AIPA planned - comments welcome!

[gurtpint]

Seems like I'll be brewing next weekend and whipped up a recipe for an American IPA. Any comments/suggestions would be gratefully received.

(23L, 70% efficiency)

4800g pilsner
300g vienna
250g crystal 40
250g crystal 65
50g crystal 200
200g biscuit
200g amber
200g wheat

20g columbus aa16.2% 60mins
20g centennial aa12.3% 60mins
30g columbus 10mins
30g centennial 10mins
50g columbus flameout
50g centennial flameout

50g each of centennial + columbus, dry hop for 10 days

yeast: S-05

OG 1056
IBU 83
ABV 6%-ish

This is my first try with pilsner malt. Crystals for some backbone, biscuit + amber to imitate some toastiness. Inspiration by Stone IPA. Just got myself a nice little digital camera, so no excuses to not gather pictorial evidence this time

 

[Mark1964]

no cascade GP? looks fine though :thumb:

 

[puravida]

Nice to see the hops loaded up at flame out.
Looks like a beauty!!

When will you dry hop?
I've had good success dry hopping when I move to the secondary for a week before kegging so they go in after 2-3 weeks.

Never tried pilsner malt. Interested to hear how it differes from a Maris Otter.

Good luck!!

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Looks good, lots of late hops and dry hopping.

Them hops should work well together.

I tend to dry hop after the initial flurry of fermentation has finished, usually after a week.

 

[gurtpint]

Cheers gentlemen!

Mark - no Cascade this time. Never used the other two C hops before so I figured this might be a good way to get acquinted with their potential. I have 100g of Cascade though, but I was thinking of using them as late/aroma hops for a lower ABV summer pale ale. Actually I was thinking of pairing them with some English hops. I have EKG and Styrian Goldings at hand - do you think either would go well together with Cascade?

Puravida + Steve - I've been throwing the dry hops in after I've (just about) reached my FG. After two weeks or so. I rack the brew to a secondary to get it off the trub and then add the hops. I'll either go pantyhose shopping to get a hop bag or get hold of a jumbo-size tea/herb ball before this is due, as my attempts to use pantyhose as hop filter on my racking cane has yielded less than decent results. One of these maybe: http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Large-Jumbo ... 307&sr=1-1

 

[Good Ed]

Looks good Gurt; the only comments I would make are; aren't amber and biscuit the same, I thought biscuit was just a trade name for amber, also you might want to take on board a tip I learnt from Jamil while listening to one of his shows on http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com that if you use too many malts it all becomes a bit muddy and you lose the characteristics of each malt, it's all personal taste of course, and I'm sure you will brew a very nice beer, good luck :

ps well worth a listen to the Jamil Show on the AIPA style, just put it in the search and you can download the podcast

 

[phettebs]

I like the hop additions a lot. This is just my opinion, but that malt bill looks a bit busy for an AIPA. However, I tend to be a minimalist with my beers. My IPA is just American 2 row, some crystal 60, and 100% Centennial. For this beer, I throw my hops right in the keg (in a hop bag so they don't get caught in the dip tube.)

I think pilsner malt will be a good sub for 2 row if you can't get 2 row. Our 2 row is nowhere near the flavor profile of Maris Otter. It's quite bland!

Good luck GP and do post the pics!

Baz

 

[gurtpint]

aren't amber and biscuit the same

Good call Ed! I didn't realize they were so close to each other. I'll drop amber and go with the biscuit. Hmm, taking on board what you + Phettebs wrote I may simplify my recipe a bit. I ordered a bunch of new malts a while ago and I'm itching to try them but may have gotten a bit carried away as far as the malt bill is concerned. So far I've only used Finnish pale ale as my base malt and from what I've gathered it's nowhere near as toasty as MO and pilsner is likely to be even more bland, so I came up with the idea of adding some biscuit. It'll be interesting to see what pilsner is like. This is the sack I got from a local micro and actually the their head brewer told me they use more pilsner than pale ale in their brews, and they brew some class stuff. I was after pale ale but they were totally out of it... Wheat is again just for head retention, should get hold of some carapils to try for same purpose later on. I'll be sure to listen to that Jamil show when I find the time.

I'll be dropping the 200L crystal too, since I had the suspicion that the poor fellow might be in for a kicking by those big bad hops in the first place. Revised malt bill:

4800g pilsner
300g vienna
250g crystal 40
250g crystal 65
200g biscuit
200g wheat

 

[TheMumbler]

Personally I'd drop the biscuit (if it is the same as amber) as I find it needs a while to smooth out. Maybe up the vienna if you want a bit of malty flavour in there. Mind you I am no expert on American IPAs...

hope it turns out well

 

[Good Ed]

Personally I find that 2-3% of amber is very good for an IPA, it gives a nice bit of toasty/biscuit flavour, and with these beers you should really be letting them condition for 6-8 weeks, or longer, to get to their best and appreciate your brew.

But having said that, it's all personal taste

 

[artiums_enteri]

I'm curious why the wheat malt addition in pale and IPAs? I've never seen that before, even from pro breweries.

 

[gurtpint]

Mumbler & Ed - I'm just trying to get some toastiness into the mix, since pilsner malt is likely be rather bland. I'll give it a try and see if I like it. Biscuit makes up about 3% of my grain bill so I shouldn't be overdoing it. I'm generally speaking trying to give my brews at least 6 weeks before drinking them (ahem, the obligatory test bottles not included of course ) and I'm just finishing off my last bottles of oatmeal stout + bitter I made about a year ago. No rush.

Artiums - the wheat is purely for head retention. (Was this a Northern English thing originally?) I can't really detect the taste in the beer. I've tried flaked barley for similar purposes but with less than promising results. Carapils seems to be something people use for this, but I've never used it myself... yet.

Roll on Saturday! :

 

[artiums_enteri]

Carapils or dextrin malt gives you much more complex non-ferment able sugars which add to mouthfeel, body, and head retention.

 

[gurtpint]

^Will experiment!