IPA Recipe help

[Stratotankard]

So here's my situation...
The club I belong to is having a brew day at a local brewpub. The brewpub is providing us with their "base pale wort." I think it's made with just 2-row, but I don't have any idea what kind of gravity it has.


I have on hand 0.5# of Crystal 60, 1oz of Willamette [4.6%]pellets, and 2oz of Ammarillo [9.9%] plugs. I also have WLP005 British Ale Yeast.

Given all of this I was thinking of making something like Diamond Bear Brewery's Presidential IPA, though with a little less bitterness, but trying to keep lots of hop aromas and a nice coppery color.

Looking at other recipes here I've come up with this for a 5.5 gallon batch. I took some liberties with the 2 row amount since I don't really know.

13.0 lbs Pale Malt (2-row)
0.5 lbs Crystal 60L

0.5oz Amarillo 60 min
0.5oz Amarillo 45 min
0.5oz Amarillo 30 min
0.5oz Amarillo 15 min
0.5oz Willamette 10 min
0.5oz Willamette 0 min

Anticipated OG: 1.067
Anticipated FG: 1.015
Anticipated IBU: 50
ABV: 6.5%

I'm looking for any suggestions you might have. There are still a couple days until the Big Brew Day so I have time to get any additions from the LHBS.

Cheers

Terje

 

[Blender]

I would say that your bittering is a bit low if indeed the OG will be in the 1.067 range. I would shoot for more of one to one ratio on the IBU's and the OG. Actually I am not positive but 50 IBU may fall into the Pale Ale range.

 

[Stratotankard]

Update to the brew day. The wort we were supplied was all 2-row malt and had a pre-boil OG of 1.045. As far as the hops go I only changed a couple of things. So here's what I've got.

5.5gal 2 row Wort 1.045
0.5lb Crystal 60L Steeped 30min@170F

1.0oz Amarillo 60min
0.5oz Amarillo 30min
0.5oz Amarillo 15min
0.5oz Willamette 10 min
0.5oz Willamette 5min

As a note, it was very dry and windy today and due to evaporation and a small oversight of leaving my spigot open on my fermenter I ended up with a total of 4gal in the bucket. Couple of questions... Should I just add some boiled water to top it up to 5 gal or leave it be and make a smaller batch. If I have to I can move it to may 5 gallon secondary and ferment it there. I'm not really sure how this will turn out, but it smells great right now. I'm assuming my OG will increase some from the preboil amount. I didn't have my hydrometer with me and I'm kinda waiting to see what folks suggest before I check.

Thanks

Terje

 

[scinerd3000]

this gives you an initial idea.

 

[Stratotankard]

Finally got around to bottling this. I had moved to the secondary after 2 weeks and SG was 1.012 and holding.
Dry hopped for 3 weeks with 2oz of Willamette in the secondary. In the future I will put the hop pellets in a mesh bag and weight it down with some marbles. My hops stayed on the top for most of the 3 weeks. After a few swirls they would sink to the bottom but after an hour or so they would all float back to the top.
I took another gravity reading before I bottled and it was down to 1.008 (seems a little low but I'm not sure)
I primed 5 gallons with 5oz of dextrose boiled in 1 cup of water and racked to the bottling bucket/primary. (I really need to buy another bucket so I don't have to wait until a batch is bottled to start a new batch)
Got to try out my new wing capper since i finally saved enough Sam Adams and Hobgoblin glass to switch over from the 30oz PET behemoths that came with my first kit.
It has a nice orange/copper color with a bit of a haze. The smell is awesome hoppy/citrus and very in your face about it. The initial taste is good with powerful hop aromas and an almost fruity character. There's not a lot of malt taste to it and the finish is a nice smooth bitterness, not biting. I'm not sure it's quite bitter enough to be a real IPA but my calculator says it falls in the range. All around I'm very happy with this one. Definately my best effort so far.

Cheers

Terje

 

[tagz]

the 1.008 might explain the thinner body. what yeast did you use?

 

[Stratotankard]

I used WLP005 British Ale yeast. I was a little surprised that it dropped another 4 points after it stopped for 3 days at 1.012 in the primary. Maybe my swirling to try and get my hops to sink reactivated the yeasties. Oh well, still tastes great!

Cheers!
Terje

 

[Stratotankard]

Cracked one open to test tonight. Probably needs a bit more time in the bottle, but it tastes great! The hop aroma really hits you, but there isn't a ton of bitterness. (maybe I'm just becoming a hop head and don't notice it any more ) There wasn't a lot head or carbonation, but that's most likely since I grabbed this one a little early.
I really wish this were more copper colored. As is it's a dark amber with just a touch of orange. More Crystal 60L perhaps next time?
Overall, a nice drinkable IPA just a bit low on the IBUs. Needs a bit of refining, but I'll be brewing this again for sure. :rockin:

Cheers

Terje