Dank IPA recipe help - partial mash

[wowbeeryum]

For my next beer I'm looking to make an IPA with more of a "dank" hop character, versus totally bright and fruity. I was thinking of using a basic grain bill to really let the hops shine through. However, I have no experience putting a recipe together on my own which is where you all come in.

In terms of partial mashing, I can only use 3 lbs of grain in order to just do a dunk sparge at the end of the mash (due to the pots I have available to me). I guess I could use more grain, if needed, and just do a pour over sparge.

I think I understand some of the more dank hops would be columbus, chinook, simcoe, nugget, millenium, others?

I'd be looking for a 5 to 5.5 gallon batch and can only do a partial boil of around 3 gallons.

Any thoughts recipe gurus?

 

[bobbrews]

This is my recipe. Do yourself a favor and employ a full volume boil for a slightly smaller batch as represented here: http://hopville.com/recipe/958272/imperial-ipa-recipes/9-lives-double-ipa

FYI - The honey should not be boiled at 5 minutes, like page 2 of the recipe says... but that's hopville for you!
Stir in the appropriate amount of gypsum (if using) to your cold water volumes (before boiling/heating).

 

[wowbeeryum]

This is my recipe. Do yourself a favor and employ a full volume boil for a slightly smaller batch as represented here: http://hopville.com/recipe/958272/imperial-ipa-recipes/9-lives-double-ipa

FYI - The honey should not be boiled at 5 minutes, like page 2 of the recipe says... but that's hopville for you!
Stir in the appropriate amount of gypsum (if using) to your cold water volumes (before boiling/heating).

I'm still developing my pipeline of homebrew and I only get to brew every few weeks so i'm not interested in ending up with a smaller batch. I'll gladly use more hops to account for the lower utilization. Also, looking for a regular IPA, not double (I love doubles, but not for this beer).

 

[bobbrews]

It's not as simple to use more hops to achieve the same beer as a full volume boil brewer if topping off with 2 gallons of water. You won't have nearly the same tasting beer or the same mouthfeel. There's a lot more that comes into play with topping off than hop utilization. So you can choose between 3 gallons of a great IPA, or 5 gallons of a mediocre IPA. Up to you. But I'm a firm believer that great IPAs are brewed via under full volume boils. It matters more with this style than most.

Also, this is 7.5 to 8.0% abv, which stretches the line between regular and double IPA. You can scale back on the bittering hops if you wish.

 

[wowbeeryum]

It's not as simple to use more hops to achieve the same beer as a full volume boil brewer if topping off with 2 gallons of water. You won't have nearly the same tasting beer or the same mouthfeel. There's a lot more that comes into play with topping off than hop utilization.

What else comes in to play? If I'm planning for a partial boil I can't make great tasting beer? You are saying any partial boil beer is at best going to be mediocre? I'm honestly asking, not trying to pick a fight. From reading on here I was under the impression partial boils would mean lower hop utilization and darker color, but is generally unrelated to the taste of the final product (if using the right amount of hops).

 

[bobbrews]

If you're doing concentrated boils, you're never going to produce flawless beers, no matter what else you do. Late extract additions are helpful for those who do concentrated boils, but they're not a sub for a real full wort boil. Full wort boils provide better malt flavor through complex chemical reactions between the malt sugars, proteins, and hop acids that occur during the boil. Foam stability, efficiency / sugar extraction is greater. You don't have to worry as much about missing your OG. And melanoidin formation is lesser (which is good for pale styles because Maillard darkening is less desired in certain styles, like IPAs). Essentially, when you employ a partial boil with top off water, you dilute the flavor and the overall quality of beer in general, especially hop forward beers.

On hop utilization:

It is well established that 90-100 IBUs is the real maximum # of actual extracted IBUs. Anything more than this is what we call theoretical IBUs. It's not so simple to design a recipe with 150 IBUs, cut it in half to account for top off water dilution, and be left with 75 IBUs... it doesn't work that way.

Scenerio:

Using enough hops to achieve 90-100 IBUs...

3.5 gallon pre-boil
2.5 gallon after-boil
2.5 gallons of top off water
5.0 gallon batch

Here, the maximum extracted IBUs is cut by half. Therefore, it would be impossible to attain more than 45-50 extracted IBUs under this method... which barely scratches the surface for an American IPA. Brewing higher gravity partial boil IPAs will also affect the bittering to gravity ratio while increasing Maillard reactions, and giving you an even sweeter beer than originally anticipated with a very underwhelming bitterness.

 

[wowbeeryum]

Thanks for the info. I'd be willing to do a 3 gallon batch as long as it can still go in a 6.5 gallon bucket.

Any other thoughts on a basic ipa grain bill and hop schedule?

 

[bobbrews]

The headspace in the primary is not an issue. A rich, dense C02 blanket may actually be more beneficial...and you won't need to use a blow-off tube. I brew 3 to 4 gallon batches of IPAs in 5 or 6.5 gallon primary all the time. The only (minor) issue is that you cannot rack to the same secondary volume, which will introduce oxygen. So you need to stick with a 3-4 week primary throughout fermentation and conditioning.

What is your goal for this beer? Are there any commercial examples that you want to somewhat mimic with a few tweaks of your own?

 

[wowbeeryum]

something along the lines of deviant dales ipa would be awesome. think that's all or a lot of columbus.

 

[bobbrews]

That's a very sweet Imperial IPA, but it's only 8% / 85 IBUs. Get around 55-60 IBUs with the bittering addition then another 15-20 late in the boil. Pound it with dryhops at the rate of 0.75 oz. per gallon of beer. Consider big flameout additions as well. They probably use mash around 154 F and use 10-15% crystal with a low attenutating English yeast like Wyeast 1028, and something other than the typical American 2-row. FG is probably between 1.019-1.024

 

[wowbeeryum]

Thanks for the info. I'm not necessarily trying to clone that beer, but I do like the hop profile. Do I need to make a yeast starter for a 3 gallon batch with an OG of 1.061 (using 1056)? How do I decide on a mash temp? Suggestions?

Here is the recipe I came up with: http://hopville.com/recipe/1348649/american-ipa-recipes/columbus---simcoe-ipa