Simcoe IPA

[JohnnyR]

This was my first beer for about fifteen years. I'm a big fan of Brewdog beers (I'm drinking one now, in fact) and I was thrilled to find all their recipes online at https://www.brewdog.com/diydog, so I thought for my first brew I'd pick one at random and try it.

4.75kg pale malt
32g caramalt
6g (!) dark crystal malt
32g Munich malt

Mashed at 65 degrees for an hour and a half, then batch sparged to 5 gallons (my first mistake!)

The official recipe calls for:

2.5g Simcoe at start of boil
25g Simcoe middle of boil
37.5g Simcoe end of boil
250g Simcoe dry hop

But this seemed ridiculous to me, and my scales don't measure in half grams, so I did:

55g start of boil
25g middle of boil
25g end of boil
approx 200g in the copper for half an hour after the boil had ended (instead of dry hopping)

I ended up with three gallons of beer, and topped it up to 5 gallons with cold water. This was a mistake as my OG was around 1042 and should have been, er, 1065. Next time I'll collect 6.5 gallons of wort and boil down to 5 gallons.

It'll be ready in three weeks. It's fermenting nicely, it smells delicious and I managed to taste a bit of it today when I pippetted some off to see how the fermentation was going. Veyr hoppy and quite floral, right up my street! I'll let you know how the finished product tastes when it's done ...

 

[dan125]

Well done for getting back in the saddle :hat:
Simcoe is a great hop so this should turn out nice, but 55g at the start of the boil sounds like quite a lot for a high AA hop. Have you worked out how many IBUs in the brew?

:

 

[YeastFace]

Well done for getting back in the saddle :hat:
Simcoe is a great hop so this should turn out nice, but 55g at the start of the boil sounds like quite a lot for a high AA hop. Have you worked out how many IBUs in the brew?

:

Agree with this. You'll be looking at 70+IBU from that addition alone.

 

[JohnnyR]

Wow. I never got too involved with the science of it back in the day, but I do like a hoppy beer and it tastes ok so far, so let's hope it works! I based it on another recipe I found somewhere for a Simcoe IPA clone which called for 2oz hops at the start of the boil. How would I go about working out IBU ratings then?

 

[strange-steve]

Wow. I never got too involved with the science of it back in the day, but I do like a hoppy beer and it tastes ok so far, so let's hope it works! I based it on another recipe I found somewhere for a Simcoe IPA clone which called for 2oz hops at the start of the boil. How would I go about working out IBU ratings then?

However most people use recipe software or an online calculator. Brewer's friend has lots of useful calculators.

 

[JohnnyR]

However most people use recipe software or an online calculator. Brewer's friend has lots of useful calculators.

Crikey! Brewer's Friend it is ... cheers.

 

[JohnnyR]

Brewer's Friend gives me an IBU reading of, er, 113.11. :grin: I can see I'm going to have to start approaching this a bit more scientifically.

 

[strange-steve]

Brewer's Friend gives me an IBU reading of, er, 113.11. :grin: I can see I'm going to have to start approaching this a bit more scientifically.

113 IBU is high but it's not ridiculous. Plenty of double or imperial IPAs are around that level. The important thing is that you think it tastes good.
Never tried it myself but I think Mikkeller have a 1000 IBU beer!

 

[dan125]

I believe above 80 or so IBUs its hard to perceive any increases.
Hope it turns out well for you.