First brew question

[cboboyo]

Hi everyone. I am about to do my first homebrew. I ordered midwest's hop head dipa. Im a big fan of super hoppy beers and not so much of certain ipa's or other beers that have a real malty/sweet presence, even if they are hoppy. In the description of the beer it says it has double the malt of the normal ipa. It concerns me a little because i do not want to brew a beer that i won't enjoy. Has anyone that has tried this beer have a problem with the malt presence. Would it be possible to not use all of the malt provided or would that really unbalance it. I am a complete newb so please bare with me if im not asking the right questions. Thanks in advance for any of your replies and suggestions,
Chris

 

[fishersfirst]

What amount of hops are you using?
The more hop bitterness you add will usually mean needing a bit more malt to give the beer some backbone so it can stand up to the hop bitterness and help balance it a bit. This doesn't mean that your beer will be malty.

Can you post some details of the recipe?

 

[DocScott]

I haven't had this beer before but midwests kits are pretty good. What is the OG/FG listed on the recipe? I think that as long as it finished sub 1.016 or so, it will be pretty dry. If you want, you can sub some of your fermentables for table sugar (table sugar ferments out completely which can help to finish lower/less sweet). Is it all grain or extract? If mashing, mash low to make it more fermentable and make sure to pitch enough yeast. Also, aerate really well before pitching. All of these can help your beer ferment out.

Trouble with iipas is that the hops can really change the perceived bitterness/sweetness and I'd probably stick with the recipe for the first go around.

 

[flars]

Everyones palate and brewing technique/procedures is different. If two people brew the same recipe the resulting beer will be different in some way. The best way to start out is to follow the recipe. Concentrate on brewing technique. Keep thorough notes on every part of the process to the first taste. If it doesn't totally suit you then tweak the recipe or the brewing process.