IPA Modification

[maynardtl8]

Hi everyone! New to the forums but ive been brewing for a couple years now. Ive been looking for some opinions on how to modify my favorite IPA kit i got from midwest supplies. Its the Octane IPA extract kit if youre curious. I want to turn it into an Imperial IPA with a little more hop character. Heres the break down of it:

6 lbs Gold LME
3.3 lbs Amber LME
8 oz Caramel 40*L specialty
2 oz Cascade hops
1 oz Willamette hops
1 oz Golding hops
Wyeast British Ale #1098
and a couple ozs of oak chips in the secondary.
2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary.
SG: 1.082

I only got about 6.5% ABV in this batch but i want more. I think the SG seems high enough so i might not add anymore extract except for maybe a pound or so of DME. And ill either add one more oz of cascade or willamette to the boil for some more hop flavor. Should I just give it more time in the primary/secondary and give it swirl every once in a while? Or should i add more yeast when i rack over to the secondary? Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[kombat]

With an O.G. of 1.082, to finish at 6.5% ABV would mean your F.G. was in the neighborhood of 1.030, which is extremely high. All the fermentables are from LME, so efficiency can't be a factor. Can you elaborate on why you ended up with only a 6.5% beer with such a high starting gravity? Surely the beer is cloyingly sweet, no?

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

No way you're getting an SG of 1.082 with those malt additions. Maybe 1.065 which would put you around your 6.5% abv.

So if you really want an imperial IPA you're going to need to add several more lbs of gold/light malt extract to up the SG to around the 1.082 or above. More cascade or willamette hops are a great place to start- I don't know when they are added in the recipe you have but you're probably going to want up the bittering hops at the beginning of the boil a bit and also add some more around the 15 to 5 minute marks to get more aroma.

There are lots of websites that have calculator to help you figure out what you need to add to your ABV and IBU requirements for an IIPA. God luck!

Oh, and don't add more yeast if/when you transfer to secondary. Be sure to let it ferment out completely before bottle/kegging/transferring (a month for a IIPA).

 

[Yooper]

For an IIPA, I'd definitely get rid of the amber extract, and use light or extra light extract instead. In addition, I'd add a pound of corn sugar and increase the hops.

 

[maynardtl8]

Ok sorry guys. I was trying to remember my SG from memory but now i checked out my beersmith software. My SG was 1.069 and my FG was 1.017 giving me about 6.9% ABV. Im hoping to modify this to get maybe 10%. Other than more hops i dont want to change anything else about the beer. Would just plain corn sugar be the way to go to raise my SG without affecting the beer recipe?

 

[kombat]

Adding dextrose will raise your ABV, yes, but note that you can't just have the exact same beer with higher alcohol and have it taste exactly the same. That higher alcohol content will be detectable in the flavour. Also, if you bottle carb, note that your yeast could give up at such a high ABV, so that when you try to bottle carb, they've got nothing left, and you could end up with flat beer. You may need to add some champagne yeast, which again, will have another subtle effect on the flavour.

 

[bobbrews]

The recipe in the opener is more of an English IPA / Amber hybrid. Is this what you desire? Or do you want a pale, hoppy American Imperial IPA? And yes, the OG seems off for that amount of fermentables.

Adding 1 lb. Corn sugar on top of the Extract is not the proper procedure... Instead you would replace 1 lb. of Extract with the Corn sugar, since the latter is nearly 100% fermentable.

Technically adding sugar will not make the beer drier, because the final gravity will not change. However, it will subjectively seem drier from a 'dry for its ABV' perspective (because you increased the ABV without increasing the final gravity.)

Some will say that since alcohol is less dense than water, you will lower the FG and thin the beer out by adding sugar. But the impact of that phenomenon (for the amount of sugar we're talking about) on the FG is pretty small.

 

[maynardtl8]

My suspicion that the SG seems low compared to the amount of fermentables is because i used all liquid extract instead of dry extract. That additional water weight in the liquid is whats keeping me from getting as much gravity in the wort. And yes, its an english IPA hybrid but i choose to hybridize it even more because i want to try my hand at getting creative and thinking outside the box a little. The beer i have now has a nice malty, semi-sweet body to it so a little more dryness may be ok. Can I maybe add 1 lb dry pale malt and 1 lb corn sugar to get the extra kick out of it but still seem balanced?