Is 20 oz of hops too much for an IIPA?

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nicklepickles

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Call me crazy, but recent events have led me to really want to brew a huge-ass, balls-to-the-wall IIPA, no holds back kind of thing. I'm not at all a fan of cloying sweetness in my IIPAs (had DFH 120 and couldn't take more than a sip...), so I'm going for something more like Stone's Enjoy By, super dry with a focus on outrageous hoppiness, but with different hops/yeast/abv.
Below is my recipe, I have 8 oz in total of each of the 4 hop types (all pellets), so changes to amounts are good. How does this look? Is this hop combo going to be incredible or horrible? Is 20 oz too much for a tooth-enamel-stripping IIPA?
I'm expecting a good bit of absorbtion, so my bottling volume will probably be ~ 4 gals or so...
Also, this is basically a breakup-IIPA, so any appropriately-themed name for this occasion would more more than welcome. :rockin: :mug:

"Tooth Sharpener" IIPA
~6.5 gal batch
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.010 (ideal)
IBUS: ~94

Grains:
11 lbs pale ale malt
10 lbs maris otter
1 lb cane sugar

Hops/Boil:
2 oz chinook (11.8%) 60 mins
2 oz chinook 30 mins
2 tsp irish moss 20 mins
2 oz palisade (7.8%) 10 mins
2 oz palisade 5 mins
2 oz meridian (6.7%) post-boil aroma steep @ 160F for 30 mins
4 oz topaz (16.4%) post-boil aroma steep @ 160F for 30 mins

D.H.
1 oz meridian dry-hop stage 1 for 4 days
2 oz topaz dry-hop stage 1 for 4 days
1 oz meridian dry-hop stage 2 for 4 days
2 oz topaz dry-hop stage 2 for 4 days

Yeast:
big ol' starter of wlp001.

Mash 90 mins @ 148F
Cane sugar added at high krausen
 
Well you could do it, but you could also accomplish what you've describe with many less hops. Your recipe has 16-18 ounces of flavor hops depending on how you look at that 30 min addition. Those aren't going to make it tooth enamel stripping. If you want huge aroma and teeth scraping bitterness, I'd go for 80 IBUS at 60 minutes, 40 at 30 minutes, 20 at 10, then use 2-4 ounces in the whirlpool and 4 ounces in dry hop. That's probably around 12 ounces total.

Dry hop warm and rouse the hops every few hours to increase aroma. Make sure all the yeast is gone by the time you dry hop too, it'll help keep all the oils in there.
 
I did an IIPA with 18oz. I had so much sludge I only ended up with 3.5 Gallons. I'm not going to say that all of my hops were ideally deployed, nor that I didn't go past the point of substantially diminishing returns, but it is a tasty beer.
 
So after seeing a couple other massively-hopped IIPAs using even a couple more ozs then my recipe, i am going ahead as planned.
Shoulda been a little more clear i think earlier. Im not going for tooth-enamel-stripping bitterness, but just intense hoppy aroma and flavor. I might up the bittering a bit, i forgot i have a couple extra ozs of bravo laying around ive been meaning to use up.
Seriously no one has an awesome breakup themed IIPA name? lol
 
I'd say if that's what you wanna do, then go for it! Here's a Surly Furious clone that I just dry hopped with 8.5 oz of hops! :ban:
Before (on top right) and after:

Photo Apr 10, 6 13 47 PM.jpg


Photo Apr 13, 5 57 32 PM.jpg
 
With that much hops, you dont suppose it would have sort of a reverse effect and prevent you from utilizing all the alpha acids? Im not sure if it would or not but its something to consider.
 
Well, too much is really just a matter of personal opinion.

For me, the sweet spot for a IIPA is somewhere around 4 oz flavor and 4 oz dry hop + bittering for whatever AA you go with. Going above that doesn't seem to increase aroma or flavor.
 
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