IPA recipe feedback, pls (extract)

WLP001 isn't a dry yeast.

For first time brewers I'd use WYeast. I like the smack pack. While it's nice to proof your yeast, with most supply chains that shouldn't be an issue. Especially with the neutral Ale yeast strain cause it sells fast. It's more that you can feed what should be an already strong cell w/nutrients. Now I do use WL the most, the packaging sucks. But making beer is more about yeast and fermentation than anything else. The Wyeast packs can forgo much of the starter process.

If your new to brewing I wouldn't use the yeast cake. I'm saying that because it's a yeast/turb/old hops cake. When the fermentation go nuclear you don't want all that crap being recycled through your beer.

As far as your recipe I'd throw in some flame out hops. How do you chill? If you are going to drink this beer fast and you chill slow you could just do FWH and knock out hops.

 

Hate to be "that guy" but that's a lot of crystal. Between 13% crystal, 8% carapils, and the inability to control the fermentability of the extract its going to be quite sweet . Also based on the grains I assume you're doing a partial mash (maybe a bad assumption)--any info on temp, thickness etc?

 

The dry yeast you would be looking for is probably Fermentis US-05. It is similar to WLP001 and WY1056. Everyone has an opinion on hop schedules. Yours looks good to me. I like less crystal and less carapils. If the recipe were mine, I would probably drop each of those by 50-100%, and I would use extract or table sugar to make up for the lost gravity.

 

But you are correct. And it needs to be said.

There is a developing beer recipe as we speak in this forum. The "Averagly Perfect IPA" has a recipe so far of Crystal 40 = 5% and Carapils = 3%. And there was quite a bit of debate that that was even too high.

Developing your own IPA recipe is a fine practice. But it is always better to underutilize crystal and carapils then decide to add more next time then to add too much the first time and have a beer difficult to enjoy. The beer will still be good if you didn't use enough.

 

I'd vote for "cut the crystal" too. Use 1/2 lb of each, or even less (say 1/4 lb of carapils). The extract will give you plenty of body even with no crystal. It'll be too sweet like you have it.

Hops wise I'd add more late hops, certainly some at flameout, maybe an ounce or two more, and another ounce of dry hops too.

 

And don't forget that light DMEs are normally ~5% carapils

 

I am not sure what the ‘intent’ of the 1.0 lbs Pale Malt (2-row) is. Do you intend to conduct a mini-mash? If so, 1 lb. of Pale Malt will not make much of an impact.

I would recommend that your ‘grain bill’ be just Briess Pilsen DME (7.5 lbs.) and 20L Crystal (1 lb.).

I would highly recommend that you utilize a single packet of US-05. If you decide to utilize liquid yeast (either Wyeast or White Labs) you really should make a starter for a beer of this gravity (Original Gravity > 1.060). The Wyeast smack-pack package has the nice ‘feature’ of proofing the yeast (to ensure that the yeast is viable). The act of smacking a pack is not the equivalent of a starter since very little yeast growth occurs when the pack swells.

The hopping schedule looks OK. You might want to add a flame-out addition.

Good luck with your IPA!

Cheers!

 

The pale is probably there to convert the carapils starches.

 

Good point.

FWIW, Briess states that their carapils can be steeped vs. mashed:

“Carapils® Malt is devoid of enzymes and can be steeped in hot water or mashed.”

My recommendation to the OP is to nix both the Pale Malt and the Carapils. I think the beer will taste the same and you eliminate one extra step (which I think is not needed).

Cheers!

 

Did not know this--thanks for digging that up! My earlier post about a partial mash was based on the assumption that the 2-row was there for carapils conversion. Having read this, I agree with your recommendation. Drop the carapils and 2-row. I might suggest less than a pound of crystal, but at that point it's personal preference.

 

Definitely ditch the starter with dry yeast. One pack should be enough for a beer like this, and if you need more I think the going wisdom is to pitch more dry. From what I understand, starters can actually be detrimental to dry yeast.

I know there is a big debate on rehydration and it's not worth getting into it, but I would suggest it.

 

OK, so I am nixing the carapils and 2-row. I'll drop the crystal to .5lbs and add .5lbs of DME to make up for the lost gravity. From what I recall, table sugar can be used to dry out a beer, but I've also heard that this not super reliable or perhaps doesn't go as far as some expect. True? What am I forgetting/missing about this? How much sugar will help to dry out the brew? I like a bit of dryness, but nothing pronounced. I just want to avoid that lingering syrupy-ness on the tongue, especially after a couple of bottles. I'm inclined to just skip it, but if someone has an opinion, I'm all ears.

It's not that sugar drys out a beer, but replacing malt with sugar drys it out. I usually just mash a bit lower, but since you can't do that you could consider replacing .5# of DME with the equivalent in sugar. I don't think your beer will be syrupy the way you have it now though.

 

with only half pound of crystal I don't think you need to bother with table sugar. If you do, don't use a lot, use 4-8 oz tops.

If you only have the hops you listed on the OP and can't get any more...

...Use the colombus at 60/FWH and move the centennial to FO.

But if you can get more hops, then add more at FO and dry.

BTW the presence of that 2-row doesn't make a big difference, and I would ditch it. If you start doing mini-mash or partial mash, then you would need it.

Good luck man!

 

If you utilize Briess Pilsen DME as your ‘base malt’ and ferment with US-05 I would strongly recommend that you don’t utilize sugar. Briess Pilsen DME is a very fermentable malt extract and US-05 is an attenuative yeast. Very simply, sugar will not be needed to ‘dry out’ this beer.

Cheer!

 

that extract probably already has a good amount of carapils or cara-whatever in it, so you could probably nix that in your specialty grains...

 

should I make a starter? Yes!

If so, how big? A 1.5 quart starter (with intermittent shaking) will be sufficient.

Read this thread: http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...atch-of-dogfish-60-min-ipa.64487/#post-892325

Cheers!

 

I think a 1 liter starter would be fine for this beer, Mr. Malty says 3 liter starter, but I think that is overkill.

Here's a good resource for yeast washing: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

One thing you should think about is this beer is already borderline for reusing yeast. You could definitely get away with it, but a good rule of thumb is anything over 1.060 and the yeast start to get a little stressed.