Help with this IPA recipe

[paulm287]

Just wanted to see what you all thought about this IPA recipe. I'm still using extracts:

1 lb Dingemans caramel pils
6 lbs Gold malt syrup
1 oz columbus at 60 minutes
1 oz centennial at 15 minutes
1 oz cascade at 5 minutes
2 oz amarillo dry hopped

Safale US-05 yeast



Just trying to get an idea about how this will taste. How long should I secondary it? It will be transferred from secondary to keg and I thought about "bottle conditioning" it in keg instead of force carbonating it.

[beerking]

Your malt bill and hop bill are both light for style. You will only get an OG of about 1.050 from that, and the bottom of the IPA category is 1.056 (range is 1.056 to 1,075). You also only have ~39 IBUs, and the low end of IPA is 40 (range of 40-72).
If you want an APA, you are fine. But if you want an IPA, I would add another 3# LME, and 1 oz Centennial for 30 minutes. This will give you an OG of ~1.070 and IBUs of about 53.

[markaberrant]

I would also ditch the carapils, or at least cut it back to 1/2 lb, you don't want a lot of body in an IPA.

If you are going to keg it, just go straight from primary to keg. Primary for 10-14 days (make sure fermentation is complete), put dry hops in nylon sock, attach sock to keg diptube, and rack your beer in. Start drinking in about 10-14 days after transferring to keg.

[beerking]

I don't think you have to ditch the Carapils. I have an IPA that I have made at least 6 times that uses 12.5# Pale, .75# Carapils and 1# Crystal 60L. While I have played around a lot with the hop profile, the malt bill is meant to be a Celebration clone, and has hit it pretty well. The all Columbus hop version turned out extremely well, even if I do say so myself. Several pro-brewers have told me how good they think it is.
Bottom line is that a good IPA needs a decent malt backbone to balance the malt, and some darker or more complex malts are often just the ticket.

[dparsons]

I'm on the side of moderation with the caramel malt addition. A little is good, a lot makes it syrupy. My IPA recipe has a little under 10% of the grist devoted to caramel type malts and it pushes it for an IPA. Your recipe has over 10% in addition to LME, which frequently has some unfermentables. I'd cut the caramel pils by half in addition to adding more LME as beerking recommended. If you like dryer IPAs you can probably drop the carapils altogether as Mark suggested, leaving the unfermentables to the LME.

[beerking]

dparsons makes some good points. My recipe is all grain, and I was not really taking any crystal in the LME/DME into account.
It really does come down to personal preference. There are plenty of dry IPAs out there that use little or no crystal or the like, and there are also plenty that use quite a bit. Both are good. Celebration probably has the biggest crystal character of the mainstream IPAs. I like that, so it works for me. On the balance side, I have found getting enough hop FLAVOR (not bittereness, not aroma, although they count too) into the beer is very important with that much crystal.
I hope we aren't confusing you too much here. Both of us are correct, it comes down to what you have on hand, and what you prefer. That is part of the fun of homebrewing. You will get a good beer either way, its just a question of which you prefer most. Pick a route and try it!
Have fun!!

[markaberrant]

Well said Beerking!

[Mad Scientist]

I agree as well, but I am quite suprised that 1oz of Columbus at 60 minutes only results in an IBU of 39 together with the other hops. What AA did you use in the calculation beerking? I find that when ever I use a high AA hop like that, I have to tread very lightly to make sure I do not over bitter....unless we are talking an IIPA :)

Also, why not some crystal 40 or 20, at 0.5lb or so instead of the carapils.

If you decide to secondary, instead of going straight to the keg (i usually secondary), then two to three weeks is plenty.

[beerking]

I don't have my laptop here, but IIRC I used 12.2% because that is what I have.

[Mad Scientist]

Sounds a bit on the low for columbus..I usually get them at 14% or more.., oh well, I had some cascade that were close to 8% once.

Some thing that came to mind is what is his equipment set up? If he is doing a concentrated boil, i.e. boil two gallons the dilute to 5, then he is going to suffer a serious loss of hop utilization...

Paul, care to tell us what you equipment and process is?

[beerking]

Sounds a bit on the low for columbus..I usually get them at 14% or more.., oh well, I had some cascade that were close to 8% once.

I have seen some pretty low AA levels since this whole hops shortage thing started. I have 8 oz of Hallertauer at home that is 1.5% AA. I intend using it as a flavor aroma hop, and puptting a BUNCH in so I can get a good strong flavor and aroma without getting it too hoppy.

Some thing that came to mind is what is his equipment set up? If he is doing a concentrated boil, i.e. boil two gallons the dilute to 5, then he is going to suffer a serious loss of hop utilization...

Good point.