Does this recipe seem fitting for an American IPA?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by The_Pumpkin_God, Jan 28, 2015.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Hello there,

    I always catch myself reading these lovely, insightful forums; so I figured that it's about time for me to join the party! I am a beginning extract brewer (just bottled my first batch: British Honey Nut Hop Ale). I am now wanting to brew up an American style IPA. I have a recipe in the works, but I wanted to get some input from you folks, prior to making any decisions! Like I said, I'm still new at this so if any of you have any suggestions on anything, including my steps or whatever, please don't hesitate to let me know! No offence will be taken if you call me names!

    This is what I had in mind:

    5 Gallon Batch (Boiling 2.5 Gallons of Water and Adding the Other 2.5 Later)
    Any recommendations on water type? I read that with IPAs this becomes more important.

    Mash at 152 Degrees
    For how long?

    7 lbs- Golden, Light, or Extra Light DME (Haven't decided yet. I have no knowledge of the differences)
    1 lbs- Vienna steeping grains

    Begin boil
    What boiling temperatures should I stay between?

    (All Pellet Hops)
    60 Min: Magnum Hops- 1.0 oz
    15 Min: Citra Hops- 0.5 oz
    10 Min: Citra Hops- 0.5 oz
    5 Min: Citra Hops- 1.0 oz
    Flameout: Citra Hops- 2.0 oz & 8 oz of Honey (I read this could be good for drying out the beer)?

    Cool Down to Room Temp
    Add the other 2.5 gallons of water to primary
    Add wart to primary
    Add yeast: White labs California Yeast
    Stir
    Add cap and airlock w/ sanitizer
    Store in a dark place
    Ferment at 70 degrees and keep in primary for 21 days (I don't want to secondary).
    Dry Hopping on Day 7: Citra Hops- 2 oz
    Add 4.5 oz of Dextrose to 1 cup of water and boil for 2 minutes
    Add to bottling bucket
    Siphon beer to bottling bucket
    Bottle
     
  2. PapaGoose03

    PapaGoose03 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,057) May 30, 2005 Michigan
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah

    I don't create recipes or else I'd comment. However, this thread will be moving to the Homebrewing forum where you will get some responses.
     
  3. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Great! Thanks!
     
  4. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Sorry, I meant Dry hopping on Day 14! Leaving the pellets in for 7 days.
     
  5. barnzy78

    barnzy78 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,601) Jun 2, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    Yes, this should be moved over to the home brewing forum. Are you using any sort of website to create your recipe in order to calculate your OG, FG, IBU, ABV, etc? beersmith.com and brewtoad.com come to mind. I use the latter. If the only grain being used is the Vienna malt, you don't need to bother mashing. Just steep the milled grain for ~20-30minutes at ~155ยบ. A steady rolling boil is fine; you just need to watch it intently to prevent a messy boil over. As far as your DME goes, there's not going to be a stark difference in the ones you mentioned. The darker the color, the more caramel flavor may be rendered, albiet those are all pretty light, so it's probably going to be minimal difference between them, especially in a hop-forward IPA (in my opinion). It may just depend on what you are looking for in a malt backbone. I hope I was of some help. Good luck!
     
  6. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Thanks! That was most certainly helpful! What is the difference between steeping and mashing?
     
  7. JrGtr

    JrGtr Pooh-Bah (1,775) Apr 13, 2006 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Like he said, this would be best in the homebrewing forum.
    However, to answer the questions:
    You don't need to mash your extract. You want to add that once you're at a boil - personally I add about half at the beginning and the rest about 15 minutes to go. I would use light or extra light for an IPA, probably light. It gives a touch more color and flavor than the extra, but the golden would add too much of each for this style
    Vienna malt isn't generally a steeping malt - it's more ususally used as a base grain. If you do want to mash, you'll need a good amount of time for it to do it's thing, probably close to an hour.
    For the boil - boiling is at 212 degrees F (100 C.) You'll be boiling or not.
    Your hop schedule looks pretty good, though I personally would move the 15 minute addition and add it to the 10. Minor differences, I know. I would also add the honey at the same time as the second extract addition. For that matter, I actually wouldn;t use honey itself, I would use plain old table sugar. It'll get the same effect, for more cost effectiveness.
    I would also target a slightly lower fermentation temp, probably around 65 or so. The fermenting wort will be several degrees warmer than ambient - some say 5 - 10 degrees. With that yeast, much over 70 will give a few fruity esters that you probably don't really want.
    Also, speaking of yeast, with that type, I would recommend doing a starter a few days ahead of time - my procedure is to boil a cup of DME with a quart of water for 15 minutes, cool, then add to a sanitized container (I use a growler, with a drilled cap with airlock.) Pitch the yeast in, and keep at room temp, in a dark place for a couple days (some will do it for maybe 12 hours, and pitch at high krausen [foam] and others several days, then cold crash, decant the spent wort and pitch the resulting cake [search for those])
    Besides that, I like the fermentation sched of 21 days - I would recommend checking gravity at day 18 or 19, then again at 21 before bottling, to make sure you're done (if the gravity changes between those 2 checks, it's not done)
     
    inchrisin likes this.
  8. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah


    Steeping is like making tea or coffee. You are leaching out flavors into water. This is done with highly kilned grains or grains that have had starch conversion through a stewing process IE anything that has the name Crystal in it.

    Mashing is a conversion of starches to sugars. This is important because yeast can't eat starches like they can eat simple sugars. The process of steeping and mashing are very similar. They can both be carried out at the same temperature. Steeping generally takes 20 minutes, whereas mashing takes roughly an hour. There are a bunch of resting temperatures that can be carried out in mashing. We'll skip that for now.

    If I can dumb it down, grains that need to be mashed and converted aren't ready to eat, in the same way that steel cut oats aren't ready to be eaten as oatmeal. They need to be softened up for a while before you can expect anything out of them. Steeping grains, or specialty grains, are like instant oats. Just chase them past water and they're good to go.

    When in doubt about an ingredient needing converted, consult the good book or start a thread on BA:

    http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-1.html
     
    #8 inchrisin, Jan 28, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2015
    PapaGoose03 and InVinoVeritas like this.
  9. DrMindbender

    DrMindbender Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2014 South Carolina

    I've made a good single hop IPA with 6 lbs light DME and 2lbs of Vienna (30 or 60 minute steep will get the wanted flavor...you're really not trying to up the abv with the Vienna addition, just allow it to flavor the wort/beer. The Vienna gave it a nice malty flavor with a slight nutty addition. Everyone I shared it with liked the malt backbone. I used Galaxy, which has some similar qualities to Citra, but the citrus was complementory to the malt. Leave the honey out, as others have said, it's really unnecessary unless you're shooting for higher abv and then I'd just add 1/2 lb corn or table sugar to take the sweet edge off. Hop schedule looks good, but I'd leave the flameout hops in for 15 minutes before chilling wort. Just wait for the krausen to crash after active fermentation and the beer to clear, who cares about 21 days (most of my IPAs are finished in 14 days), and then add the dry hops and keg/bottle 4-7 days later. Sometimes things don't work out according to a preset schedule.
     
  10. FATC1TY

    FATC1TY Pooh-Bah (2,564) Feb 12, 2012 Georgia
    Pooh-Bah

    Not enough hops for an America IPA, but close.

    Up the later additions a bit, and I think you are close.

    Use extra light DME.

    Honey isn't needed, unless you have some to waste. Use some corn sugar to help dry it out a bit.
     
  11. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Thanks for the responses! When would the appropriate time be to add the 8 oz of corn sugar? Is this the same as dextrose (what I use for carbonating)? I thought that it was vital for me to cool the wort down as quickly as possible after boiling, but you suggest that I should wait 15 minutes if I add hop pellets at flameout?
     
  12. DrMindbender

    DrMindbender Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2014 South Carolina

    You should add the sugar somewhere towards the end of the boil...maybe 5 to go or even at flameout. What you are doing by resting the wort with the flameout addition is called a Hopstand. The concern with cooling as quickly as possible is to avoid contamination by other bugs when the temp drops below heat sterilization (somewhere between 180-140 degrees is when things are no longer being sterilized by the heat itself). If you leave the hops in the kettle, covered with a lid, for 15 minutes, the temp will not drop below 180 and so infection is not an issue. The hopstand allows for more flavor and aroma to come out of the hops. The longer you boil at high temps, the more bitterness the hops provide (not really flavor or aroma), the shorter and cooler you add them, the more flavor and aroma is added to the beer. If you want and English IPA, which doesnt have as much hops flavor and aroma as an American IPA, you could skip this step...but if you're looking for a full, well rounded American IPA, I'd add a hopstand to get the most flavor and aroma out of your Citra (which works great in hopstands because of the nature of those hops).
     
  13. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Dextrose = Glucose = Corn Sugar
     
  14. The_Pumpkin_God

    The_Pumpkin_God Initiate (0) Jan 28, 2015

    Splendid! Thank you all for your help!
     
    DrMindbender likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.