help with DIPA recipe for homebrew competition

I'll give you some considerations in no particular order.
-Brew as planned, looks good overall
-Eliminate the C40, up honey or 2row to compensate
-mash for 90 min
-remove all chinook (up others to compensate if you feel compelled
-take or leave the carapils

*Question, do you want honey to contribute to flavor?

 

If the honey is primarily to dry the beer out, you should cut the carapils out. The c40 is your call based on flavor preference. My preference would be to drop it 4-8 oz though.

If you want your beer to stand out with a 2-4oz pour, you might want to consider upping the post boil hops significantly. If timelines won't allow for a dry hop, maybe do a primary fermentation hop as well.

 

Honey is too expensive to not have it make a flavor contribution. I've found it works best with more floral hops, so I recommend going heavy on Centennial and Crystal.

 

Malts for complexity - Personally, I would not. The hops are the star of the show.

No crystal - It's a suggestion. I think the carapils is not necessary but certainly won't hurt. A dryer beer would tend to have more perceived bitterness, tend to be easier to drink, and let the hops stand more forward all other things remaining equal.

 

I find chinook good for bittering but not much flavor (maybe it was just those year's batches). You are already getting the pine/citrus from other hops. Just a suggestion to simplify the hops. You could def use it for aroma as dryhop or at end of boil. And I don't do a 45 min. Bittering at 60, reinforcer for bitterness/flavor at 30, then everything else after 15 and whirlpool/dryhop.

 

I personally would just add it in the last min or 2 of the boil. Honey will take away from Hope and at this point you will not have much if any that makes it into the glass. I agree that it is an expensive way to dry it out but necessary. I'm not sure the brewery will go through the expense of using expensive honey to dry out the commercial version if you win (im not saying they wouldn't use honey). Another consideration would be 100% 2row mashed at 147 for 90min. This would allow your beer to likely be drier than 1.014 and allow them to recreate your beer without subbing sugar for honey. I would use the honey to dry it out. I'd rather win with the best beer possible and let them figure out how to recreate it. OR at the end of the day brew the recipe as is and use your own sensory to determine what to change. System differences and personal preference make these hard to nail down initially.

 

"Critique My IIPA Recipe I'm Putting Together from Scratch" posts are some of the most common. There is likely one on every page if you go back. Yours is a little unique.

IIPAs have no secret formula. Malt that stays way in the background, yeast that can attenuate fully and drop clear without adding flavors that detract from hops or pulling a lot of hop oils, and water that accentuates hops without being harsh/biting.

If there is a trick, it's building and balancing and layering hops. And even there, single hop IIPAs break that. Cascade is my favorite single hop beer hop.

If IIPAs were a band they would have a drummer gently tapping the bass for the beat, a singer humming the 3 notes in the chord, and up to 5 electric guitars playing solos simultaneously. It is all about how those guitars sound together that differentiates music from noise.

 

A couple of observations/ideas that are mostly opinion only:

Don't chase IBUs, the perception between 60 and 76 is minor, do chase hop flavor/aroma. Your 45/30 minute additions won't give you much. Neither will 0.25 oz at 15/10 (my opinion here). Rather concentrate on very late additions (5 min and FO). Get away from measuring hops by the ¼ ounce . . . this is an IIPA, budget 3-4 ounces for flavor and another 3-4 for aroma. Most importantly, how do you plan to add your FO hops (temps, whirlpool time, quantity)? A couple of pretty good past threads on this subject. HINT: there really isn't a "book" answer to whirlpooling technique as it is often equipment specific. You list 3 days for dh'ing . . . do you have a plane to catch? Shoot for a week+ (some world class IIPAs will dh for 2 weeks).

Carapils at 1% is undetectable, suggest dropping. I'm okay with the C40, not wild about honey but understand your constraint.

Just like scurvy, I'm not crazy about Chinook (apologies to Arrogant Bastard). Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade are major players . . . I might only use Ama/Cen for simplicity, but Cascade will not hurt.

WLP002 yeast is a questionable choice. From White Labs: it has moderate attenuation, mod alcohol tolerance, and residual sweetness. Why not WLP001? This will boost attenuation, neutral flavor/esters, and is made for higher alcohols. You should be targeting a lower FG and this would help. If you are not using a yeast calculator now is the time to start. You really want enough of those healthy little guys on brew day.

Things you probably don't want to hear:

1. Your yeast will be begging for oxygen.
2. Do you know your water? There's a reason great DIPAs didn't evolve in regions like Dublin and Pilsen and Munich. This is a long complex process, but worthwhile. Vikeman's IPA profile in BC is a good starting point.
3. Do you know where your hops came from? You may have just ordered them but that doesn't mean they are fresh. If they are old and/or have been stored poorly those guitar solos will suffer.

Good luck and it would be nice if you revived this thread in the future with your results.

 

That brewpub must have a decent in on honey if they are allowing you to use it in a competition they want to brew the winner of. That said, you'll get more out of the honey and its intended flavor and aroma the furthur away from boil you introduce it. Add it during the whirlpool, or better still, after primary fermentation has finished. The yeast that are still active should enjoy the afterhours setting, and also wipe out whatever might be lurking in it.
Then, you might want to re-think your hops a bit cos you are using a particular kind of honey with its own profile and aromatics. Keep your hops simple and program them so that they can enable, and enhance the aromatics of the orange blossom honey.

 

OP, your in Indiana, so do you/the brewery have any Michigan grown Chinook? Some of the local pro Brewers here don't like the coarse PNW Chinook, but are singing praises about the MI Chinook.

The comments about water with higher sulfate and whirlpool hops are right on point.

 

I would be surprised if there were any cries of "noooooo! the Munich or Vienna will take away from the hops!!" I would lean towards Munich if you're going to do that, but that's personal preference. Unless you radically change the malt bill, a little of either of these malts should add a little complexity and/or color without any need for loud sirens or emergency rescue equipment.

I'm (as always) neutral on the crystal thing, but if you're going to use it ... in this case I'd say use carapils only and don't use much of it. I think this particular beer might be one that you can skip it on too.

 

There would be, but it appears that BigHornyDevil has been banned or timed out.

 

There's always one.