Late DME additions???

[Brewer88]

I ferment in a my living space and the temp is usually very constant never changing more than 3 degrees. Is this okay? You all having been mentioning fermentation temperature control, what exactly do you mean.

I am going to be making an IPA soon, and the recipe for it is as follows

Simcoe IPA
6 lbs gold LME
1 lb light DME
2 lbs various malts
3 oz Simcoe hops
Wyeast Activator American Ale

I am thinking about bringing some more hops into the mix, any suggestions??

[thatguy314]

I ferment in a my living space and the temp is usually very constant never changing more than 3 degrees. Is this okay? You all having been mentioning fermentation temperature control, what exactly do you mean.

I am going to be making an IPA soon, and the recipe for it is as follows

Simcoe IPA
6 lbs gold LME
1 lb light DME
2 lbs various malts
3 oz Simcoe hops
Wyeast Activator American Ale

I am thinking about bringing some more hops into the mix, any suggestions??

You should be aware there are a couple questions most people would ask:
How many gallons of beer?
When are you planning on adding these hops?
What is the alpha acid of these hops?

If you're doing 5 gallons, I would go a little simpler. I'd do 8 pounds light DME and a pound of crystal 20 or 9 pounds gold DME (gets you in the 1.060 range). An oz of simcoe at 60' and oz at 20 min, and an oz at flameout will get you in the right direction. Assuming 12% AA you'll be around 70 IBUS (60 IBUs for 10%). I would also add another 1 oz after fermentationf or dry hop. IPAs are about the hops so they don't need a fancy recipe. Simple is good. This recipe will give you a nice beer and really teach you a lot about Simcoe's potential as a hop.

[siwelwerd]

What "various malts"? This can make a huge difference. Also, if you are going for complex flavor, try using two or three hops in a hop forward beer like an IPA. In particular, unless you really like cat piss, don't make an IPA with only Simcoe.

[thatguy314]

What "various malts"? This can make a huge difference. Also, if you are going for complex flavor, try using two or three hops in a hop forward beer like an IPA. In particular, unless you really like cat piss, don't make an IPA with only Simcoe.

It depends on the crop of simcoe and how you use it. I think Flower Power is pretty awesome and it's almost entirely simcoe

[Brewer88]

I generally boil about 4 gallons because that is all I can do safely. As for the fermentation, it stays right around 70 going up or down 2 or 3 degrees at most. Is that what you mean by temperature controlled fermentation? If I add hops later in the boil is that going to give me a more pronounced clean hop flavor depending on the hop I use?

[LordUlrich]

one because you can only boil part of your volume (i am assuming your are adding water to get to 5 or 5.5 gallons) try boiling a gallon or so of water along side your wort, and add periodical to keep the concentrations as close to the final concentration as possible. Or you could do a split boil where you boil half of your bath in one kettle and half in another ( I did something similar this weekend as it was blizzarding outside where my burner is)

As far as recipe I always start with Brewing Classic Styles Jamil has good recipes, and i have not produced a bad beer from the book yet.

[crupp]

I don't know if you've heard it or not, but there was a GREAT extract brewing show on Brew Strong recently. Check it out http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/698.

[BDawg]

One thing I'd add to this conversation is the use of "top up" water.

Many extract brewers boil a smaller batch size then top it up with additional water to achieve target volume. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, providing a couple precauttions are taken:

1) Concentrated boils reduce hop utilization. You'll need to bump up the bittering hop addition because the concentrated wort "saturates" with hops and therefore the bitterness exctraction rate goes down. You need to add more hops to overcome this.

2) Make sure that your top up water is dechlorinated (boil water too). Campden tabs are a great way to ensure this. 1 aspirin sized camden tablet will treat 20 gallons of water. 1/4 is enough to treat 5. The majority of the phenolic off flavors I encounter when judging competitions is from folks topping up with water straight out of the tap. Don't fall into that trap.


HTH-