I’m planning on brewing this Saturday. My questions is on the hop bill. What to use where. I’ve been doing a lot of SMaSH beers to try to get the hop flavors down, so this will be a little different. Let me know what you think:
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.72 gal
Estimated OG: 1.086 SG
Estimated Color: 9.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 93.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
Amount Item Type % or IBU
14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 90.32 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6.45 %
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 45.3 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (45 min) Hops 27.7 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 18.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (2 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (at flame out) Sugar 3.23 %
2 Pkgs US-05 Ale Yeast Yeast-Ale
You aren’t using any where near the amount of flame out and last minute additions. You almost can’t use enough. Think 4 oz Amarillo, or more, at least. And load up the dry hops, 4 oz at least. The hop bill should be ridiculously top heavy toward flame out. It’s about aroma and flavor, not necessarily bitterness.
Here’s my recipe, I won a gold medal at the Colorado State Fair with this…
And +100 on the huge late hop additions…
12 lbs American 2-row
1 lb 20L Crystal
1/2 lb Carapils
1 1/2 lbs white table sugar 10 mins
1 oz chinook FWH
1 oz Chinook 60 min
1/2 oz each of Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo at 15, 10,5,0 min
1 oz each Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo Dry Hop.
11 oz of hops. Not a cheap beer to make, but holy crap does it taste and smell awesome! I am very pleased with this. Go with hops you like, but definitely load up on the late additions. Your results will be great!
I would use a lot more at the end, but not at 2 minutes, put them in after the boil is done, then let them steep or whirlpool. It will add a lot of flavor. The aroma comes from the dry hopping, use more there too.
what Jeff said, plus I wouldn’t use anything higher than C-20L, nor would i use that much - 3-4% tops.
and .75-1 oz per gallon dryhop would be more appropriate. or maybe do a two stage dryhop at .5oz per gal each.
finally, I would add a variety or two - Amarillo and Cascade are kinda in the same vein. Simcoe would be a great addition, or Centennial, Crystal or Chinook maybe.
For an IIPA you really want a nice bite to the bitterness. I’d recommend adding an extra 60-minute addition of something like Columbus or Chinook (or maybe Nugget). Having a FWH of Apollo and a 45-minute addition of Cascade might not bring enough “oomph”. Make sure you have enough sulfate in your brewing water as well.
I also agree with bumping the sugar (5-10% maybe), keeping the Crystal malt under 5%, and using massive late/dry hops with at least 3 different hop varieties. Citra, Simcoe, Columbus or many of the NZ/Aus varieties all go really nice with Cascade & Amarillo.
+1 - I love columbus for my bittering. Chinook works nice, too. Nugget is great for dark beers to my taste, might be worth trying in a IIPA. Also agree with the blending hops suggestion. All amarillo at flame out would be nice, but I think you will find it a little one dimensional compared to a beer that you blended two or three or four hops. Think outside the box, too. I love blending Crystal or French Strisselspalt in my IIPA flame out/WP additions.
Did you mean use more base malt and less sugar, or the other way around? Also, when would be the best time to add the sugar, end of boil?
Nice looking beer. Unfortunately, I have no LHBS, nor do I have one near me, so everything I’ve already ordered thinking I knew what I was doing. So, I have 2 oz Warrior, 4 oz Amarillo, & 4 oz Cascade to work with and I’m brewing Saturday. I’m just trying to figure out where to work them.
Im just throwing in my imperial ipa hop schedule for consideration. i recommend using lost of different hop varieties instead of just a few, i find it helps mix up the flavors and makes it more palatable
1oz centennial 11.4% - FWH
1oz columbus 11.1% - 60
1 oz cascade 7.5% - 20
2 oz centennial - 15
1 oz chinook 11.8% - 15
1 oz chinook - 10
1 oz centennial - 10
1/2 oz cascade - 5
1/2 oz columbus - 5
1/2 oz cascade - whirlpool
1/2 oz columbus - whirlpool
You might want to consider scaling it back to an American IPA, or just waiting? 10oz of hops is not a lot for an IIPA. Hell, it’s barely an APA anymore.
With that amount of hops, I would go:
95% 2-row
5% crystal
1.064 OG
About 40+ IBUs of warrior at 60m
1oz Amarillo at 10m
1oz Cascade at 10m
1oz Amarillo at 0m
1oz Cascade at 0m
2oz Amarillo Dry Hop
2oz Cascade Dry Hop
My bad, I see you have a half pound of sugar in there (missed it on the bottom). The basemalt as is looks pretty good. You might lower the amount of crystal or raise the amount of crystal and sub out more sugar for the 2 row on the next batch depending on what you are shooting for but I think you have a good base grain bill to start with.
I use a hopback right before the chiller for all of my flameout additions. This keeps most of the aromatic oils from vaporizing in the kettle. If you don’t use a hopback or don’t have a CFC, then a whirlpool/chiller is also a great option. Flameout additions are key for this style of beer IMO.
I’ve heard a few others using Crystal in IPA’s, but that’s a cool idea with the Strisselspalt. I’ll have to try that sometime. And I agree in general with that strategy. Noble-type hops add a nice complexity when used in combination with more traditional IPA hops. I’ve been using Ultra a lot lately in my hoppy beers (usually in combination with Amarillo, Citra and/or Columbus). That’s another reason why I’m such a big fan of Motueka. Even though it has this great lime zest/lemongrass character, you can definitely pick up on its Saaz lineage in the flavor as well.