IPA grain bill

Ingredients
1

Looking do a reasonably dry IPA but still want enough malt character to support the hops. I have a sack of pilsner malt that I will be using for most of the base. I assume crystal malt will not be necessary for my goals.

Right now I am looking at:
76% pilsner
20% munich 9L
4% table sugar

Any thoughts? I don’t normally brew IPA…

2

86%/10%/4% wouldn’t be bad.  I for one am not crazy about munich in a session/digestible ipa, but at 10% it wouldn’t be bad, 20% is definitely a noticeable amount of munich.  I like a touch of aromatic or biscuit or victory in my IPAs and a touch of 10L crystal - like 8%.

3

Thanks. I am very familiar with what Munich brings to the table but like you said 20% could be too much. I will consider lowering the amount or possibly going with 6L instead.

4

I have been brewing with my standard IPA grain bill of 60% briess 2-row and 40% weyerman light Munich ~7srm for a bunch of single hop beers lately, making my way through all of these new American/aus/nz/German varietals…and I like it a bunch

The op grain bill looks pretty good to me

5

I think 85/15 would work fine with no sugar, unless you’re making IIPA. Finishing at around 1.010 (152F/60 mins with this grist) with enough sulfate content to balance the maltiness would give you a nice, fairly dry beer IMO.

6

Thanks Jon. That is right about where I want it to finish but I didn’t think it could get there with an American ale yeast if starting around 1.064. That would be about 85% attenuation so I thought some sugar might help.

Any thoughts on 6l or 9l?

7

Thanks for the point of reference. Not overly malty I take it?

8

Well, 9L has a fuller,more lingering maltiness, as a rule. And nothing stopping you from bumping mash temp down a couple degrees for that matter. I can usually hit that FG with my IPA grain bill (1.064 OG) which only uses 5 oz crystal with the 2 row. OTOH I don’t see anything wrong with the sugar either. I just think you can get what you’re after with a low FG and water chemistry. Ehh, it’s just beer - it’ll be good regardless!

9

Cool. Thanks again. Looks like I am actually shooting for an og of 1.062 so it won’t be as difficult to get that low. I will figure something out…

10

Not at all

11

IMHO, for an IPA you should keep the Munich and the mash temp somewhat inversely proportional to the original gravity.

Higher gravity ==> less Munich and lower mash temp.
Lower gravity ==> More Munich and higher mash temp.

12

Alright well as strange as it may sound to some, I went with:
56% Pilsner
20% Munich 6L
20% Red Wheat
4% table sugar

Ended up right at 1.062

Bittered to 62 IBUs with Nugget and Bravo then added 4 oz hop hash at flameout. Will get another 4 oz hop hash for dry hop.

13

Sounds like a nice beer to me.

14

Where did you get the hop hash from? And how’s it work?

15

Yakima Valley hops packaged it when pelletizing last years harvest and sold it in 4 oz bags. From what I understand it is just compressed hop powder taken off of the machines. I don’t really know the details but I can tell you that the aroma from the fermenter is amazing right now. I have no idea what varieties were in my hop hash but it definitely seems to include some new school, super tropical, fruity varieties. The aroma of the hash itself was very interesting and had almost a sweet berry characteristic. I am not that into a lot of the newer varieties but this should turn out good I think.