How's my Apricot IPA look?

Partial Grain:

7-8 lb Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Crystal Malt 60L
1 lb white wheat

1oz Simcoe - 60 min
1oz Amarillo - 60 min
1oz Amarillo - 20 min
1oz Simcoe - 10 min
1oz Amarillo - Flame out

1 pkg:
California Ale Yeast WLP001

Dry hop:
1oz Citra Hops
4 lb Fresh Apricots (blended/pureed)

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What thinks you HBT?

Me thinks it looks pretty good. I think I'd cut that c60 to maybe half a pound, and up your wheat by a pound or so. I would move a little of your 60 min addition to either flame out or dry hop too.

What are you going to do with the apricots?

I had dfh aprihop this weekend. Tasty!

Thanks for the advice! I wasn't sure about the wheat, but I think I might move it up by a lb. The apricots are for when I rack to the secondary. I'll buy fresh, remove pits, and puree in a blender (perfect season for it). I'll add this plus the citra hops once fermentation is finished, and give it about a week in secondary.

Looks tasty but I don't think this is a partial mash, assuming that's what you mean by partial grain.

did you mean to use 2oz of hops at 60 mins?

Do you have to worry about bacteria with apricots? Do you have to boil them first?

Why not use Wheat DME & Extra Light DME? Use half at boil start and half at flameout. Relying on wheat DME will prevent you from having to mash. Incorporate some sugar too so it dries out better.

A lighter grade of crystal malt, like C10, would also suit this beer better flavorwise. It will also give you more of a light orange colored beer as opposed to something amber-ish. Some acidulated malt will provide a tinge of sourness, which will compliment the apricot.

For yeast, 1272 would bring out more fruit. Ferment at 65-66 F. Make a yeast starter of the appropriate size and pitch the fruit puree into the secondary.

You need more hops. Focus on Amarillo & Citra (more on Amarillo). Bitter with Simcoe or Warrior, but don't use it in the late boil or dryhop.

1.25 oz Simcoe (Warrior better yet) - 60 min
1.50 oz Amarillo - 10 min
1.00 oz Citra - 10 min
1.50 oz Amarillo - Flame out
1.25 oz Citra - Flame out
2.50 oz Amarillo - Dryhop
1.25 oz Citra - Dryhop

Some Palisades or Crystal hops would also work if you wanted to supplement them with some of the existing Amarillo & Citra in the dryhop.

Banshee, thanks and you're right, its not a partial mash. Im still new, but I am hoping to try a real partial mash in the next month.

Ron, I did initially but then I figured I would go with a high alpha hop. I've made a few IPAs and they never seem to be that bitter. I am going to use 1oz Apollo (18%) for bittering and will stick with Amarillo/Simcoe for flavoring. Dry hopping with Citra, so this recipe is out of date already

Bob, that looks pretty good and I appreciate the advise. At this point, I am fairly new and have really only used extract thus far. So your recipe might be a little out of my range. Plus, I've just changed the recipe and bought the ingredients today.

In any case, thanks for the input!

Just bottled it on Friday, and tasted it today... pretty damn good. I decided to bitter with Apollo, since I knew the apricots would make this a little sweet - glad I switched it up. The balance is really good. Citra dry hopping was a good call too, worked really well with the apricot flavor. Overally, I'm pretty pleased. If anyone is interested I'll list all the changes I made

Also, I diced and froze the apricots. Then I let them thaw and threw them in the secondary with the citra hops.

SoItGoes said:

Just bottled it on Friday, and tasted it today... pretty damn good. I decided to bitter with Apollo, since I knew the apricots would make this a little sweet - glad I switched it up. The balance is really good. Citra dry hopping was a good call too, worked really well with the apricot flavor. Overally, I'm pretty pleased. If anyone is interested I'll list all the changes I made

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I'm interested Is it pretty hoppy too?

Banshee. Yes, it is hoppy. I am glad I went with the Apollo hops because the balance is really nice. The recipe is pretty straight forward, apollo for bittering and then alternating Simcoe/Amarillo for the 20, 10, 5, and flameout. The citra worked well as a dry hop, complimented the apricot nicely. This was also my first real batch of creating the recipe myself, so I was very pleasantly surprised. I need to stop drinking these so they can bottle condition for another week +.

That sounds really good. Haven't had an apricot beer before.

SoItGoes said:

Also, I diced and froze the apricots. Then I let them thaw and threw them in the secondary with the citra hops.

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Glad to hear that worked for you, as I'm about to try it myself. I've got a Surly Cynic partial mash clone in secondary. It took 3 weeks in primary before it the krausen fell in and SG was hitting target. I'm guessing that's not so unusual for Wyeast 3522, based on this post.

Anyhow, after tasting my gravity sample when I racked, I really noticed the peach and apricot flavors, so I figure I'll put a gallon of it on top of a pound of diced and frozen apricots and see what happens. It's not at all hoppy, like your beer, but since I really didn't like DFH Aprihop, that's alright with me!

This looks awesome! The only thing I would have done differently was use cascade in the dry hop instead of citra (not a fan anymore)

Good call on the Apollo, my imperial IPA wasn't nearly as bitter as I hoped it would be