First All Grain IPA Recipe - looking for feedback?

[codfishh]

Super C IPA

Style: American IPA OG: 1.067
Type: All Grain FG: 1.020
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 6.16 %
Calories: 221 IBU's: 66.40
Efficiency: 70 % Boil Size: 5.83 Gal
Color: 10.4 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 21 days @ 68.0°F

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
11.00 lbs 81.48 % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 60 mins 1.036
0.50 lbs 3.70 % Victory Malt 60 mins 1.034
1.00 lbs 7.41 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 60 mins 1.034
1.00 lbs 7.41 % Briess Munich 10L 60 mins 1.035

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 32.20 Centennial 60 mins 10.00
0.50 ozs 9.75 Centennial 20 mins 10.00
1.00 ozs 19.48 Cascade First Wort 5.50
0.50 ozs 1.77 Cascade 5 mins 5.50
0.50 ozs 3.21 Centennial 5 mins 10.00
1.00 ozs Centennial 7 days 10.00
1.00 ozs Cascade 67 days 5.50

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg Ringwood Ale Wyeast Labs 1187

Additions
(none)

Mash Profile
Medium Body Infusion In 60 min @ 152.0°F
Add 17.55 qt ( 1.30 qt/lb ) water @ 166.0°F
Sparge
Sparge 14.79 qt of 180.0°F water over 30 mins

Carbonation
Amount Type Beer Temp CO2 Vols
2.78 oz Table Sugar - Bottle Carbonation 72.0°F 1.90

Notes

http://www.iBrewMaster.com Version: 2.753

[markaberrant]

You are going to want more than 70% attenuation (1.067-1.020). I would want at least 75%, and I prefer closer to 80% in an American IPA. You are going to have trouble getting that kind of attenuation with Ringwood yeast, and I also don't like that yeast in general, but specifically not in an American IPA. So I would recommend choosing a different yeast. Good dry choices are US-05 and Nottingham, for Wyeast, try 1056, 1272 or 2450.

If this is your first all-grain batch, you may struggle to hit 70% efficiency. This isn't that big of a deal, just mentioning it. You may want to add another 1-2lbs of base malt, or just have to live with not hitting your target gravity. Then again, you may hit your targets just fine. Only one way to find out!

I calculate the IBUs of FWH additions the same as a 20 minute addition. I also don't count the IBUs of my flavour and aroma hops, I find they really don't add much. You can leave your hop schedule as is, but if it was my beer, I would increase the 60 minute addition to 2oz (trust me, it will not be too bitter).

You have a 21 day primary scheduled. This seems excessive. 7-10 days would be plenty. When are you planning to dry hop? If you don't keg, I would do a 7 day primary, followed by a 7 day secondary with dry hops, and then bottle.

That's about it. Good luck!

[icemachine]

Ringwood will definitely give a strong estery profile to an American IPA that you may not like.

I assume you are planning on going straight from Primary to your bottling bucket - as Mark mentioned, you won't get the big aroma without a dry hop in secondary.

I'd also suggest making a slightly larger batch size to start if you want to bottle 5 gallons, trub losses are always more than you expect

[dutchcanuck]

I agree with adding additional bittering hops, perhaps at the 40 minute rather than 60?

If you are really eyeing a BIG hop aroma, you might want to consider dry hopping with another half ounce of either hop. My last beer I dry-hopped for two weeks with 2 ounces of Amarillo and I was disappointed with the amount of hop aroma that I have. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

Also, I would consider a 4 week primary. This gives your beer plenty of time to ferment out, let the yeast settle, and clean up after themselves. I, however, subscribe to the lazy brewing bible. If I don't HAVE to do something, i don't, and I firmly believe you don't have to put beer into a secondary.

Just my two cents.

Ken

[markaberrant]

I agree with adding additional bittering hops, perhaps at the 40 minute rather than 60?

If you are really eyeing a BIG hop aroma, you might want to consider dry hopping with another half ounce of either hop. My last beer I dry-hopped for two weeks with 2 ounces of Amarillo and I was disappointed with the amount of hop aroma that I have. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

Also, I would consider a 4 week primary. This gives your beer plenty of time to ferment out, let the yeast settle, and clean up after themselves. I, however, subscribe to the lazy brewing bible. If I don't HAVE to do something, i don't, and I firmly believe you don't have to put beer into a secondary.

Just my two cents.

Ken

Why add bittering hops at 40 instead of 60? I see no benefit in that.

2oz of dry hops is plenty in an American IPA, but sure, you could also go with 3 or 4oz. It also depends on the quality of your hops and how they were stored.

4 week primary for a relatively low gravity and hop forward beer is completely unecessary. You want to be drinking it as fresh as possilble, and there is no reason why this beer shouldn't be ready to bottle in 14 days. I am not big on using a secondary, but if you are dry hopping and don't keg, it is pretty much a requirement.

[dutchcanuck]

I just follow the advice of brewers FAR more experienced than I.

John Palmer was quoted as saying:

But these days we don't recommend secondary transfer. Leave it in the primary, you know, a month. Today's fermentations are typically healthy enough that you are not going to get autolysis flavors or off-flavors from leaving the beer on the yeast for an extended period of time.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/second ... gh-176837/

As I said before, I'm lazy, and why rush it?

[markaberrant]

I just follow the advice of brewers FAR more experienced than I.

John Palmer was quoted as saying:

But these days we don't recommend secondary transfer. Leave it in the primary, you know, a month. Today's fermentations are typically healthy enough that you are not going to get autolysis flavors or off-flavors from leaving the beer on the yeast for an extended period of time.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/second ... gh-176837/

As I said before, I'm lazy, and why rush it?

14 days is not rushing it. Typical ale fermentations are complete in 3-5 days, then allow some time for the yeast to clean up the byproducts and then settle out. True, you won't get off flavours by leaving it for a month in primary, but literally nothing is going to happen during days 14-28, so might as well get on with packaging, carbonating, cold conditioning, etc.

[codfishh]

Thanks for all the feedback, it's not my first all grain but first all grain IPA and first IPA period.

This will be batch #6

First 2 were extract and the last 3 were all grain.

All Grain Brews were
Saison
American Wheat
and All Ahtanum APA.


I am just drinking the saison now.


I haven't racked to a secondary yet, I didn't realize it was necessary for dry hopping. I've been dry hopping directly in the primary thus far. But I haven't noticed a big hoppy aroma for any of the beers yet.

Yeah the ringwood yeast has me a little concerned, I just had it on hand and figured I'd give it a try. I'll probably go back to the US-05, that yeast rocks and generally causes me less stress.

[markaberrant]

I haven't racked to a secondary yet, I didn't realize it was necessary for dry hopping. I've been dry hopping directly in the primary thus far. But I haven't noticed a big hoppy aroma for any of the beers yet.

You can dry hop in the primary once fermentation has subsided, I have done this myself. However, I prefer to dry hop in a secondary because I like to gently swirl/rock the carboy the first few days to get the hops fully into solution... doing this in the primary is just going to stir up all the trub and spent yeast, and when it settles out again, will actually pull some of the hop character with it.

Of course the best vessel for dry hopping is in a keg, but sounds like this isn't an option.

If you aren't getting a big fresh hop aroma, I would be concerned about the quality of the hops first before considering any other culprit. Many people in my local homebrew club are blown away by the quality of the hop character in my beers, so I gave a presentation on how I select and store my hops... lots of "lightbulbs" were going off in people's heads, most of them realized they have been using very poor quality hops.

[codfishh]

Me and a few friends ordered about 5lbs of pellet hops in June, they've been stored in my freezer thus far.

I'll see what I get from my all Ahtanum batch and looking for some good citrus aroma from that.

My buddy brewed an all late addition citra apa and the smell coming from his keg is crazy, big tangerine/grapefruit type smell. So at least I know the citra are good.

[markaberrant]

Me and a few friends ordered about 5lbs of pellet hops in June, they've been stored in my freezer thus far.

I'll see what I get from my all Ahtanum batch and looking for some good citrus aroma from that.

My buddy brewed an all late addition citra apa and the smell coming from his keg is crazy, big tangerine/grapefruit type smell. So at least I know the citra are good.

Where did you order the hops from? Do you know how they stored them? Were they shipped in vacuum sealed vapour barrier bags? If you have opened the bags, did you reseal them?

Basically, you want to:
- keep your hops as cold as possible
- minimize exposure to oxygen (keep them vacuum sealed)
- minimize exposure to light
- store in vapour barrier bags (you shouldn't be able to smell the hops through the bag). Ziploc bags are not adequate.

And you want to ensure that your supplier was also handling them in this fashion.

When you open a bag of hops, you should get a huge hop aroma. If not, only use them for bittering. And if you smell anything cheesy, save them for lambics or toss them.