The Plan...A house IPA

[LukeD23]

I like the idea of the Willemette and Cascade combo. I would imagine this gives a really different hop aroma.

What are some other cool hop combos to play with, I was thinking maybe Chinook and Cascade could be good. Or Northern Brewer and Centennial, to play with the spicy/ woody charactor of the NBs and the fruity "Trix" like character of the Cent.

I also like the idea of the lower ABV, making it more sessionable, but at what point is it an IPA or Pale ale.

[TimmyR]

Cool, I like the looks of those recipes..I did the West Coast IPA clone as well and it was awesome, but a bit bigger than I want for a house IPA. I think that 6%abv range is really great for an everyday drinker, at least for me.

I also was just looking at the Stone IPA clone recipe from BYO magazine. Anyone ever brewed that one?

I am a member of the Church of Tasty for APAs. I have changed his glorius recipe slighty to taste but still HIGHLY recommend taking a look at it. Mine rolls out the door about 5 points higher in OG and 5-10 IBUs hoppier.

All hail Tasty!
(yup, yip, yup, yup, yup, yip, yip, yup, yup,yup)

[SamGamgee]

I also like the idea of the lower ABV, making it more sessionable, but at what point is it an IPA or Pale ale.

If you are worried about the beer meeting consumer expectations, you wouldn't want to go much below 6% with an IPA, at least on the West Coast. Lagunitas IPA is under 6% though. If you are brewing for yourself, you can really go as low as you want. Throughout most of its history, IPA wasn't any stronger than pale ale, just hoppier. It's only in the modern American craft brewing tradition that IPA is typically stronger than pale ale.

I've been toying a lot with lower-gravity IPA recipes lately, and a lot of breweries are also doing it. Stone did a collaboration "San Diego County Session Ale" last year that was a great example of that. As long as the beer is loaded with hops, make it as strong as you want and feel free to call it an IPA.

[andy77]

If you are worried about the beer meeting consumer expectations, you wouldn't want to go much below 6% with an IPA, at least on the West Coast. Lagunitas IPA is under 6% though.

6.2% according to their website, but I take you meaning. In my mind, 6.5% is the cutoff for West Coast IPA.

[TimmyR]

I tend to think that you can do anything you want with respect to ABV. My APA is 6.2% with 35 IBUs estimated (Rager). It's flavor and aroma lend itself towards being an IPA. It's hard to explain, but it is exactly what I like to have around the house.

I am tinkering with an IPA recipe as well and trying to decide just how much (if any) crystal or carmel malt to include. I really like dry, crisp IPAs. I'm not sure quite where this reicpe will go but thought I'd throw in my 5 cents and keep this thread active to see what I can learn from others who have tinkered with IPA recipes.

[thatguy314]

I have a house IPA that I've gotten a lot of good reviews on and has medalled in several competitions. It's maltier than many west coast examples, but still fairly light in character compared to the really malty east coast IPAs. What's nice is that the honey gives it a crystal-malt like flavor, but is fully fermentable so it finishes quite dry.

OG: 1.065 FG: 1.012 IBU 65 Tinseth

12# 2-row
1# Munich (I use german, but has come out well the one time I used American)
1# Honey Malt

1oz Amarillo 1oz Palisade 0'
1oz Amarillo 1oz Palisade 10'
1oz columbus or simcoe @ 20'
Simcoe @60' to make up remaining IBUs

dry hop with 1oz Amarillo, 1oz palisade, 1oz columbus (or simcoe)

[TimmyR]

Here's where I am at in planning. The grain bill is based upon my slowly evolving APA (Tasty base recipe obviously). I plan to split out the ferment to see how I like WLP001 vs WLP007 on this batch. Since I have brewed a lot with 007, I may choose another yeast to compare to 001 (WLP051 maybe).

TF IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Timmy



Size: 12.0 gal
Efficiency: 71.0%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Calories: 247.16 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.074 (1.056 - 1.075)
|=======================#========|
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)
|=================#==============|
Color: 11.06 (6.0 - 15.0)
|=================#==============|
Alcohol: 7.85% (5.5% - 7.5%)
|==========================#=====|
Bitterness: 84.3 (40.0 - 70.0)
|===============================#|

Ingredients:
23.0 lb American 2-row
6.0 lb Pilsner Malt
2.0 lb Carapils®/Carafoam®
1.0 lb White Wheat Malt
1.0 lb Crystal 60
1.0 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
1.0 oz Citra (10.0%) - added during mash
1.0 oz Warrior (15.6%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (12%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
2.0 oz Citra (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 oz Centennial (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 oz Citra (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
2.0 oz Centennial (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (12%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
8.0 oz Cascade (5.75%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
2.0 oz Citra (10.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Centennial (10.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 oz Simcoe (12%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
2.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
2.0 ea White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
1.0 ea Whirlfloc - added during boil, boiled 10 min


Notes
Plan to mash at 1.049F max. 30 min then ramp to mash out over 30 min.

Results generated by [b]BeerTools Pro 1.5.15

[thatguy314]

My honest opinion is that you're going a little overly complex, and the recipe reads more like a DIPA The gravity and bittering are entering in DIPA range, but it's got a lot of crystal and specialty malt fo that. I'm just going to ask you some questions about why you're doing a couple things. I'm not criticizing them, but just to help you think through the design.

Why carapils and sugar? One adds body one cuts it. Crystal also helps head retention, but you've got wheat in there for that

Why pils and 2-row? Pils will have a subtle character. It's more expensive than 2-row. Do you think you're going to taste it with all these hops?

What kind of malt character do you want to come through? You've got a lot of different types of malt here. Light? Firm? Just a backbone? etc., Do you want it balanced with the bitterness?

Do you think you'll be able to drink an extremely bitter beer in high quantities, enough to be your house beer? For me I could use a lot of hop flavor, but I'd like a little less bitterness. I think if you lowered your BU/GU from 1.15 to ~1, it'd be a lot more balanced IPA. Right now it seems more DIPAy.

Finally, just a word of advice: citra is an extremely aromatic hop. It has about twice the aromatic oils of many other prominent varieties. I'd cut it to 2/3 - 1/2 the amount for your dry hop and aroma additions, or it will completely blow those other hops out of the water.