The Great Double IPA Project

I’ve done that too Frank.  If you read up on hopstands, there are different temp ranges that people use.  If you go cooler for longer time, you supposedly retain more aroma compounds, which are driven off at higher temps. But in American styles where I dry hop  (and I’m not shy with dry hops), I more than have that covered.  It works well for me.

Yep, that’s it exactly.  Subjectively, to me it comes across as the same amount of bitterness I get from a 20 min, addition, even though it measure more.  Since I’m usually more interested in drinking my beer than measuring it, I call it 20 min.!

The carapils and sugar are at odds with each other.  One will lighten the body, the other will increase it.  You don’t need carapils for foam.  Good fermentation techniques are much more important.  See Techniques for Getting Good Beer Foam - Brew Your Own .

Thanks, Denny. Great article.

I’ve never actually had any real trouble with foam, even in beers that I felt were drain-worthy. It may have tasted like crap, but it was foamy…

Anyway, I’ll rework the grain bill without the CaraPils. Thanks!

Early on I thought every beer needed carapils. It took a while but I was finally talked out of using it. Not needed usually and brings no flavor to the party IMHO

I have tweaked my grain bill and am now in the process of setting up the hop schedule. This is giving me a bit of trouble, so I’d love feedback on my preliminary outline.

1 oz. Centennial – FWH
1 oz. Simcoe – FWH
1 oz. Centennial – 60 min.
1 oz. Simcoe – 60 min
1 oz. Centennial – 30 min
1 oz. Amarillo – 30 min
1 oz. Citra – 15 min
1 oz. Amarillo – 10 min
1 oz. Citra – 0 min
1 oz Amarillo – 0 min

I haven’t come up with dry hops yet, although I will probably hit it with a few additions if Amarillo and Ctra again. As you can see, I’m not being very adventurous with ratios of each hop…each addition is simply 1 oz. I am also calculating for 7 gallons post boil so my finished beer after massive hop loss will be in the neighborhood of 5 gallons (I have done this with past brews of this style and have been pretty successful). BeerSmith puts me at about 220 IBU…over the top enough?

So, are there any alterations that anyone would suggest, or am I on the right track? This is the first time I’ve ever constructed a hop schedule…

Thanks!

I think that you have a fine IIPA hop schedule.

However, if I were to do a IIPA flavored with these hops, This is how I would structure it.

1oz Cent -FWH
1oz Sim - FWH
1-1.5 oz CTZ (whatever gets you into your desired IBU range) - 60
1oz each Citra, Amarillo, Centennial at 10 or 5
1oz each Simcoe Amarillo, Citra at 0 (Hopstand 45 minutes)

I have become a huge fan of late hops, and not so much the middle hops.
My IPA and APA are now only hopped at FWH, 5 and 0, with a 30-60 minute hopstand.

Mitch Steele talked at NHC this year about how he has moved in this direction as well, and Stone’s newer IPAs are some of my favorite IPAs I can find. I don’t personally need a whole lot of bitterness, but I want a huge amount of hop flavor and aroma in my IPAs.

I like the combination of those hops. I would push your 15 and 10 minute additions out to 0 min. As far as dry hops go, I wouldn’t use any less than 3 oz…I’d push it to around 5 oz.

What’s the AA content of the hops you’re using?

You want huge hop flavor and aroma for IIPA.  I dry hop 5 or 6 oz for AIPA , and usually a couple dry hop additions of 4 or 5 oz each (~7 days each) for IIPA.  I like the choice of hops.

What temp are you dry-hopping at?

I recently went 7 days on my second addition at kegerator temps and now regret it.  Day 3 was great.  By the time day 7 rolled around, the aroma and flavor had turned from hop oily to hop leafy, tasting rough and astringent.

Rereading Mitch Steele’s comments on dry hop additions, I came across the following (reply 43 in Ask the Experts):  “I’m finding that 60-65 °F or so seems to work really well for us. Too hot, you might extract flavors you don’t want, too cold, you won’t extract enough of the really good oils, and as someone mentions further in the questions–you could get a lot of grassy flavors.”

I’m going to follow this next time, hit that temperature sweet spot and limit exposure to 5 days.

I dry hop ~ 65 -68 F.  I like the results.

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