American IPA recipe help

I am somewhat a noob at this. I have several extract batches, whether kit or by recipe, under my belt. This is going to be my first crack at putting together a recipe. I am looking to brew an IPA with the same characteristics as a Tommyknocker IPA I once tried that I liked. Nice hop flavor, pretty balanced, but not mouth crashing bitter. I retrieved some basic info from their website such as which grains are used and which hops are used. They say it has an IBU of 53 and 6.1% ABV. Given their info and the fact I want to do this extract, this is what I have:

Steep @ 150* for 30 min : 1# munich
.5# Crystal 75
.5# Carastan

6.5 # light DME

1oz Chinook (11.8%)@ 60 min
.5oz Summit (15.5%)@ 5 min
.5oz Willamette (4%)@ 5 min

1oz of each Summit and Willamett @ flameout

Yeast - SAF-05

Dry Hop - .5 Summit /.5 Willamette

OG - 1.063
FG - 1.016
IBU - 53
ABV - 6.1%

I have yet to brew a beer with OG over 1.045 so I have yet to use a starter. Should I . For you more experienced advice is appreciated. Remember, the grains and hops are what the cb used and I would like to stick with that. I don’t expect it to be identical, just similar in balance and bitterness.

I should also say 5 gallon batch, full boil.

Yes on doing a starter.

IMO a starter is always a good practice…gets thing going quickly and puts less stress on the critters.

Looks to me like this will be a nice beer.

Have fun…

im going to disagree with the last two posts and say no starter. heres why. making a starter out of us 05 is not necessary, and actually not recommended. im estimating, with help of brewing software, of an OG of 1.055ish. us o5 comes with 200 billion cells per pack. really not necessary at all. if using wyeast liquid packs, it would be a good idea, as they only have 100 billion cells per pack. but ive fermented upwards of 1.065 with wyeast and no starter, with a FG of 1.012. but still not necessary at the given gravity. making starters from us o5 is not advised as it can actually lower the viable cell count that fermentis works hard to put into each pack. rehydrating is a different story.

“im going to disagree with the last two posts and say no starter. heres why. making a starter out of us 05 is not necessary, and actually not recommended. im estimating, with help of brewing software, of an OG of 1.055ish. us o5 comes with 200 billion cells per pack. really not necessary at all. if using wyeast liquid packs, it would be a good idea, as they only have 100 billion cells per pack. but ive fermented upwards of 1.065 with wyeast and no starter, with a FG of 1.012. but still not necessary at the given gravity. making starters from us o5 is not advised as it can actually lower the viable cell count that fermentis works hard to put into each pack. rehydrating is a different story.”

I used a free online program to build this. It told me my OG would be 1.063, but some of the grain selections may not have been accurate. That having been said, I think I would like to get around 1. 06 to keep balance. Have you any suggestions, or do you think this is pretty balanced as is? Also, could you expound on “rehydrating”? I have used mostly wyeast on lower gravity brew and just started using dry, but pitched dry.

hrpufinstuff is correct…I didn’t notice it was a safeale dry product…hydrate, no starter.

Neither did I. Oopsie :oops:

my 1.055 estimate left out the 1lb of munich malt. are you using the recipe builder on brewers friend.com? why the 30 minute partial mash? are you mashing in a kettle? the recipe looks good no suggestions there. honestly i still dont know what or if there are any advantages to rehydrating the yeast. i just have been doing it lately because i built a stir plate and a flask for starters. the only difference i have noticed is that it takes longer to see active fermentation with rehydrated yeast. i used to pitch dry and would see fermentation in 8-12 hours. rehydrating more like 24-36 hours. if you want more info look here
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html
. good luck.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=106919

“my 1.055 estimate left out the 1lb of munich malt. are you using the recipe builder on brewers friend.com? why the 30 minute partial mash? are you mashing in a kettle? the recipe looks good no suggestions there”

I used the recipe calc on tasty brew. I later ran it through Beersmith. The basis for this idea is from a craft brew that uses those grains. Since I only brew extract I wasn’t sure how else to do it. Is there any difference between a “steep” and a “mini-mash”? I steep in a stock pot on my stove top. Once I hit my target temp I start heating my kettle.

Munich must be mashed, but it will convert itself. Just mash it in no more than a half-gallon of water in your kettle, keep it at 150F for 30 minutes stirring every now and then, and then add the crystal grain to the bag along with the rest of the water to the kettle and start heating. When it reaches 160F, stir the grain bag a couple times, and pull it out. Proceed as normal.