IIPA Help (First time creating my own recipe)

[IR44]

Hi Experts,

I need experienced help with an iipa recipe I’m thinking of trying. I haven’t quite (successfully) made the jump to full AG yet, but I am quite comfortable with partial mashing.
This is the first time I’ve had a crack at creating my own recipe, and I would like input as to if it’s likely to work well, or fail miserably.

I’m shooting for a big (<8% ABV) hoppy iipa. I was hoping to use the grain and hops I have on hand, but I’m also open to recommendations. I am especially lost with the best ratio of hops to use throughout boil

Hoping to have 20L of wort at the end to go into the fermenter, with the beer going onto a 19L keg at end of fermentation for force carbing and serving

Open to any and all help/criticism

On hand:
US-05 Yeast 15g
Black Rock - Pale Malt (3kg)
Light Dry Malt Extract (1kg)
Joe White - Munich (1kg)
Joe White - Crystal Malt (1kg)
Joe White - Cara Malt (1kg)
Cascade Hop Pellets 100g
Citra hop pellets - 180g

Equipment:
50L electric Keggle with false bottom and BIAB setup.
Wort Chiller

The plan:
Steep my grains (in bag) in 25L cold water and raise the temp to 68-70 degrees and hold there for 60 minutes.
Remove from heat, remove the grains and sparge with 2 cups of 65 degree water.
Add 1.5KG of LME and 1KG of DME extract at this point and stir to fully dissolve.
Bring the wort to a boil and add 25G of Cascade Hops and 25G of Citra Hops , start 60 minute timer.
After 40 minutes, add 25G of Cascade Hops and 25G of Citra Hops
After 55 minutes, 25G of Cascade Hops and 25G of Citra Hops
After 60 minutes, remove from heat and stir in remaining (1.5kg) LME.
When extract is fully dissolved, add 25G of Cascade Hops and 25G of Citra Hops steep for 15 minutes.
Cool wort to ~25 degrees (Wort Chiller)
Drain wort into primary fermenter.
Pitch the US-05 yeast
Dry Hop 80G Citra Hops after 5-7 days for 5—7days

 

[Schikitar]

Yeast, lots of yeast. I recently attempted a BIIPA which, well, mostly failed. Didn't hit my gravities at either end, still tastes good but yeah, these are harder to make than you'd think. I really should have built a better yeast starter (I used harvested yeast that I possibly didn't harvest/revive correctly) so when I coupled that issue with an already undershot OG my BIIPA went to BIPA pretty quickly..

Cascade and citra are both good choices, my dry hop was 175g in 25L and I still feel like it came up short - maybe just double check those numbers..

Clearly, given my (lack of) experience, my words of wisdom might not be the best, I'm still learning! Good luck!

 

[laxation]

Looks good, except I suggest 20gm citra FWH (before it boils) and then save the remaining 30g hops for your last hop step:

When extract is fully dissolved, add 50G of Cascade Hops and 30G of Citra Hops steep for 15 minutes.

Maybe a bit of Simcoe in the dry hop as well?

 

[IR44]

Thanks for the advice Schikitar and laxation

Going off your recommendations. I Might:
- Reduce Citra in first step to 20g
- Increase citra to 30g in last step (steeping)
- purchase another 100g of Cascade hops and dry hop with 80g citra and 100g cascade.
- Purchase another pack of US-05 to double the initial yeast pitching volume

 

[pirateagenda]

looking at your method, its more complicated than doing an all grain batch.

instead of steeping the 3kg of grain, steep more grain and skip the extracts and you're set.

DIPA are a good first one because the hops can mask any mash inefficiencies.

A good starting point could be:
7.5 kg ale malt (i like maris otter)
350g medium crystal
500g demerara suger (dries it out a little and boosts the ABV

hops
simcoe at 60 minutes to 20 IBU
mix any combo of some or all simcoe, citra, cascade, centennial, amarillo at 10 minutes to 80-100 IBU
Dry hop any of the above combo at around 3-4g per litre at day 5 of ferment
2nd Dry hop the same as first dry hop around day 8

for 20L make a starter from your US-05 pack or use around 4-5 packs if you don't want to make a starter

 

[captain crumpet]

...

 

[Droopy Brew]

Firstly, if you are planning to do a partial with the full 2 kg of Crystal it will not be good- that is waaayyy too much.

Secondly, you are set up to do All grain, your process is all grain with the exception of adding the malt extracts. Bite the bullet and do all grain.

Pirate agenda has put up a decent looking recipe- have a go at it.

 

[manticle]

Relax on the crystal, my brother

 

[mtb]

He said he had that much crystal on hand, not necessarily part of his recipe.

 

[manticle]

Yes. I should turn the volume up on my eyes.

Carry on.

 

[2cranky]

yeah do all grain much simpler.
I do a really nice 8% plus IIPA. you can't go wrong with this.
Easy to drink the late hops really mask the high alcohol

CRAZY8 (8% ABV and 8 hops )
24l 8.45%
OG 1.077
FG 1.013
mash at 64-65

87% pale (I do a mix of marris otter and US pale)
6% white wheat
4% cara pils
3% medium crystal

but I go crazy on the hops

24g centennial at 60
28g centennial at 30
28g centennial at 20

24g mosaic flameout steep
24g centennial flameout steep
12g Simcoe flameout steep
12g citra flameout steep
24g cascade flameout steep
24g willamette flameout steep
12g Amarillo flameout steep
14g motueka flameout steep

2 packs of US-05 gotta use 2 packs - aerate well or oxygen. pitch low 20s and drop to 18. after 72 hours start raising to 20/21. dry hop when you are at FG (or close to)

26g citra dry hop
26g simcoe dry hop
26g willamette dry hop
26g centennial dry hop
36g Motueka dry hop

 

[IR44]

Thanks guys, I have tried to go AG once with an APA, and no idea where i went wrong, but tasted terrible, have been apprehensive of going back to AG since. But from the advice above perhaps this is the time to try it again.

2cranky,
Thanks for the recipe, i think i might have to give a variation of it a go Might reduce the hops down to just citra and cascade for the moment, at least for my first attempt.
is 24L your pre or post boil and What is the total weight of your grain bill?

 

[Droopy Brew]

Dont let the first experience put you off. Why did it taste terrible? What did it taste of?
Without any info, Im thinking it was likely an infection that was more a fermentation process than a wort making process at fault. A description of the off flavours would help.

 

[IR44]

There was no noticeable visual infection in the ferment, but it did smell a bit "off" right from the get go. However the taste was terrible, best describe the taste as "rotten", kind of tasted like an off hoegaarden. Not an APA and definitely not pleasant.

 

[2cranky]

Thanks guys, I have tried to go AG once with an APA, and no idea where i went wrong, but tasted terrible, have been apprehensive of going back to AG since. But from the advice above perhaps this is the time to try it again.

2cranky,
Thanks for the recipe, i think i might have to give a variation of it a go Might reduce the hops down to just citra and cascade for the moment, at least for my first attempt.
is 24L your pre or post boil and What is the total weight of your grain bill?

8.2kg of grain.,

I used to do a post boil of 22l and end up with a shortfall in my keg for 19l. So being a lazy SOB I just increased my batch size by 2 litres. now I have a full keg and sometimes enough for a couple of bottles. I should really adjust my rig in beersmith. But it works so, meh.

Yeah you can use whatever you want but remember it's the late hops - over 150g that gives a nice fruity flavour and masks the 8%. I think that's important in these beers. No good serving rocket fuel. This recipe tastes pretty mild for a IIPA. The centennial additions total about 55 IBUs. Probably pushing mid 70s with the flameout additions, but it doesn't taste that high.
In fact my inspiration for this beer was a craft beer in NZ that was and 8% citra. Liberty Citra IIPA I think. you might find a recipe for it online.
this one may interest - can you brew it recipe.

From your description of your AG beer id say infection for sure. In my opinion AG is quite forgiving with recipe/technique failures. Infections - not so much. I've started treating my water lately and that has produced a cleaner taste as well. Chloramides can also produce bad flavours so a camdom tablet will fix that.

 

[Droopy Brew]

There was no noticeable visual infection in the ferment, but it did smell a bit "off" right from the get go. However the taste was terrible, best describe the taste as "rotten", kind of tasted like an off hoegaarden. Not an APA and definitely not pleasant.

Bacterial infection by the sounds, give the AG another go, you wont look back. Visual cues aren't a foolproof way of detecting infections- sometimes they look no different

 

[IR44]

Well I took everyone's advice and purchased 25KG bag of base malt today. Going to give AG another go

 

[Tony121]

Well I took everyone's advice and purchased 25KG bag of base malt today. Going to give AG another go

Great stuff!!

 

[IR44]

So this Friday is brew day. Which has given me enough time to install a re-circulating pump into my kettle, so get to try that out as well.

Here’s the recipe I’ve settled on. Please let me know any advice/recommendations.

Thoughts on grain bill, and is 65% efficiency too low? should I be lowing base malt amount and increasing efficiency?
What are the thoughts on the hop schedule?

7 kg Joe White – Traditional Ale
0.25kg Joe White - Munich
0.25kg Joe White - Crystal Malt
0.25kg Joe White - Cara Malt
1kg Light Dry Malt Extract
200g Cascade Hops
160g Citra Hops
25g US-05 Yeast

Pre Boil: 27L
Post Boil :23L

Steep my grains (in bag) in 27L 68-70 degrees and hold there for 60 minutes.
Remove from heat, remove the grains and sparge with 2 cups of 65 degree water.
Add 1KG of DME extract at this point and stir to fully dissolve.
Bring the wort to a boil and add 35g of Cascade Hops and 20g of Citra Hops , start 60 minute timer.
After 40 minutes, add 25g of Cascade Hops and 25g of Citra Hops
After 55 minutes, 25G of Cascade Hops and 25G of Citra Hops
After 60 minutes, Flame out (or element off in my case)
add 25g of Cascade Hops and 30g of Citra Hops steep for 30 minutes (whirlpool, starting at 80 degrees)
Cool wort to ~25 degrees (Wort Chiller)
Drain wort into primary fermenter.
Pitch the US-05 yeast
Ferment at 18 degrees
Dry Hop 90g Cascade 65g Citra Hops after 5-7 days for 5—7days

Have run the recipe through brewers friend, assuming 65% efficiency
Original Gravity: 1.083
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 8.86%
IBU (tinseth): 95.16
SRM (morey): 9.29

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/577217/ian-s-first-iipa

 

[mtb]

Make sure to calculate your strike water temperature before mashing in. Plenty of new brewers aiming to mash at 67C make the mistake of heating their water to 67C and then adding grain, losing a few C in the process, mashing low as a result