IPA... Double?

So I brewed my second IPA yesterday and ended with a OG of 1.062. So I have two questions about my brew that Im unsure of.
1) I want to know how many IBUs my beer will have.
2) Does this beer qualify as being a Double IPA?

To answer the first question I tried some online calculators to calculate my IBU, but they seem to be off saying I will have around 220 IBUs, which seems wrong. I am trying to brew a beer between 100-120 IBUs.

Here is my amounts and their alpha acids, I boiled them for 60 minutes. I brewed a 5 gallon batch and my boil size was 2.5 gallons.
1 oz of 14.9 alpha acid @ 60 min
1 oz of 14.0 alpha acid @ 58 min
1 oz of 13.0 alpha acid @ 56 min
1 oz of 13.9 alpha acid @ 30 min
1 oz of 10.2 alpha acid @ 10 min

This is my third brew and I am still learning a lot every time I brew. Thank you.

I'd recommend throwing the recipe into some software such as BrewTarget (free) which will give you a pretty good calculation of your IBUs and ABV.

As for being a DIPA, BJCP guidelines state 60-120 IBU and ABV of 7.5-10%. OG 1.07-1.09 FG 1.01-1.02

And yes, the 220 IBU calculation seems way off...

That will be bitter as hell (good on you!) but the double refers to the 2 I's (IIPA) in an Imperial IPA.

My vote is NO. That will be a solid IPA (not sure of the recipe, but the OG and AAs speak well) but not imperial in my estimations.

That ipa is going to have an awesome kick man. You should call it.....Hops to the face! Lol. Or something like that

Thanks for the quick replies everyone, so if I did want to try making a double I should up the amount of malts I use to get a higher OG? I used 6.6 lbs of lme, 1 lb of dme, and 1 lb of maltodextros.

You have a double IPA IBU total and a single IPA OG. I'd move some of those 60 minute hops (weird btw, how you have them listed at 60-56minutes) later into the boil. Generally speaking, when I brew Imperial IPA's (I've brewed more of this style than any other fwiw), my smallest addition is my bittering addition and my largest addition is my flameout addition. You can get 12+ oz of hops into an imperial by doing it this way without it being TOO puckeringly bitter.

NoviceFromNewMexico said:

Thanks for the quick replies everyone, so if I did want to try making a double I should up the amount of malts I use to get a higher OG? I used 6.6 lbs of lme, 1 lb of dme, and 1 lb of maltodextros.

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I wouldn't get hung up on the name. If you really want a BIG beer, yes, up the malt.

More malt = less bitterness and hop flavor, so account for that.

Ok, so add another pound or two of malts and another ounce or two of hops with a higher alpha acid? Then I may be looking at a IIPA?

cheezydemon3 said:

I wouldn't get hung up on the name. If you really want a BIG beer, yes, up the malt.

More malt = less bitterness and hop flavor, so account for that.

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I did some math. He's got 200 IBUs of bitterness at least in that recipe. I think he's safe on bitterness.

My recommendation would be to up the malt 2 more pounds (DME), and to spread the 5 OZ out over the boil. 1oz at 60, 1 at 30, one at 10, one at 5 and one at 1. Which still puts you over 110 IBUs and at about 1.078OG. That's a double IPA. You don't need any more bittering hops. Add them later. Hop flavor and aroma are just as important as IBUs in this style.

edit/ps: If you want to add more hops do it later (15minutes and less) in the boil.

jbaysurfer said:

I did some math. He's got 200 IBUs of bitterness at least in that recipe. I think he's safe on bitterness.

My recommendation would be to up the malt 2 more pounds (DME), and to spread the 5 OZ out over the boil. 1oz at 60, 1 at 30, one at 10, one at 5 and one at 1. Which still puts you over 110 IBUs and at about 1.078OG. That's a double IPA. You don't need any more bittering hops. Add them later. Hop flavor and aroma are just as important as IBUs in this style.

edit/ps: If you want to add more hops do it later (15minutes and less) in the boil.

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Absolutely!

My "More malt/more hops" suggestion was more of a general rule of thumb.

I would, as you suggested move more hops to the flavor and aroma. Bitterness is nailed down.

cheezydemon3 said:

Absolutely!

My "More malt/more hops" suggestion was more of a general rule of thumb.

I would, as you suggested move more hops to the flavor and aroma. Bitterness is nailed down.

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Thanks for the advice everyone!

Keep in mind that beers are all about balance- or in the case of IPAs, the unbalance of hops flavor and aroma. Still, there needs to be a malt "backbone" to support all the hops.

Hops added before about 25 minutes before the end of the boil contribute very little to flavor or aroma, but are considered "bittering additions". Hops added at 20 minutes left to about 15 minute left tend to provide more hops flavor, while the hops added from 10 minutes to 0 minutes (and dryhopping) provide more aroma. In order for an IPA and IIPA to really taste right, you need lots of hops added late in the boil.

There aren't any advantages to adding hops at 60 minutes, 58 minutes, 55 minutes, etc, as they are all bittering additions. Once you get over about 100 IBUs, which is the theoretical limit of hops oils utilization (as well as the human taste threshold), more bittering isn't necessarily better.

I'd change up your recipe quite a bit. I'd sub in some character malt, to have a malt backbone to support the hops, and change the hops to a more traditional 60/15/5/0 type of schedule. Alpha acids really don't matter, as long as you have enough IBUs for your OG. SG/IBU ratio is important, though. If you have a 1.070 IIPA beer, you'd want 70-80 IBUs as an example.

Like this:

1 oz bittering hops @ 60 min (to about 40 IBUs with this one addition, per brewing software
1 oz hops 15 minutes
1 oz hops 10 minutes
1 oz hops 5 minutes
1 oz hops flame out
2-3 ounces of hops dryhop for 5-7 days

For a grainbill, I'd go with simple but use some Munich malt for a strong malt presence to support the hops. An OG of 1.070-1.080 would be good for an IIPA.

Yooper is dead on, but for my IIPA, we differ.

I like 1 lb of crystal 60 and 1 of 80.

Aye....that'd be 2 lbs of crystal.

A ton of bitterness and hop flavor will balance out all the crystal.

So let it be written, so let it be done.