Building an IPA

[brewlander]

What are your thoughts? Anyone have something similar?

5Gal
OG 1.059-1.065
IBU 58-63

11Lb - Golden Promise
1.5Lb - C40L
.5Lb - Carapils
.5Lb - Victory

Mash @ 153-155 for 60

60 minute boil
1oz Warrior - 60
1oz Chinook - 30
1oz Amarillo - 15
1oz Amarillo @ flameout/ Whirlpool for 15

72-75 ferment in primary for a week. ( Don't have temp control but my bathroom holds between this temp )

2oz Cascade in secondary for 48 hours

[siwelwerd]

Some suggestions in no particular order: Cut the crystal in half. Mash way lower (more like 148-150). Instead of 2 oz of Amarillo in the boil and 2 oz of Cascade as dry hop, do 1 of each in the boil and 1 of each in the dryhop. Skip the secondary; allow 2-3 weeks in the primary, then package. Ferment much cooler (wrap the carboy in a wet blanket to make a "swamp cooler") with a clean ale yeast. Make sure your water has enough sulfates (add some gypsum if it doesn't). Dry hop for 5-7 days, not 48 hours.

[Klickitat Jim]

Good advice there.

My input is that unless you are doing a secondary fermentation (fruit, or pitching a bug, or aging on oak) forget the secondary. The reason for racking to secondary is to get finished beer off of a yeast cake before they start dying, which pretty much isn't going to happen for six to eight weeks. Which is long after your beer will be done.

As to recipe, just take the approach of always having a reason for everything. For example, I assume the carapils is for head? If so, the beer you are making has tons of stuff already in it that will help with head. When I go through your grain bill I see that you want a heafty British malt flavor that has a lot of residual sweetness, super chewy body, and a hint of cracker crust. The hop bitterness will be moderate with a citrusy flavor. The esters will be strong and there will be a pretty warm to hot alcohol present. You don't list the yeast, so it's hard to guess just what kind of esters... if 001/1056/US05, they they will be fruit bomb.

If that describes what you are after, cool.

[brewlander]

Thanks for the input gents. This is my first real go around with trying to build a grain bill so I know its rough around the edges. I will forgo the secondary i just wanted to try and get away from some of the off flavors from the dying bugs. I am using WLP090 with a starter which usually takes off in a couple hours after my pitch.

I will dry hop in the primary for a week but i do have a question about it. Is it better to dry hop in the beginning of the ferment or towards the end just before raking to my keg? i would figure you could expect more of a "fresh hop" character if you did it later but i am probably wrong. Or it probably doesn't really matter as long as they stay in there for the appropriate amount of time.

I don't build my water but I am using RO from my tap which is endless so I don't buy my water from one of those dispensers and I don't have a test kit so I'm not sure what is going on with it. I know a lot of guys that use RO and say they've never had an issue.

[BDawg]

Great advice here. I agree with everything they said.
Though I admit I still prefer to transfer out of my primary and into a bright tank for a week for additional clarity. I fully agree that 2 to 3 weeks in primary is required to let the yeast finish up.

[brewinhard]

+1 to trying to lower your fermentation temps. Try to locate somewhere in your house where fermentation can be performed cooler (i.e. garage, basement, side closet, back bedroom). Even if it is at 60F in that given area, your yeast will create an exothermic reaction raising the fermentation temp of the beer itself by several degrees. Then towards the end of fermentation (typically around 7 days) you can allow it to warm up to those 70's and finish out for another 2-3 wks to condition and clean up after itself.

[siwelwerd]

I will dry hop in the primary for a week but i do have a question about it. Is it better to dry hop in the beginning of the ferment or towards the end just before raking to my keg?

Add them at the end of fermentation. I usually give it two weeks, then dry hop over that third week.

I don't build my water but I am using RO from my tap which is endless so I don't buy my water from one of those dispensers and I don't have a test kit so I'm not sure what is going on with it. I know a lot of guys that use RO and say they've never had an issue.

Not having an issue is different than making the best beer you can. Your RO water is likely deficient in calcium for a healthy fermentation. You definitely want to add some gypsum to your RO water-- probably 1-2 g per gallon for an American IPA. The calcium will help with clarifying, and the sulfates will help lend a crisp dry finish to the beer.

[BDawg]

where do you live? we can give you an idea of roughly how your water looks before RO. Then you can either brew with a blend tap/RO and/or build from there or adjust. Here in WA state, our water is single digits. lots of newbies here brew bland IPAs because the water lacks calcium, sulfate, and magnesium.