West Coast IPA Recipe Review

Hey everyone,

First post, but I've been reading the forums for about a year now.

I'm a home brewer out here in New Zealand and we've got an Amateur Brewers West Coast IPA Challenge coming up. So I've decided to enter...the winner gets their beer brewed professionally and sold in a local bar and the then entered in a pro brewers comp in June.

I'd be keen for anyone to give me their thoughts on my recipe. I've gone with my gut on this one, and of course some help from Ray Daniels (he's looked after me on previous brews).


West Coast IPA V1

Selected Style and BJCP Guidelines
14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA

Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.061 SG
Expected FG: 1.015 SG
Expected ABV: 6.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 60.0 IBU
Expected Color (using Morey): 8.0 SRM

Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 20 degC (68 F)

Fermentables
NZ Pale Malt 4.500 kg (~10 lbs)
Pale Crystal 0.500 kg (~1.1 lbs)
Wheat 0.300 kg (~0.7 lbs)
NZ Munich 0.300 kg (~0.7 lbs)
Vienna 0.300 kg (~0.7 lbs)

Hops (Pellets)
US Centennial 9.7 % 20 g (~0.7 oz) 60 Min From End
US Simcoe 13.5 % 18 g (~0.6 oz) 60 Min From End
US Amarillo 8.2 % 25 g (~0.9 oz) 5 Min From End
US Amarillo 8.2 % 25 g (~0.9 oz) At turn off
US Cascade 4.5 % 50 g (~1.8 oz) Dry-Hopped

Yeast
Wyeast 1275-Thames Valley Ale

Mash Schedule
Single Step Infusion (67C/152F) w/Mash Out

I've already got the starter on the stir-plate and am on my 4th generation of this yeast...so far it's treated me very well producing 2 bitters and a brown ale.

I'll be brewing this recipe in a couple of days in order to have it ready for the comp (and a boys night at my place a couple of days before...). Any help/insight on my recipe would be greatly appreciated. Really keen to hear back about the hop schedule...should I include a 30min addition as well?

Look forward to hearing from you all. This is my 1st WCIPA recipe, after a couple of pretty solid single hop IPA attempts in the past.

Cheers

I would use the Simcoe as a late addition and dry hop instead of a bittering addition. I love that simcoe aroma!

Where in NZ are you? I'm headed to the south island in a few weeks.

Interesting. I love the Amarillo and cascade aroma!

What wold you put in place of simcoe in bittering? We haven't been able to get Amarillo or simcoe out here in the last 18 months, so this will be my fist time brewing with them.

I'm in Wellington. Bottom of the North Island. Where about will you be going?

You need more late hops- a 20m addition would give you better flavor. Put the simcoe there and get more hops to add if your IBUs are lacking.

Late hops would be more like 18g simcoe 20m
25g amarillo 10m
25g amarillo 0m

Plus at least 75g of dry hop.

Grist looks good.

Agree with the above comments, if Simcoe is scarce don't waste it early in the boil. You can bitter with anything pretty much, something neutral like Magnum or more Centennial if you have it. Amarillo and simcoe are a nice combo late, I find Amarillo by itself gets too fruity/orangey for my tastes.

I'll go out on a limb and say your grain bill seems a little complex for a west coast ipa. Some base malt, maybe 3 or 4% crystal, and <5% of 1 other specialty malt will showcase your hops more. And I think even that is pushing it. You may also want to throw some corn sugar in there to dry it out some as well - 1.015 FG seems a bit high to me. Also, I'd double or triple the flameout hops, simcoe and amarillo sounds good, and I'd let them sit there (hopstand) for 30 minutes before chilling. I'd go with 3oz of dry hops at least, with some simcoe and amarillo in there as well.

Just my $0.02.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'm potentially over thinking this, but I've had a reshuffle of my hops. Moved the Centennial to the start of the boil to get a little more out of it, shifted the simcoe to later and introduced a little cascade into the boil, rather than having it all in the dry hop. Check it out.

US Centennial 9.7 % 20 g 90 Min From End
US Simcoe 13.5 % 20 g 20 Min From End
US Cascade 6.4 % 15 g 20 Min From End
US Amarillo 8.2 % 25 g 10 Min From End
US Amarillo 8.2 % 10 g At turn off
US Cascade 6.4 % 10 g At turn off
US Cascade 6.4 % 25 g Dry-Hopped
US Amarillo 8.2 % 25 g Dry-Hopped
US Simcoe 13.0 % 25 g Dry-Hopped

NathPowe said:

I'll go out on a limb and say your grain bill seems a little complex for a west coast ipa. Some base malt, maybe 3 or 4% crystal, and <5% of 1 other specialty malt will showcase your hops more. And I think even that is pushing it. You may also want to throw some corn sugar in there to dry it out some as well - 1.015 FG seems a bit high to me. Also, I'd double or triple the flameout hops, simcoe and amarillo sounds good, and I'd let them sit there (hopstand) for 30 minutes before chilling. I'd go with 3oz of dry hops at least, with some simcoe and amarillo in there as well.

Just my $0.02.

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It could be, but I quite like that. The IPA's I've brewed in the past have often had a similar grist and they've come out really nice.

1.015 is a little high, but I'm not convinced it will stop there...I'm on my 4th generation of this yeast and have used a 2L starter to give me plenty of yeast to get this thing done. So far the 3 beers I've already brewed with this yeast have all finished out lower than the predicted FG. It's within style guidelines to, even if it isn't quite "West Coast"

I like the new hop schedule much better. I also brew a lot of west coast IPA's with a similar grain bill, something like 10-15% of munich and/or vienna combined, plus a little wheat. I'll typically not include any crystal at all though.

Looks great!

I think looks great with the revised hop schedule....a little vienna and munich goes along way in an ipa....I use a similar grist in my award winning ipa

Interested to see what the thames valley yeast does with this...I've always used good ole US-05 and I really like the new DRY-97 West Coast Ale dry yeast

So...I brewed this on Sunday. I've got to say, this was potentially the smoothest brew day I've had in the short time I've been brewing all grain. I hit all my temps. The only downer was that at the end of the boil I lost about 4L (just over a gallon) to trub. So I ended up with 18L in the fermenter, which I topped up with 2L of water to get to 20L. OG was 1.060, so not too bad.

It's been the fermenter for 48hrs now. I've got a temp controlled fridge that I ferment in, which makes life super easy. The yeast took off within about 4-6hrs of pitching and it's been going like bull at a gate since. I pulled a sample tonight just to see how it's coming along. We're down to 1.030 and the hop aroma and flavour is definitely there. I'm pretty pumped to see how quick this yeast will finish out and what the dry hop will do. I'd be happy with this beer without the dry hop...but more is better with a WCIPA!

Will post back with final gravity and a pic once it's finished and carbonated. I've got a good feeling about this one.

Schumed said:

I think looks great with the revised hop schedule....a little vienna and munich goes along way in an ipa....I use a similar grist in my award winning ipa

Interested to see what the thames valley yeast does with this...I've always used good ole US-05 and I really like the new DRY-97 West Coast Ale dry yeast

Click to expand...

Awesome - thanks for the feedback.

The Thames Valley yeast has been really good so far. I've brewed two bitters and a brown ale with it so far and the brown ale in particular is magic. I've generally tried to avoid liquid yeast because they're so expensive out here!! I've always used S-04 or US-05, but the last couple of brews I've done with US-05 just haven't fermented right. Interestingly, a friend of mine has had the same issue with the last couple of brews he's used it on too...we don't have DRY-97 here.

Now that I've started harvesting, liquid yeast is much more affordable!