Anything seem wrong with this IPA extract recipe?

One thing that is particularly important to extract IPAs is that hop utilization allegedly declines in a concentrated boil, so your recipe is probably best if you do a full boil.

The other thing is that this is a lot of crystal/cara malt for 5 gallon batch, which I'm guess is about the size of this. I would probably eliminate all at least 1.75 lbs of that. I'm sure others will differ in opinion on exactly how much or which to eliminate, specifically, but I think most will agree that 2.75 lbs is a lot for a 5 gallon IPA.

 

Concentrated boil would be something like boiling 2.5 gallons of liquid, cooling it, and diluting it with 2.5 gallons of water to a 5 gallon batch. Full boil would be something like (1) steeping your grains in 2-3 gallons of 150-160 degree water, (2) adding your extract along with about 3 gallons of water to bring the volume of to 6 gallons or so, (3) boiling for 60 minutes and topping off the final volume as necessary to get back to 5 gallons. See howtobrew.com for details, as it has been a while since I brewed an extract batch.

I would probably use only the crystal 10 or a combination of crystal 10 and carapils. But I don't think there is anything wrong with the caramunich, either. You could try to keep all three but just lower the total amount, or you could use just one type. You'd make different beers, depending on what you did, but none would be bad, IMO.

I'm sure others will chime in on with their opinion -- who can resist a thread on IPA recipes? Perhaps others will have better or different advice. I'm not the biggest hophead in this forum.

 

Whoa! That's a lot of crystal!!! Unless you want a IPA to taste like candy that's too much. Best extract IPAs I've brewed had very little steeping grains. You don't need to replace the crystal with anything. The dme will provide the color, flavor and fermentable sugar needed. I would do 4ozs at most, if not zero. When using DME the beers always seem to come out darker than you would expect and adding crystal will only darken it and make it sweeter. If you want to keep other steeping go for it, but a lb of carapils also sounds high. Maybe just like 8 ozs. Been awhile since I did steeping grains so I could be wrong but yeah 1 lb sounds like a lot. Why do you need 1.75 lbs of steeping grains?

3.5 ozs at first wort and 60 min? That shit will peel the enamel off your teeth. How do you do first wort when doing extract? Wouldn't that just be 60 min? Did you plug that recipe into a calculator to determine the Ibus? I wouldn't go above 1 oz. I prefer keeping my 60 minutes hops around .5 ozs and add most of my hops at 10 min to flameout so I get more flavor and aroma.

Lastly, that's a complicated hop schedule. Like to do a 10 min hop addition and then the rest at flameout. I would do 3 at the most and keep them at either 15, 10, 5 and flameout. Pick all or just two.

Lastly, use the mr. Malty yeast calculator because 1 packet of dry yeast might not cut for a 6%+ beer. You might need two

Actually, last thing is why age the beer in a bottle for 30 days? I would do two weeks and let it sit in the fridge for a few days. 30 days at room temp will kill all the hop aroma and flavor you worked on and spent money on.

 

I did not look carefully at the hopping, but assumed some calculator was being used to estimate bitterness. I wasn't sure whether the calculator accounted for hop utilization in a concentrated wort or if it was a full boil.

In my brewing, if I am trying to do something like first wort hopping, I just add to the ketlle as I am heating to a boil. That's what I would do if it were an extract batch. I don't think there is anything extra magically differnt about exposing the hops to the first runnings, then bring to a boil. FWH is so sketchy to begin with, I'd be surprised if there is a difference here.

 

As others have said, cut down on the crystal (I recently did a 3 gallon extract IPA that had something like half a pound of C20, I'll have to check my notes later) and do a full boil if you can. Also, don't add all the extract at once. I generally add about a third at the beginning of the boil and then 2/3 right about 15 minutes. This will help with the color, prevent the extract from becoming caramelized and will help with your hop utilization.

 

As others have stated, cut back on the amount of crystal malt.

The hopping schedule is very complicated, needlessly so IMO. @GetMeAnIPA has some good thoughts on simplifying the hop schedule.

Nix the ".32oz PH 5.2 Stabilizer". It is not needed for steeping crystal malt. Also, crystal malt only needs to be steeped for about 30 minutes. A further comment on 5.2 Stabilizer, it does not work for mashing either, it is an unneeded product.

Cheers!

 

Ditch the 5.2, you don't need it for extract brewing and it doesn't work for all grain brewing.

Way too much caramel malts, drop the carapils and caravienne completely, reduce the C10 to at most 1 pound, but closer to 1/2 pound would probably be better.

Ditch the FWH and shift the Amarillo to late in the boil, don't bother with the Hallertau or Magnum. So, 1oz Warrior at 60 and everything else 20 mins or less. That is a shit ton of dryhops.

 

"1 pkg - American Ale / Wyeast Labs #1056"

I am assuming that you intend to make a starter since this is a high gravity beer (1.067). What size starter will you be making?

Cheers!

 

Personally I would add at least another ounce of hops either at the end of the boil or with 5 minutes left. I think you'll be disappointed in the level of juiciness if you do not add more near the end of the boil.

If the water you will be using has chlorine or chloramine in it (and most tap water does), then yes the campden tablets are necessary. You can skip them if you will be using distilled/RO/bottled spring water. Charcoal filtering is another option, but campden is safer

It will probably be a little on the "small" size for an IPA now that the crystal malts have been removed. Feel free to add another lb or two of DME to compensate if you're looking for something in the 6.8% abv range

 

My hop schedule suggestion-

nothing at 60
2oz Centennial at 15
2oz Amarillo at 10
3oz Simcoe at 5

~79ibu, but it should taste more like 50ibu in terms of bitterness and have a lot of citrus hop flavor.

Since you are using extract, you can do a 30 minute boil with this hop schedule. Hopefully, you can do a full volume boil.

 

The dry hop looks ok to me unless you want to be able to smell it from across the room. I'd go with 2oz each of Amarillo and Simcoe for 5 days. Double that, if you want to smell it from across the room.

 

I've never used Camden tablets for beer you've got my interest anyone know what that's about?

 

Never mind just saw the answer above

 

DME is my preference of the two as it stays fresh longer, but either will work fine if you are purchasing your ingredients from a shop that moves through plenty of extract. It looks like 8.25 lbs of LME contributes a little more than 6.6 lb of DME, but a little more LME wouldn't hurt if you go that route.

As for pilsen/extra light vs gold/light DME, neither will be darker than the golden color you're looking for. If you're doing a partial volume boil (i.e. you top up to the total volume at the end) I'd recommend the extra light. Regular light or gold extract should be fine if not.