critique my west coast ipa

Of course it depends on your goals, but I don't see anything wrong with your recipe.

Question: Why the first dry hop after two weeks in primary, then the second in secondary? Is your goal to get some yeast/hops interaction fermentation character from the first dry hop? If so, you probably want to do that addition before attentuation is finished, which will likely be long before 2 weeks. Or if you just want to do traditional dry hopping, but in two stages, why not do both in primary or both in secondary? Otherwise, I'm not seeing a reason to do one each way.

 

I'd say that for "west coast" it's going to need to be drier. 3/4 pounds of crystal malts won't help get you there.

 

If your FWH is your bittering charge I would make it a full oz.

 

If you're simply going for color adjustment, I'd suggest either use a small amount of a roasted malt, or swap the .5# of C40 for .25# of C120 and .25# of a simple sugar.

 

I'd drop the carapils and change the C40 to C20. Why do you care about the color?

 

I don't know about bright orange. But for orange-ish, consider Munich.

 

Sub some wheat for the crystal.

 

I agree with vikeman. I think that most IPAs need a toasted grain.

 

Nothing wrong with this recipe. If you're looking for potential tweaks...

I personally would not use FWH in an IPA. I think that's a technique for beers when you want an understated bittering hop quality, and generally that's not what I want in IPAs. I would probably switch that to a standard 60-minute boil bittering addition using a magnum or ctz, and get the IBUs up to about 70-75.

I would probably add some cane sugar.

Either of those yeasts will work fine, although 001 is probably more the classic west coast choice.

I wouldn't bother with gelatin.

I agree with those who are saying you might adjust your dry hopping schedule: first dry hops at the tail end of fermentation, second batch in the same carboy (I don't see any real benefit from racking to secondary) a few days later.

 

In my favorite West Coast IPAs I like to use 1 lb C-40 and .5 lb Munich or something near those numbers. It gives it a nice rounded flavor, a big head when poured and a slight orange tint to color. I do double dry hops exactly as you describe as well and don't have any complaints. My general hop schedule is 1 oz bittering (Nugget many times), then 1 oz each of 2 different flavor hops at 7 minutes and another in a hopstand at flameout...I then only do a single dry hop with 1 oz each of 2 different aroma hops. Depending on hop choices, this usually turns out very citusy, fresh and juicy flavored with a wonderful in your face nose. This recipe is based off of a Fresh Squeezed clone and uses Citra and Mosaic for all but bittering addition...awesome brew that has become our regular house IPA!

 

I would not use gelatin. Heck I wouldn't even cold crash for an ipa. My opinion is I want that haze. I feel like those great hop characteris tics hang in the beer (ala hill farmstead ipas) . Keep it raw and hazy, unless u are entering a competition or something.

 

If you want clearer beer, I've had great success with Irish Moss...I put it in all my beers and they come out wonderfully clear after cold crash. One bottle lasts around 20 batches and is pretty cheap.

 

Looks good to me, but as per vikeman's post, I think you are over implicating the dry hop. I do not think the crystal is overdone here.

 

Over complicating. Stupid auto correct.