working on a recipe

i'll only touch the mash temp question.

lower mash equals more fermentation equals thinner body.
higher mash equals thicker body and may mean it is slightly sweeter.

i'd hit 154 F and recalculate your ABV based on that

 

The only reason I can see why 149F was suggested was the 19% crystal malt. Still seems a bit low of a temp. Maybe go with 152, drink it up, and then rebrew with an adjusted temp.

 

i said nadda about his grains

 

Here in Utah 4% beers are quite common. IMO, the best have good body to compensate for the overall lack of alcohol (Squatters Full Suspension and Uinta Cutthroat Pale Ales are two good examples). Were it me, with your grain bill I'd probably shoot for ~154 F mash temperature for about an hour (no stirring for my mashes), see what happens, and go from there.

 

This is mostly what I brew but I've never had success using so much crystal in a session beer. I like the recipe but I prefer less crystal and higher mash temp in my session ales. It adds a nice mouthfeel without bombing the palate with sweetness. Id be good with half of each. And this isn't the ol' too much crystal advice, this is only for session ales which I found have a lower tolerance for so much sweetness. Seems counterintuitive but it's similar to British bitters IMO. The best bitters I drink and brew use very little crystal and are better for it. I think since you've hit it hard with flameout hops it will be in balance but may come out like sweet hop candy

 

Carapils does have a flavor impact, in my opinion. It's not big and in your face, but it is there and it is noticeable, to me at least. Others may disagree.

Regardless, leaving aside my usual hatred for that malt, I still think you're a tad high on caramel malts. I'd go toward the 150-152 range with that much caramel, or cut the carapils in half, up the base grain a little to make up the missing gravity points, and mash closer to 154. Even if you leave the malts as they are, I wouldn't drop below 152. 149 works for a regular and especially for a double IPA, where even if it attenuates a ton you're still going to have some backbone. As you are thinking, a smaller beer you don't want too thin, particularly when you're going to hop it at a high rate. I'd shoot for around a 70-74% attenuation rate, so adjust based on your yeast. With 1056, well, there ya go.

But then again, t'ain't my beer.

 

Sounds good. Maybe next time try out some flaked grain for body instead of the carapils.

 

I doubt you'll underattenuate with 1056, even with 19% crystal. The issue with that much crystal isn't so much attenuation as it is flavor. Making more fermentable sugar won't really counter that much caramel flavor. You'll just end up with a higher ABV sweet-ish brew.

No worries, though. You're not going to end up with something undrinkable. You may find that sweetness suits your palate more than fuller body. You're going to repeat this with modifications anyway, if I read it right, so why not knock this iteration out and see how you like it. It may turn out to be your favorite of s the variations you try.

 

I'll leave all the mash temps and grain bill stuff to the others. For hops, if you want a booming aroma and flavor, w/ a firm bitterness on that low of an OG, maybe consider taking your FWHs and throwing them in w/ the flavor hops, up your flavor, keep the IBUs. You should be able to get a firm bitterness w/ all your hops in the last 15 mins, and get more flavor and aroma.

 

if time isn't on your side, you can just add some extract to reduce the % of the cara crap, i mean, cara grains

 

The OP stated: “I enjoy a variety of hoppy beers, but one thing that I've disliked about some low-grav hoppy brews has been what I've seen as essentially a "scale down the gravity and hop the shit out of it" approach that leaves them watery and way out of balance.”

One of the ‘new’ Session IPAs is Founder’s All Day IPA. While there is an aspect to this beer that I enjoy (the hops flavors/aromas), I find this beer a bit too watery for my palate. I first rationalized this not so much from the Final Gravity being too low but the BU’GU ratio being out of whack. I just went to the Founder’s website and this beer is listed as being 4.7% ABV and 42 IBUs. So, let’s make some guesses at the Gravity Units. It seems like OG = 1.048 and FG = 1.012 (which yields an estimated 4.7% ABV) sounds about right. For this case the BU:GU ratio would be 0.875 which is a bit unbalanced when compared to the typical BU:GU for an APA (which is 0.714)

The OPs recipe lists: 1.046 and 52.6 IBUs. The resulting BU:GU = 1.14. This value is even higher than the Founder’s All Day IPA ratio.

It is my guess that despite the 2 lbs. of crystal malt this lower gravity IPA will taste watery since the BU:GU ratio is not balanced.

My recommendation would be to lower the hopping to get an IBU of around 46 IBUs or even lower to achieve a BU:GU ratio of 1 or less. Maybe shooting for a BU:GU ratio closer to 0.714?

Cheers!

 

I think carapils has no place here,replace it with wheat malt,in case you can not then just mash a bit higher(154F),I would add some hops between 30-15 min to enhance hop flavor,at least 0,75 oz.
3 grs of gypsum at mashing time should help hop flavors.

 

I really like the high carmel/crystal content for this recipe. I think, if you plan to brew this in several trials, just leave it how it is and mash it at 152 (the homebrewers fall-back). If it turns out too dry and bitter you can bump it up to 156 next time. I really dont think a low temp will achieve your desired result regardless of the amount of kilned malt, it will be dry and have a caramel taste. 4.5%abv with 50+ IBU's sounds like a nice summertime ale, good-luck.

 

One thing I meant to mention in my previous post is that a very valuable resource for developing recipes is the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. In that book they discuss various aspects of a beer recipe for many different beer styles. One aspect which is addressed is the BU:GU ratio for the various beer styles. For anybody who wants to explore recipe formulation, I would highly recommend this book.

Cheers!