Ipa recipe critique

That much gold malt plus 10% crystal will leave a fairly malty, sweeter IPA. Not the sweetest I've seen or made, but still up there. I like the nugget/centennial mix, I would double the dry hop though. I normally go with an ounce per gallon rate.

 

Holy shit thems a lot of hops.

 

Hey, we're all gunna die some day. Why do anything half-assed?

 

I would cut the Caramel 10 in at least half (5%) or omit it altogether. I recently made an IPA with 10 % Caramel 20 (1 pound) and it is way too sweet/malty for my taste. My most recent Galaxy IPA I didn’t use any (results yet to be determined). I would also move the 5 min hop addition to flameout. I have found myself and heard on Brew Strong that adding hops at flameout can add great aroma. Let the hops steep for 20 mins of so before cooling. I have been experimenting a lot with IPAs lately and I am interested in what you think of the combination of Nugget and Centennial. Sounds delicious Please report back. Good Luck.

 

I would agree if we were talking Imperial, not Standard. The normal dry hop rate for some of the better commercial Imperial IPAs is usually .75 to 1 ounce per gallon... Pliny the Younger included. Standard IPAs are not usually hopped as high though... more like .50 to .67 ounce per gallon.

One thing the OP may want to look at is that his boil volume and batch size are both 5 gallons. Boiloff over the course of an hour would leave you with more like 4.2 gallons depending on your system. And I wouldn't recommend topping off with plain water after the boil, especially for a hop forward beer.

 

I would agree. 2-3 ounced for a five gallon batch is pretty typical for me.

 

I personally don't think you are over hopping.

I dry hopped a 5.5% (give or take) IPA with 2.5 oz. of Citra hops (the beer had like 6 oz. total) and it was one of the best beers I've made.

As for the malt bill, for IPAs I say go simple. Get some light malt extract and a pound of crystal 20 and you'll be good to go. I do tend to like dry IPAs, though, so if you want it sweeter maybe add some carapils.

 

I don't think that claim was ever made.

The overhopping comment came from this reply:

As for your post, extract and 1 pound of crystal will not make anything close to a dry IPA.

Carapils is already in the light extract, for one. and my IPA's still don't come out dry and I rarely use more than a half pound of crystal malt.

 

I stand corrected. I must have missed that, woops

I actually meant to put half a pound, but I typed "a pound", so you are right. And I guess I'm not that familiar with what goes into extracts, because I didn't think Carapils was in them. Thanks for the info

 

The problem with extract, is that we don't know what is used to make them. But, the nice thing about light and extra light extracts is that we know they only contain base malt and carapils/detrine malt, problem is we don't know the percentages used for each.

 

Out of curiosity I looked to see if there was any info out there and found this on Briess' website http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Extracts.htm#PilsenLight

Still no percentages, but it gets us closer to know what we're using when brewing with extract.

 

I think your grain bill is fine for a single IPA. 10% steeped C20 is not going to give you a super sweet beer, it will add a tiny bit of color and a little bit more body and sweetness.

If you're looking for a drier beer to help the hops shine through a touch more, then drop the C20. Like the other posts above, I don't know the % of Carapils in Golden Light/Light extract, but when I've made extract IPAs using just Golden Light syrup/DME it produces a very clean malt backbone that doesn't get in the way of the hops, but has enough body to not be thin, especially after dosing the beer with hops (Hop resins add body to the beer & help w/ head retention).

If you're looking for a very dry beer, drop the C20 and replace 5-10% of the extract with corn sugar (Dextrose). Just know that in drying out your beer, you will thin out the body a touch.

 

I am also of the opinion that the OPs grain bill is fine. I routinely use 1 lb. of crystal malt (20L or 40L) and my IPAs come out dry; they are not sweet or have a caramel taste. The IPAs are dry with the hop taste/aroma dominating.

I personally have never used WLP001 but I routinely use the dry yeast equivalent: US-05. That yeast is highly attenuating. I routinely obtain a FG 1.010 with Starting Gravities of around 1.062.

If you are looking for an ‘extra’ dry beer you could follow some of the suggestions provided by barfdiggs but I think the original grain bill will ‘work’ just fine.

Good luck with your IPA. The recipe looks tasty.

Cheers!

 

Are you brewing with extract?

 

My IPAs are extract with specialty grain (1 lb. of crystal) brews.

Cheers!

 

Sounds good, just making sure. I assume that light DME/LME uses about 5% dextrin malt, so that is approximetely another half pound of crystal malt there.

I only ever brewed two extract IPA's (second one (contained 1/2# crystal 20°L) and I couldn't get either to dry out as well as I wanted. The only way I can get my IPA's dry enough is All-grain with no more than 1/2# of crystal mashed below 151°.

 

I obtain very good attenuation performance from US-05. I typically obtain an apparent attenuation of around 80%. My recent batches of IPA have AA’s greater than 80%.

I have never brewed with WLP001 but since it is an ‘equivalent’ yeast strain hopefully the OP will obtain similar performance.

The OP could also follow the suggestions that barfdiggs provided if he wants to ensure that he obtains a dry IPA (eliminate the crystal malt and/or replace some extract with sugar).

Cheers!

 

I also typically get in the 80% range with US-05, but I never had the same luck when brewing with extract...it has been a while and I know my practices are much better now as well.