Hello All,
I will be attempting my first AG DIPA recipe I made from scratch in a few weeks. I am trying to iron everything out right now. I am shooting for a very light malt profile that allows for a lot of bitterness. My two main questions are:
Is the amount of hops overkill?
Recommendations on a different yeast?
Don’t hold back
Grains:
15 lbs American Pale 2 row
1 lb flaked oats
.5 lb dextrose
Hops: (still on the fence for a 90 or 60 minute boil if 90 2 oz centennial at 90 instead of 4 at 60)
4 oz centennial -60
2 oz chinook - 60
1 oz centennial-30
1 oz chinook - 30
2 oz cascade - 10
2 oz centennial -5
2 oz cascade - flameout
2 oz cascade - dry hop
Others may disagree, but my opinion on personal preference and observing a shift…
People (including me) seem to be shifting towards a more moderate bittering addition and pushing larger quantities into a very late / whirlpool / hopstand addition.
I used to add hops at multiple times (60, 30, 15, 5) And now I prefer 60, a small addition around 10 min and the rest in a hopstand after the heat is off and cooled to about 170. I’ve added more in the dry hop process as well.
This seems to be a movement away from firm bitterness and towards a focus on the flavors and aroma of hops.
Are the hops overkill. In quantity, no. But I (if it were my recipe), would use an ounce of Chinook at 60 mins, add a 15 min addition (maybe 2 of Centennial), 6-8 ounces flameout or hopstand, and use the rest to bump up the dry hop charge.
The yeast is a decent choice for a hop forward beer.
6 oz of bittering hops seems excessive by my preference. I think it may give you a nice high IBU number but I wonder if you will be able to distinguish it at levels higher than 125. It will also contribute to wort loss during the boil.
I agree with the other comments, and is also my personal preference for DIPA/IPAs. If you want more aromatics, then save some of the late additions for a 170F whirlpool, and go after more dry hop additions. Oxygen is your enemy with this style and the amount of hops - do everything you can to avoid it at all stages of the process.
Thank you all for your input, much appreciated. My goal for this beer is to make it very bitter. I do love juicy IPAs but with the trends moving in that direction I wanted to try and make something a little more traditional. My usual go to for a nice bitter beer is resin and I have found that to taste juicy lately (absolutely 0 factual evidence to back this up just my fiance’s and my opinion) where it used to be very bitter. With that being said I think I am going to keep the bittering additions as is and repurpose the 30 minute additions to flameout. I saw yesterday that hops direct has decent prices for chinook and centennial so I will increase the dry hop charge by 2 oz as well.
New Hop Schedule:
4 oz centennial -60
2 oz chinook - 60
2 oz cascade - 10
2 oz centennial -5
3 oz centennial - flameout
1 oz chinook - flameout
4 oz cascade - dry hop
In my opinion 60 minute boil is sufficient.
I generally look for 30-40 ibu at 60 min and save the later additions for 20, flame out and or whirl pool. That will help with aroma and some bitterness.
I would use 4 oz for dry hop in the fermenter and maybe 2oz in the keg to help the aroma going.
What do your other numbers look like?
Mash temp.
Og/Fg
Fermentation temp.