IIPA Recipe Critique (extract)

Way more hops. Way less crystal. Use DME.

 

I would drop the caramel down quite a bit. DME/LME has some caramel malt in it already, so unless you want a very sweet IIPA, drop the extra caramel.

Also, up the hops at the beginning and the end. Probably 2 oz chinook at 60 and double the hops at the end, with some at flameout for a good hop aroma. I personally don't think 30 minute additions do much, I prefer more at the beginning and the end for good bitterness and aroma/flavor.

Also, get a good starter going for this...you will be rewarded with better beer.

 

Extra light DME or pilsner DME is 100% pilsner malt so should have no crystal malt.

 

I would triple your 15 minute addition and move it up to ten, and triple your 5 min addition and move it up to flame out. Maybe bump your dryhop additions to 1.5 oz of each.
I prefer lme to dme, it seems to have less "extract twang".
Other than that, I would roll with it.

 

That depends. Northern Brewer/Briess Pilsner Extract contains carapils. Not sure of the percentage.

 

Personally, I'd drop the caramel malt down to .5lbs. 1.5lbs isn't going to ruin your beer, but I feel it might be a bit much. I like DIPA to have as little malt character as possible. As others have said, bump those hops up. Hops define the style, go crazy!

 

All things considered what you have here should make a fine beer. I brew about 75/25% extract vs all grain and find both very rewarding. However, most of the time I shy away from Amber, Dark or even Gold extracts in favour of Pils or Marris Otter extract. The reason being that the Pils extract I use is comprised of mostly US Pilsner malt and touch of carapils, it's very neutral. The Marris Otter extract I use is 100% Marris Otter to the best is my knowledge. This allows me to more or less create an extract recipe the same way I would an all grain recipe, meaning that I consider the extract my base malt and go from there.

 

It's so rare that anyone on here ever uses anything but plain light DME. I'm in that pool too. If you want to add color and complexity, use some specialty grains. This way you know what you're putting in, and you're in control of what you're putting in. Usually an IPA and an IIPA are about building a vessel that will shove hops in your face. Most people like these styles motherfuckingdry. Everyone will tell you that it's a matter of preference here and that you can add more or less crystal, some carapils, and that's about it. The showcase here is your hop build.

My personal preference would be to add between .5# of crystal to 1# of crystal total. You want .5 to 1# of sugar in the last few minutes of the boil too. The amounts don't have to be the same. For an IPA, I usually use about 6-8 oz of hops. Roughly 25% of the weight is dry hop. For an IIPA I usually use more like 8-12 oz of hops. 20% dry hops.

 

A lot more hops. MOAR HOPS. Use a shovel. My one and only IIPA so far had 9oz in the boil and 8 DH and it came out fantastic. I'm going to re-make that same recipe soon, using the exact same schedule but different hops.

I'm certainly not part of the crystal police, but that's probably too much for this particular project. So yes, less crystal malt. I'd say use the amber extract and skip the crystal all together, or if you really, really want it, 1/2 lb.

I'm NOT one to go all nutso over usage of non-super-ultra-mega-light extracts, and don't really prefer dry over liquid* if both are reasonably assured to be fresh (dry is easier to handle tho). Actually a IIPA made with amber extract sounds quite fine.

*if your LHBS is as cool as mine, you can arrange to pick up those badass 3 gallon plastic jugs that liquid extracts come in. When they are getting down to the bottom of one of them, I buy it and make starters out of it, so I can get the jug too. For starters I really don't care what type of extract it is because I'll be decanting most of it anyway. Apparently they don't send them back and they were getting tossed in the recycle. Recycling is fine, but re-using is preferable. They make excellent camping or emergency water storage containers.

 

False. Light (even extra light) and Pilsen/Pilsner extracts still contain some crystal or carapils

 

Why so heavy on the bittering additions at 60 minutes?

I would bitter with one hop variety and move those other additions to later in the boil (<15 minutes).

 

I stay roughly 80/20 DME:Specialty Grains. I recommend you build a malt bill and play around with hop schedules. I've been using the following malt bill with my last few batches:

9 lb Extra light DME
1 lb Munich Malt
.5 lb Melanoiden
.5 lb CaraFoam
.5 lb Crystal 60L

My house yeast is wyeast 1968 and with this bill it tends to finish a little on the sweeter side. I recently cut the crystal from 60L to 20L to see how much that changes the flavor. I plan to brew a few batches with previous hop schedules. I'll then likely change the yeast and try to get my FG down a little more for a dryer finish.