Thoughts on an IPA recipe

[brewjamin_Franklin]

Hey Guys (and Gals)

I'm looking for a little feed back on an IPA recipe I'm putting together. I'm mostly wondering if its simply too many hops for the grain bill (and I'm born and raised in Oregon, so hops are my friend).

7# Light LME
1# Briess light DME
.5# Cara-Pils
.5# Crystal 10L

Add 1 tsp of Gypsum then Steep grains at 155 for 30 minutes.

Once it comes to a boil add all of the extract (I know I should probably switch to late addition, that's a debate for a different thread though).

Hop Schedule:
1 oz Amarillo @ 60 min
1 oz Citra @ 15 min (also add 1 tab Whirlfloc)
1 oz Citra & Amarillo @ 10 min
1 oz Amarillo @ 5 min
1 oz Citra & Amarillo @ F.O.

I'm planning on Dry hopping, but haven't decided on what. I'm leaning towards more Citra and Amarillo, but I'm open to suggestions of other hops that might play nice.

For yeast I plan on using US-05 and fermenting in a closet, so it should be around 68 degrees, but I have limited control.

Thoughts and criticism are appreciated

 

[bobbrews]

That's not a ton of hops for the typical 5 gallon batch of AIPA. You could even use more hops from 30-0. I'd add 1/2 oz. at 30 and bump all of the late additions up 1/2 oz. each. The Flameout addition could be a whole 2 oz.

In equal proportions, Citra and Amarillo are a great combo in the dryhop. I'd dryhop this at the rate of 0.50 oz. dryhops per gallon of beer.

The one thing I will definitely stress is that you should bitter this at 60 min. with something other than Citra or Amarillo. Columbus would be a good choice.

Removing 7-10% of your extract and substituting it with an equal amount of corn sugar or table sugar will really help this beer a lot in terms of attaining more of that signature AIPA dryness. You don't need carapils though since about 5% is already inherent in most Extract... adding it won't hurt though. Just an FYI.

 

[Xpertskir]

I would replace some of the DME with corn sugar. When I was brewing extract IPAs I had a hard time getting the FG down where I wanted it unless I used a simple sugar in the bill.

 

[Yooper]

Why the gypsum? Are you using distilled water, or is your water really low in minerals?

Overall, I like it! I think it'll be a nice beer. I'd probably bitter with something neutral, and save the amarillo for dryhopping, and use a higher AAU% hop to give a firmer bitterness. Warrior would be a good choice, but you could also use magnum and galena, perhaps horizon or columbus. I'd look for something at least 12-13% AAUs.

 

[PJoyce85]

Why the gypsum? Are you using distilled water, or is your water really low in minerals?

Overall, I like it! I think it'll be a nice beer. I'd probably bitter with something neutral, and save the amarillo for dryhopping, and use a higher AAU% hop to give a firmer bitterness. Warrior would be a good choice, but you could also use magnum and galena, perhaps horizon or columbus. I'd look for something at least 12-13% AAUs.

I like the Columbus for bittering. I've made IPA's with Citra using Columbus for bittering and they were great.

 

[sidepart]

That's a pretty similar recipe (except it's extract instead of AG) to the one that won me best in show at a recent competition. I'll echo others by saying that you might want a better bittering hop for the 60 minute mark.

Cascade is pretty popular, but I feel like it gives a sort of astringent or... garden dirt after taste I guess. Columbus is all around neutral and clean.

 

[brewjamin_Franklin]

I'm standing in line, so I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I know the Amarillo were 10%+.

For what it's worth the FO was two oz. one of each of them

Finally I threw in the gypsum because we do have very soft water in portland and at some point someone told me it helped bring out the hop flavor.

I'll double check everything when I'm in front of a real computer but thanks for the input. That's what's great about this community, it really has people's best interest in mind and helping teach people how to make better beer