the Galaxy in the whirlpool. Your return on investment is much much greater in the dry hop. Just use Columbus and some Mosaic in the whirlpool and save the Galaxy for the Dry Hop.

I’d base your dry hop not on the day but on the gravity. If you want to dry hop during fermentation wait until you’re 1 Plato from terminal.

 

[BrewMan13]

Assuming this is 5 gallons or so, that's more dry hops than will be utilized. A study came out recently and the saturation point was 1.1oz/gallon, after that it's diminishing returns, or potentially getting undesirable flavors. Link: https://patspints.com/2019/01/16/th...6ceSVJLBC_MbT4U9OHMBdJGT2JP6q5h4RD__VxDgQFdKg

 

[Pappers_]

The 1.019 is just a predicted FG, with this recipe, I think it would probably come in lower than that.

Three questions on the recipe:

1. What is your thinking on using 50% Pilsner malt?
2. You are relying a lot on whirlpool hops for flavor - which is the new thing - but have you considered adding more flavor hops in the boil?
3. What is your thinking on using an English yeast in an American style?

I think it looks like an interesting recipe and look forward to hearing how it turns out. Cheers!

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

The 1.019 is just a predicted FG, with this recipe, I think it would probably come in lower than that.

Three questions on the recipe:

1. What is your thinking on using 50% Pilsner malt?
2. You are relying a lot on whirlpool hops for flavor - which is the new thing - but have you considered adding more flavor hops in the boil?
3. What is your thinking on using an English yeast in an American style?

I think it looks like an interesting recipe and look forward to hearing how it turns out. Cheers!

1. Mainly because I have a bunch of it, so I thought I'd see what it does to the beer. My usual for IPAs is about half and half Pale malt and golden promise for base malts. I'm throwing the pilsen in because I have most of a 55 lb sack that's not getting used and I have no golden promise. Do you have concerns?
2. I've had really good luck using large amounts in the WP to really increase the flavor to bitterness ratio. This is supposed to be a big, juicy full-flavored IPA.
3. I've done pretty much all my IPAs with London Ale III. I ferment in the upper 60's and I like what it brings to the table. I was thinking about trying Ringwood for its reported fruitiness, but after reading more about it, it sounds like it can be pretty finicky and requires some babysitting. 1318 has been so good for me that I don't want to mess with success.

I'm brewing this at the request of a friend who loves my juicy IPAs. I've been brewing mostly other styles recently to expand my experience, and he requested I go back to one of my juicy IPAs. I've never done one quite this big. I usually target about 1.060-1.065 OG and the 1318 usually attenuates down to about 1.009-1.012 with those. I'm expecting this to finish more in the 1.016 range.

Assuming this is 5 gallons or so, that's more dry hops than will be utilized. A study came out recently and the saturation point was 1.1oz/gallon, after that it's diminishing returns, or potentially getting undesirable flavors. Link: https://patspints.com/2019/01/16/th...6ceSVJLBC_MbT4U9OHMBdJGT2JP6q5h4RD__VxDgQFdKg

Good point. I read that article and saved it to my google drive. I'll re-read and consider changing the dry hop rates. Thanks.

I’d add some sugar to dry it out. Once it gets above 1.016 I think hoppy beers become too hard to drink. You might need to lengthen the mash rest for a little longer than 60 as well.

Don’t waste the Galaxy in the whirlpool. Your return on investment is much much greater in the dry hop. Just use Columbus and some Mosaic in the whirlpool and save the Galaxy for the Dry Hop.

I’d base your dry hop not on the day but on the gravity. If you want to dry hop during fermentation wait until you’re 1 Plato from terminal.

Regarding FG...I had the same concern. Interestingly, targeting the same OG, I had already played with adding a pound of sugar and dropping the base malts, but it didn't change the predicted FG much (1.017 IIRC), so I switched it back. It's really my biggest concern with the recipe. I've done one brut IPA and have more enzymes left. For my brut I mashed at 148 for an hour, then stirred to drop the temp to 145 and added the enzymes for 45 mins then boiled. I've thought about a modified version of that plan as well. As noted above, I do think it'll finish lower than the current prediction...most of my beers do.

For WP vs DH, any reason you prefer the Galaxy in the DH vs Mosaic? I've pretty much always just split all hops in each step of the process but I've been reading about using hop combos differently...one hop in the boil/WP and a different in the DH. I did that with my brut (El Dorado in the WP and citra in the DH) and the results were fantastic. When choosing which to use where on this, I just basically flipped a coin. The choice of Mosaic and Galaxy came at the request of my friend. I threw in the columbus for a little earthiness of offset the fruit forward aspects of the other two. I'd love to hear more about your reasoning on this....

 

[Pappers_]

That all makes sense to me. Let us know how it works out!

 

[couchsending]

Regarding FG...I had the same concern. Interestingly, targeting the same OG, I had already played with adding a pound of sugar and dropping the base malts, but it didn't change the predicted FG much (1.017 IIRC), so I switched it back. It's really my biggest concern with the recipe. I've done one brut IPA and have more enzymes left. For my brut I mashed at 148 for an hour, then stirred to drop the temp to 145 and added the enzymes for 45 mins then boiled. I've thought about a modified version of that plan as well. As noted above, I do think it'll finish lower than the current prediction...most of my beers do.

For WP vs DH, any reason you prefer the Galaxy in the DH vs Mosaic? I've pretty much always just split all hops in each step of the process but I've been reading about using hop combos differently...one hop in the boil/WP and a different in the DH. I did that with my brut (El Dorado in the WP and citra in the DH) and the results were fantastic. When choosing which to use where on this, I just basically flipped a coin. The choice of Mosaic and Galaxy came at the request of my friend. I threw in the columbus for a little earthiness of offset the fruit forward aspects of the other two. I'd love to hear more about your reasoning on this....

I can never seem to get 1318 to really attenuate. Not sure why. Friends with a professional who’s won lots of GABF medals for all his beers but especially his hoppy stuff. He’s used 1318 since the mid 90s so knows it inside and out. He mashes at 149 and adds sugar to get his attenuation up for bigger beers. Yeast will always be a few generations in as well. Personally I’d add some sugar to help dry it out.

I keep reading and hearing the best hoppy beer brewers are slowly taking hops out of the whirlpool and adding them to the dry hop. If you are meticulous about keeping o2 at bay you will get waaaaaay more impact with those hops when adding them in the DH. So much of the aromatics are either getting blown off during fermentation or dragged down by yeast when they flocc. Everyone loves (or at least used to) Trillium’s Street series beers. They only use Columbus hotside in those beers and the feature hop only in the DH. JC said they tested it and found no reason to add something like Citra or Galaxy or whatever on the hotside. I’m sure part of that was cost related when they were a smaller brewery but still. Galaxy is incredibly potent. You want max effect, add it all in the dry hop.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I can never seem to get 1318 to really attenuate. Not sure why. Friends with a professional who’s won lots of GABF medals for all his beers but especially his hoppy stuff. He’s used 1318 since the mid 90s so knows it inside and out. He mashes at 149 and adds sugar to get his attenuation up for bigger beers. Yeast will always be a few generations in as well. Personally I’d add some sugar to help dry it out.

I keep reading and hearing the best hoppy beer brewers are slowly taking hops out of the whirlpool and adding them to the dry hop. If you are meticulous about keeping o2 at bay you will get waaaaaay more impact with those hops when adding them in the DH. So much of the aromatics are either getting blown off during fermentation or dragged down by yeast when they flocc. Everyone loves (or at least used to) Trillium’s Street series beers. They only use Columbus hotside in those beers and the feature hop only in the DH. JC said they tested it and found no reason to add something like Citra or Galaxy or whatever on the hotside. I’m sure part of that was cost related when they were a smaller brewery but still. Galaxy is incredibly potent. You want max effect, add it all in the dry hop.

Thanks. I think I'll take your advice on that. Much appreciated. BTW - one of the reasons I use columbus so much in my NEIPAs is because of the street series. That and beers like Doppleganger from Treehouse are some of my favorites of that style.