IPA recipe help for a newbie!

[Nige]

Hi all, help needed!

I have brewed about half a dozen batches of various styles (extract + steeped grains) and I am having trouble getting a good IPA. I can do a real nice Bavarian Wheat so I think its a recipe issue and not a brewing process problem.

I believe my first IPA was too sweet because I used 1kg of crystal malt (in a 23L batch). My second one was a rubbish colour and too bitter which I put down to using the wrong extract and too much bittering hops. I have been surfing the net for recipes to figure out where I am going wrong and came up with the recipe below.

 

Very keen to know if the below recipe looks sensible? I am particularly unsure about the ratio of crystal to carapils and munich grains as I am just starting to learn their various characteristics.

 

Batch size 12L (half batch in case it’s another fail)

 

0.85kg Briess Golden Light malt extract

0.85kg Briess Sparkling Amber malt extract

250g Pale Crystal

125g Carapils

50g Munich

 

25g Chinook @ 60m

25g Chinook @ 30m

50g Cascade @ 1m

 

Saf US-05 ale yeast

 

Thanks in advance, any other suggestions welcome!

[David R]

Are you specifically trying to use those hops for a particular reason?

I think the best thing to do would be to look at recipes for some of the IPAs you've tried and liked. One of my favourites is Green Flash West Coast IPA, 7.3% ABV and 95 IBU (according to their website), here's the recipe to give you an idea of the amount of hops you should [IMO] be using if you're trying to create a "big" bitter US-IPA style beer; http://www.brewprint.com/recipe/green+flash+west+coast+ipa+clone

You could easily substitute the base malt for extract, steep the crystal and carapils and create a pretty damn good rendition of this beer with the fresh US hops Brewers Coop have just got in.

[Barry]

Chinook and Cascade are fine hops for an American IPA, just sayin.

[David R]

For sure, this was about the first IPA I brewed; http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/random-ipa-6

If the OP has the Chinook and Cascade and wants to use them up then he could easily make a great beer with them, thought for me I'd add either more Cascade or something fruitier like Centennial to balance out the peppery Chinook. Move the 30 minute addition to ~10min plus a big addition at 0 left to steep for a bit before cooling, and probably some dry hopping too. If I brewed the above beer again I'd most certainly let it stand for ten minutes before cooling to let the late additions do their thing, and perhaps increase the dry hops and late hops a bit, coupled with a bit more bitterness (~65-70IBU for a 7% beer). And perhaps just a little more Chinook!

[Barry]

^^ like.

[Nige]

I am working my way through the hop varieties at the moment to familiarise myself a bit. I have made IPA's with Nelson Sauvin + Cascade, Simcoe + Cascade etc... Chinook + Cascade seemed like as good an idea as any!

Thanks for the recipe, will add it to the list!

 

[David R]

Thats a really good idea, and something I'd like/need to do more of to help get an idea of the individual hop flavours. My last two brews were two identical 4% golden/lawnmower/pale ales one with Citra and one with Amarillo [and both bittered with Pacific Jade] to A; provide something tasty but light for summer drinking and B; compare the flavours of the two hop varieties. If I'm happy with the beer I'll probably brew another two with Simcoe and maybe Centennial or something local.

[Peter Smith]

Try the above recipe with Riwaka at the end..... (still pac jade to bitter)    YUMMY

Goes down well with non homebrew drinkers if you us05 at 15C for a few weeks....  mind you if you have enough temp control to do 15C for a few weeks perhaps its time to try and jump into the pils/larger game....

these smash type beers are a fantastic way to learn to home brew, if you buy a bag of gp or gladdys ale , reuse the us05 or whatever is your house strain...  the 10-13g of pac jade is less then $1 the bulk grain bag is not much and a little carapils/acid malt   100g of your chosen hop for late addtion / dry hop...  and your brewing for $20-$25 a batch....

[Richard Rice]

I'm about to bottle an IPL (a lager hopped like an IPA!) but I used Ale malts, US05 and fermented at 15C for just over two weeks.  Has been lagering for 4.  Bottling this weekend and can't wait to see how it turns out!  Used Nugget for bittering, Citra and Nelson Sauvin, each with multiple additions right up to flameout.

[Peter Smith]

I reckon you will be well pleased with it, what pushed me into the full pilsner route was the malt profile of the gladdys ale I was using,   even tho the us05 was super clean (or perhaps because it was)   I could taste the ale malt (on the first bottle at least the rest slid down easy enough in a multiple bottle sitting).   

I got a sack of the Gladdys pilsner malt to play with and the first batches are a week into the ferment at 10C.  Being gifted our old house fridge helped as well as it pretty much ties up your temp control for a few months otherwise...

The bar is set high - emmersons pilsner.... and tuatara helles  side by side tastings

[David R]

Yeah Riwaka sounds like a good one to try, though I believe you have to be fast to get hold of it! Unfortunately I haven't got a temp controlled fridge set up [yet] so lagering is out of the question, I do have a cool spare bedroom with a heatpump though so 17-18C is no trouble.

[Grant R Baker]

Riwaka does finish a brew well... I liek it with Fuggles and Pacfic Gem in Bitters.  I made a NZ IPA with it once but the beer was unbalanced.

[Nige]

In the end I brewed this, bottled last Saturday. Lots of good advice above esp. re balancing the malt/bitterness and ditching the Munich grains. Decided to brew a full size batch after all the effort.

Looks and tastes the business, not sure if I can wait a month for it to bottle condition! Thanks for all the help everyone!

Ingredients

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
0.25 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (39.4 EBC)	Grain	1	5.7 %
0.15 kg	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC)	Grain	2	3.4 %
3.00 kg	Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC)	Extract	3	68.2 %
1.00 kg	Amber Liquid Extract (24.6 EBC)	Extract	4	22.7 %
30.00 g	Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	5	24.1 IBUs
20.00 g	Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min	Hop	6	5.2 IBUs
20.00 g	Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min	Hop	7	12.3 IBUs
20.00 g	Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min	Hop	8	3.4 IBUs
20.00 g	Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min	Hop	9	8.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg	Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]	Yeast	10	-
60.00 g	Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days	Hop	11	0.0 IBUs

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.9 %
Bitterness: 53.0 IBUs
Est Color: 20.3 EBC