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Please critique my IPA recipe

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by dennho, Jul 29, 2014.

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  1. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    Five gallons batch sparge - brewed May 25th

    10lbs Golden Promise
    2lbs Light Munich
    4oz Cara Pils
    1lb table sugar
    6.5 gallons 160 degree water to grist. Held @ 150 for 65 minutes
    3.25 gallons 158 degree water held @ 149 20 minutes
    7.6 gallons into kettle
    1oz Apollo FWH
    1oz CTZ @ 45 minutes
    .5oz Apollo @ 30 minutes
    2oz Citra @ 10 minutes
    1oz Citra @ 5 minutes
    .5oz Apollo @ 5 minutes
    Three weeks in the fermenter, dry hopped 2oz Citra for the last four days
    US-05 yeast rehydrated
    1.055og 1.01fg
    Bottled 6/14 w/3.75oz corn sugar

    This is extremely sweet. It must be all the Citra? I thought the table sugar dried it out and added some abv, not sweetness. I like it but I couldn't have very many, it's too sweet. I'm going to try a few tweaks to make it better.
    I would appreciate any input. I'll try to have a thick skin.

    Thanks!
     
    #1 dennho, Jul 29, 2014
  2. hoptualBrew

    hoptualBrew Initiate (0) May 29, 2011 Florida

    It looks like a pretty good recipe. The sweetness may be from the GP + Munich malt. Golden Promise is already a bit sweet of a base malt. If I were you I would try cropping out the Munich next batch and keep everything else the same.

    What was your water source? Mash pH? Fermentation temperature?

    If your pH was off, water hard, or sulfate low that could contribute to a 'flabby' hoppy beer from my understanding. If it's just the sweetness & after cropping out the Munich, the beer still is off, I'd look at these factors.
     
    #2 hoptualBrew, Jul 29, 2014
    mattbk likes this.
  3. mattbk

    mattbk Savant (1,111) Dec 12, 2011 New York

    Agree. Replace GP with 2-row or pilsner. Problem solved.
     
    #3 mattbk, Jul 29, 2014
  4. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    My water comes from a well. I've never had it tested. I don't thinks it's very hard, I don't have any signs of that.
    Measuring PH hopefully will be in the budget soon.
    I fermented in my house. Cooled the fermenter with a bit of ice every morning before I left for work. I checked the temperature frequently. I would estimate the wort was around 70 - 72 degrees.
     
    #4 dennho, Jul 29, 2014
  5. hoptualBrew

    hoptualBrew Initiate (0) May 29, 2011 Florida

    Most likely, like @mattbk said, it's just the malt. Either crop the Munich out or sub in two-row/pale/pils for the GP & see if that's it. Process of elimination at this point. If I were you I'd start there, and then move to water source and mash pH. Good luck man, hope the next batch improves!
     
    #5 hoptualBrew, Jul 29, 2014
    mattbk likes this.
  6. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,055) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Was 1.010 your actual measured FG, or just the recipe FG?
     
    #6 VikeMan, Jul 29, 2014
  7. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    It was measured with a hydrometer. A refractometer would be a nice thing to have. It's hard to read the hydrometer accurately.
     
    #7 dennho, Jul 29, 2014
  8. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,055) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Okay. You're reading is probably good. I was just thinking that if the FG was actually higher than the target, that less attenuation could account for the sweetness you're tasting.
     
    #8 VikeMan, Jul 29, 2014
  9. langdonk1

    langdonk1 Initiate (0) May 16, 2014 South Carolina

    Was the beer excessively bitter as well as sweet?
     
    #9 langdonk1, Jul 29, 2014
  10. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    No, not at all. I'm not sure if its "hop sweet" or "malt sweet". I don't think sweetness in beer is always a bad thing.
     
    #10 dennho, Jul 29, 2014
  11. fuzzbalz

    fuzzbalz Pundit (941) Apr 13, 2002 Georgia

    I've never used GP base malt, but i'd have to say that might be it. I recently used MO for the first time in an ipa and it was too malt forward for me, it did get a little better toward the end of the keg. You might also want to look at the condition of the hops, and your brewing water, if you didn't get enough of the hop bitter/flavor's then it's naturaly going to be an unbalanced beer.
     
    #11 fuzzbalz, Jul 29, 2014
  12. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    I've been brewing by the seat of my pants. Ten pounds of two row, a pound or two of crystal or something else. I was not happy with my results. I was using 6 - 8 ounces of hops for five gallons and not really tasting them. I decided I wanted to make a great IPA. I'm going to keep trying and changing a few things 'till I get something I like.

    I read something from Mitch Steele that said to use a lot of Marris or Golden Promise to bring out the hop flavor. I may have gone overboard on the malt. Next time it may be 6 pounds of Marris and six pounds of American two row.
     
    #12 dennho, Jul 30, 2014
  13. fuzzbalz

    fuzzbalz Pundit (941) Apr 13, 2002 Georgia

    I really feel like my ipa's started to get better when I started looking at and adjusting my water, it plays a big part in hop flavor and bitterness and if you can control and manipulate that then the malt you choose shouldn't matter....... much.
     
    #13 fuzzbalz, Jul 30, 2014
  14. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    That recipe looks very similar to one I just brewed...except for the Apollo...I used Chinook to bitter and Amarillo late. What was your software telling you the IBUs were on that one? It looks a little bitter... at least on paper.

    I am only 6 days into the ferment, but the wort on brewday seemed pretty normal for an IPA. I used honey instead of sugar (because I had it and saw something similar in Zymurgy..."Charlie's Perfect IPA"). I used some C-45, some acid malt, and also Burton salts. Sorry for the threadjack...I kinda got carried away. :slight_smile:
     
    #14 GreenKrusty101, Jul 30, 2014
  15. dennho

    dennho Initiate (0) Oct 29, 2006 New York

    Beersmith says 144.9 IBU's. It may be me, I think all my beers are over 100 IBU's on Bersmith. It's not at all bitter. It might taste better if it was.
     
    #15 dennho, Jul 30, 2014
  16. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,055) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Don't worry, they are not over 100 IBUs in real life.
     
    #16 VikeMan, Jul 30, 2014
  17. hoptualBrew

    hoptualBrew Initiate (0) May 29, 2011 Florida

    What I've learned about, and prefer in my IPA & Pale ales over the past few years is that I like..

    - two row or pilsner base malt with American hops
    - MO base malt with English hops
    - Honey malt > Caramel malt, I almost never use Caramel malt in my IPA
    - Pale wheat % makes for nice body and head retention
    - dry hop 4-5 days, leaf hops in keg
    - S04 in the 150-200 range
    - FWH with hop extract reduces my boil-overs and saves some wort from trub loss
    - In Brettanomyces pale and IPA, FWH with hop extract for most or all IBU addition, 25% of all hops or less for flavor in the BK, other 75%+ in dry hop
     
    #17 hoptualBrew, Jul 30, 2014
  18. DarrenStory

    DarrenStory Initiate (0) Feb 11, 2013 Oregon
    Trader

    Have you brewed with that much Citra before? I did a Kern Citra clone that went from like1.065 to 1.008. Lower than I was expecting but I remember still getting like orange candy sweetness I attributed to the Citra hops....

    There is a lot of other great advice in this thread but I thought I would add that.
     
    #18 DarrenStory, Jul 30, 2014
    GreenKrusty101 likes this.
  19. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    Lupulin Threshold Shift, maybe? :slight_smile:
     
    #19 GreenKrusty101, Jul 30, 2014
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