What do you think of this recipe?

[hossman777]

This will be my third batch, and I decided that rather than following another recipe, I wanted to create my recipe. I bought 4 Cascade hop rhizomes and I dig hoppy beers, so I thought I would try an all-Cascade IPA. Shooting for around 8% abv. Here's my recipe; opinions appreciated.

1lb Crystal 60L (steeped 30 min at 150*)
.5lb CaraPils (steepd 30 min at 150*)

Bring to boil, add 10lb light liquid malt extract
2oz Cascade hops at 60 min
1oz Cascade hops at 45 min
1oz Cascade hops at 30 min
1oz Cascade hops at 15 min
1 Whirlfloc tablet at 10 min
1oz Cascade hops at 5 min

Cool to 70 and pitch Safale US-05
Primary ferment 7 days, rack to carboy and add 2oz Cascade whole hops for dry hopping in secondary for another 7 days. Rack to keg.

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

 

[KevinW]

What yeast do you plan to use? You may want to make a starter with this batch (if you did not plan on it already).

I would not recommend racking at 7 days unless you do a gravity check, 2 or 3 days at a steady gravity means fermetation is complete otherwise you may wind up with an unfinished beer, add the dry hop right into the primary if you can.

You may not make the 8% if you are doing a 5 gallon batch but should be close.

Looks like a nice hoppy beer.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[hossman777]

I was planning on using Safale US-05. The guy at my LHBS said it would be adequate. I haven't made a starter before, but was thinking about it with this.

And yeah, I was planning on checking gravity to make sure primary fermentation was complete before I racked. I've been reading where a lot of guys don't bother racking to secondary at all...was considering going that route.

Dry hop into the primary? Wouldn't I lose a lot of hop aroma that way?

 

[Jayhem]

Where are your base malts?

I learned from my first Pale Ale that you really don't want more than 1 lbs of non-base malts (carapils, crystal/caramel, etc) in a 5-gal batch because it will give it too much body and sweetness when you are trying to concentrate on hop flavor and aroma with an IPA.

From all I've read most people prefer to dry hop for the last 7 days before bottling but AFTER fermentation is complete and it has reached a stable final gravity. If you wait any longer than 7-days on dry hops you can start extracting "grassy" flavors from the hops. The only reason to dry hop in a secondary is for clarity but dry hopping makes your beer cloudy anyway so it's a bit pointless to secondary an IPA unless you just like racking beer. I don't secondary because it's a contamination and oxidation risk without much benefits.

I love Cascade hops, I actually just bought 10 rhizomes myself, Cascade, Centennial, Fuggle and Galena

 

[Pezman1]

Looks pretty good to me except for the pound of crystal. This might just be personal taste, but I do not like much caramel taste in an IPA. I only like enough to "smooth out" the bitterness. 1/2 or 3/4 pound usually does it.

Anyway, this is a personal thing.

Like KevinW said, make sure to check a gravity before going to secondary and dry hopping. No reason to rush this one.

For your next beer try some liguid yeasts and use a starter.

Pez.

 

[amandabab]

with 10lbs of malt I'd use 2 packets of s-04 instead of US-05

 

[JonK331]

Yeah there's actually 1.5lbs of crystal. Carapils is a crystal malt as well. I'd probably scale back a bit, maybe .5lb C60 and .25lb carapils. Also, the 45 min and 30 min hop additions are kind of useless, not enough time to extract full bitterness but long enough to boil off all the aroma and flavor, I'd move those to the end. A one minute addition is nice for aroma.

 

[hossman777]

Excellent thoughts everyone! I'm still learning, so I appreciate the feedback. The trip to the LHBS is already done, so I'll have to use the US-05 for this batch (but am anxious to try liquid yeast next time around). Maybe I'll scale back the crystal and carapils and do 3oz for 60 min and 1 oz at 1 min. I had them staggered a bit differently, but according to the calculator, it didn't seem to get the IBU's up there enough when I had more, smaller hop doses. Anyways, I'm brewing tonight, so I'll report back when it's done. Thanks everyone!

 

[remman4]

Good luck! I would add that if you add 2/3rds of your LME late in the boil or at flameout that your beer will be much better than boiling it all for 60 min

I would do 2 oz for 60 and then add most of the hops at the 10, 5, flameout, and dry hop

Cascade is a go to for me as well

Happy brewing

 

[Jayhem]

Good luck! I would add that if you add 2/3rds of your LME late in the boil or at flameout that your beer will be much better than boiling it all for 60 min

I would do 2 oz for 60 and then add most of the hops at the 10, 5, flameout, and dry hop

Cascade is a go to for me as well

Happy brewing

Agreed! For ipas you maximize your hops by adding at 60 for bittering and the rest every 5 min for the last 20 min. A full ounce at flame out its a nice finish! I'm drinking a cascade dry hopped pale ale as I type this and the hop aroma has gone after 6 weeks in bottles! Plan to enjoy your ipa between 3&5 weeks in bottles for best hop aroma! Have fun!

 

[helibrewer]

Sierra Nevada uses 89% base malt and 11% Crystal 60L in their IPA so I think your original grain bill looks pretty good for an IPA, that should give you around 7SRM.

 

[JonK331]

Excellent thoughts everyone! I'm still learning, so I appreciate the feedback. The trip to the LHBS is already done, so I'll have to use the US-05 for this batch (but am anxious to try liquid yeast next time around). Maybe I'll scale back the crystal and carapils and do 3oz for 60 min and 1 oz at 1 min. I had them staggered a bit differently, but according to the calculator, it didn't seem to get the IBU's up there enough when I had more, smaller hop doses. Anyways, I'm brewing tonight, so I'll report back when it's done. Thanks everyone!

3 oz at 60 will give you a lot of bitterness without any flavor. The trend lately is to have lower bitterness with lots of flavor and aroma. The way to achieve this is to get around 20 IBUs from the 60 min addition and all the rest of the IBUs from later additions. 10, 5, 1, as mentioned is a great way to go. However, if you just want a beer with very strong bitterness, then upping the 60 minute quantity is the way to go.

 

[JonK331]

Sierra Nevada uses 89% base malt and 11% Crystal 60L in their IPA so I think your original grain bill looks pretty good for an IPA, that should give you around 7SRM.

All depends on how dry you want the beer to be. If you want more residual sweetness, then your original plan is great. However, since extract tends to not finish as dry and also tends to already have some crystal in it you can compensate by using slightly less as steeping grain.