My IPA recipe - make it larger and better

[wowbeeryum]

Back in May I brewed my 4th beer and first ever IPA. I did some reading on here, asked a few basic questions, then came up with my own recipe (for better or worse). The recipe: http://hopville.com/recipe/1356063/american-ipa-recipes/columbus---simcoe-ipa-remix

It was recommended that I do a full boil, to keep it hoppy and good. I'm still working on an electric stove top so I shot for a 3 gallon final volume. I boiled off a little more than I thought and had to top up with about a half gallon of water. Either way, the beer is absolutely delicious and I can see I'm going to run through it super quickly (being that I only got about 27 bottles out of it). At this point it has huge hop flavor and solid hop aroma. Not much malt character to it that I can discern.

I'd like to make this beer again, but experiment/try it as a 5 gallon batch (so not a full boil) and make other tweaks to the recipe as needed to make it a better beer. My original IPA wasn't super high in IBUs so I'm hoping/going to find out if I can duplicate it on a larger scale using a partial boil.

I've done additional reading since brewing this and learned I used too much crystal. In my revised recipe I've toned the crystal down and increased the amount of mashing grains (I've gained equipment). My big concern is how to structure the hop additions to keep it like it is (hoppy).

My initial thought is to just double every hop addition (so 100% more hops), and I added a 15 minute Columbus addition to keep everything uniform. Being that I'm increasing the volume by 60%, I was hoping everything would balance out into 5 gallons of the same beer. The theoretical IBUs are now 78 (previously was 62). The OG is the same as before.

The revised recipe is here: http://hopville.com/recipe/1480429/american-ipa-recipes/columbus---simcoe-ipa---5-gal

I would really appreciate your thoughts, feedback, etc.

*edit* and if you really don't believe I can make just as good of a beer with a partial boil I'd like to hear that too (I would be topping up from 2.5 gallons post boil to 5). Quality is still important here.

 

[TopherM]

Too much crystal 80 would lead to a more malty and bittersweet beer. You stated that your beer had no malt character that shined through, so it sounds like you had a good balance of the crystal, not too much. Toning the crystal down is going to decrease the malt character, so you are likely to taste more hop bitterness and flavor, which doesn't sounds like what you are trying to accomplish.

I don't think you want to add more crystal either, as you don't want the excess sweetness, but you seem to have it in pretty good balance, so you probably don't want to decrease it either. I think you may want to add the same amount as the old recipe (then scaled up to the higher volume batch), but use Crystal 60 instead of 80 to tone down the bitterness and have a tad more sweet, carmely malt character.

You are right on adding the extra base grain to bump the base malt character, then add about an extra 0.5 ounces of JUST the 60 min. Columbus bittering hop to keep the hop balance. This will up the base malt character but keep the hops in about the same balance.

THEN scale everything up to the larger batch size. Make sense?

That's just about WWJPD (What would John Palmer do).

 

[bobbrews]

and if you really don't believe I can make just as good of a beer with a partial boil I'd like to hear that too (I would be topping up from 2.5 gallons post boil to 5). Quality is still important here.

Count me in. I think the single most important factor when it comes to brewing an excellent, and I mean excellent quality beer (especially an IPA), is to implement a full volume boil. There are no substitutions, tricks, or ways around it.

Take a look at my recipes. I do a lot of smaller, full volume boil IPAs.

http://hopville.com/brewer/bobbrews

 

[wowbeeryum]

Too much crystal 80 would lead to a more malty and bittersweet beer. You stated that your beer had no malt character that shined through, so it sounds like you had a good balance of the crystal, not too much. Toning the crystal down is going to decrease the malt character, so you are likely to taste more hop bitterness and flavor, which doesn't sounds like what you are trying to accomplish.

I don't think you want to add more crystal either, as you don't want the excess sweetness, but you seem to have it in pretty good balance, so you probably don't want to decrease it either. I think you may want to add the same amount as the old recipe (then scaled up to the higher volume batch), but use Crystal 60 instead of 80 to tone down the bitterness and have a tad more sweet, carmely malt character.

You are right on adding the extra base grain to bump the base malt character, then add about an extra 0.5 ounces of JUST the 60 min. Columbus bittering hop to keep the hop balance. This will up the base malt character but keep the hops in about the same balance.

THEN scale everything up to the larger batch size. Make sense?

That's just about WWJPD (What would John Palmer do).

Thanks for the info. I've revised the recipe based on your input. I subbed the 60 for 80 and kept it and the wheat at similar percentages as my original beer. I tripled the 60 minute addition (added the .5 oz you suggested) and then raised every other addition by 66ish%. OG is the same as first beer, IBUs are now 71 (original beer was 61). Link: http://hopville.com/recipe/1484675/...umbus---simcoe-ipa---5-gal-2012-06-28-version

Do you think this will turn out a similar tasting beer (assuming everything else in the process goes normally)? I have a hard time understanding how the software comes up with IBUs with a partial boil. Do I continue to shoot for 61 IBUs and let the software work its magic, or do I need to overshoot on the hops to end back up where I want to be?

 

[wowbeeryum]

Count me in. I think the single most important factor when it comes to brewing an excellent, and I mean excellent quality beer (especially an IPA), is to implement a full volume boil. There are no substitutions, tricks, or ways around it.

Take a look at my recipes. I do a lot of smaller, full volume boil IPAs.

http://hopville.com/brewer/bobbrews

I need to get some additional opinions from some of the true beer lovers I know, but I think it turned out well initially (minus the fact that I over carbed it a bit). You were actually the one that convinced me to do a full(ish) boil over a partial. What you said makes sense, that you can't make a beer 200 IBUs then dilute down to 100. But what if you only need to dilute by 60% to get to 60 IBUs. Shouldn't that be possible?

 

[tre9er]

Problem is, smaller the boil, more hops you have to use. Utilization goes down. Higher gravity also affects utilization.