Help with first IPA Recipe

[brnooewb]

Hello all. I'm pretty new here but I've been lurking for quite some time. I have a while 8 brews under my belt and 2 of those are BIAB all grain.
I just planted some hops this year.
Centennial
Columbus
Cascade
And MTV hood.
I'm wanting to make a House Hop IPA basically just using the hop varieties I'm growing. Is like something with a decently high ABV and a nice but not overly bitterness.
I attached a photo of the recipe.
This is my first attempt building a IPA



so if I'm totally missing something please let me know.
Thanks!

 

[theveganbrewer]

Looks pretty good to me. I'd be concerned about the 1.019 FG personally, that is way too high for me, lots of residual sweetness there. Depends on your tastes, I prefer 1.010-1.012 IPAs, I wouldn't go over 1.016.

 

[Xpertskir]

Generally looks good, especially since you are only 8 batches in.


at mid 1070's you are starting to get into IIPA territory, which means more IBUs and more hops than in your current recipe.

I would either back down the OG to mid 1060's or up the hops and IBUs.

What is your mash temp? A FG of 1019 seems way high for that bill, especially considering 5% corn sugar.



I'd move the 20 min to 15. Either way if you increase hops or decrease gravity I would also add a flame out addition or hopstand. I would also dry hop with no less than 2 ounces, 3-4 would be better.

 

[frazier]

^^ I agree about bumping up the late hops. Personally I would double everything from 10 minutes on in, and include an ounce of each at flameout.

As for the FG, I know that brewing software just throws out that number as a WAG. But you should do everything you can to get the most fermentable wort possible - low mash temp, good aeration, lots of healthy yeast.

Cheers!

 

[cluckk]

I usually try to have the IBU's on an IPA almost 1:1 with the gravity, or even a little higher. So for a 1.076 gravity I would shoot for IBU's of around 76 or so.

 

[Xpertskir]

I usually try to have the IBU's on an IPA almost 1:1 with the gravity, or even a little higher. So for a 1.076 gravity I would shoot for IBU's of around 76 or so.

This idea has always confused me. Hop bitterness/malt sweetness balance happens at FG not OG. Depending on mash temp, the percentage of specialty malts, and yeast attenuation the FG can have little to do with the OG.


I generally target a range of IBU's for point of FG, and IMO its very personal to taste.

say 1012-1014 40-75, 1014-1016 75-100, and > 1016 >100

more often than not I am in the middle bracket

 

[pfgonzo]

Agree with the above posters. Your anticipated ABV is within 0.03% of jumping from IPA into IIPA according to the style guidelines, and if you attenuate lower than 1.019, you'll definitely hit that.

Even if it stops at 1.019, that's fine. IIPAs can be sweeter than IPAs. The great thing about homebrewing is you get to experiment. If you make your recipe as described, you will make a tasty brew. It won't disappoint, but you may think about possible future modifications if you decide to re-brew it. That said, the biggest recommendation I would give on your recipe is to double your dry hop addition (at least). I happen to love what simcoe does to IPAs, so instead of doubling the cascade, I'd add another ounce, or ounce and a half of simcoe.

Happy brewing!

 

[brnooewb]

First off thanks everyone for the feedback.

I'm thinking about mashing at either 148-150 to hopefully get a less sweet wort. Should I lose the dextrose, or drop some of my grain to get the OG down?
Also I had it in there to just pitch one packet of yeast, would it be best to use two packs or make a starter?

And I'll double the late hop additions!
Thanks for the advice about the simcoe, I'll use it on another IPA when I do one. For now I kinda just want to play with the hop varieties I have growing in the garden.

 

[cluckk]

First off thanks everyone for the feedback.

I'm thinking about mashing at either 148-150 to hopefully get a less sweet wort. Should I lose the dextrose, or drop some of my grain to get the OG down?
Also I had it in there to just pitch one packet of yeast, would it be best to use two packs or make a starter?

And I'll double the late hop additions!
Thanks for the advice about the simcoe, I'll use it on another IPA when I do one. For now I kinda just want to play with the hop varieties I have growing in the garden.

If your going to lower the gravity, best to simply drop the dextrose.

 

[Jipper]

brnooewb,

Recipe looks pretty good, and I personally love the hop combination (Col, Cen, Cas). If you're growing these hops though, are you going to use them as wet hop or dry hops? If you're using wet hops just know that you'll need to bump the weight up A LOT. 1oz. at 60 minutes will not provide you with much bitterness...

Also, the AA% of the hops will probably be unknown unless you send them in to a lab (or have the ability to measure AA% at home - if so let me know!) When I use my hops, I generally use them as the late additions, so that I'm able to calculate my IBUs more accurately. If your 60 minute hop addition is 10% AA vs. 16% AA, you're going to have a dramatically different result.

Hopefully this helps!