Double IPA critiques please. Looking for maltier version

chinaski1217 · December 18, 2011, 10:35pm

Please let me know what you think of the recipe below. I’m going for a maltier version of a DIPA, something along the lines of Great Divide’s Hercules. This is basically a scaled up version of Jamil’s regular IPA, with a hop schedule inspired by Pliny. My only concerns are the amount of crystal and (too much?) and Munich. Might consider bittering with something other than Chinook as well; something cleaner.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Size: 5.75 gal
Efficiency: 70%
Attenuation: 83.4%
Calories: 272.58 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.082 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 11.48 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 9.08% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 150.5 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
15.25 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
.75 lb Munich 10L Malt
1 lb American Caramel 20°L
.25 lb American Caramel 40°L
.5 lb White Wheat Malt
1 lb Corn Sugar
2 oz Chinook (11.9%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
1 oz Columbus (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 45 m
1 oz Citra™ (12.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
1 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
2 oz Citra™ (12.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
1 oz Columbus (14.5%) - added dry to primary fermenter
2 oz Citra™ (12.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added dry to primary fermenter

WLP 001

s_scoggin · December 18, 2011, 11:17pm

chinook can give a harsh bitterness, and 150 IBU’s is quite A LOT; if you want maltier, i would back off a bit on the bitterness

s_scoggin · December 18, 2011, 11:34pm

i might use a little less crystal, maybe .75lb total. i just brewed a dark hoppy beer with 1lb. but when it comes to crystal, its all preference… i find magnum to have a smooth bitterness, or if you have columbus, its also a great bittering hop.

chinaski1217 · December 18, 2011, 11:37pm

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I agree with you about the Chinook. I think your suggestions of Magnum or Columbus might be better.

As far as the IBUs go though, I’m aiming for something in the neighborhood of Pliny the Elder which has something like 250+ IBUs. The clone uses about 10 ounces of hops in the boil and another 6 or so in dry-hoping…give or take.

s_scoggin · December 18, 2011, 11:45pm

[quote=“Chinaski1217”]
Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I agree with you about the Chinook. I think your suggestions of Magnum or Columbus might be better.

As far as the IBUs go though, I’m aiming for something in the neighborhood of Pliny the Elder which has something like 250+ IBUs. The clone uses about 10 ounces of hops in the boil and another 6 or so in dry-hoping…give or take.[/quote]

are you sure it has 250+ IBU’s? maybe i’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem right. other than that you cant go wrong with your late addition hop mix

chinaski1217 · December 19, 2011, 12:33am

[quote=“S.Scoggin”][quote=“Chinaski1217”]
Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I agree with you about the Chinook. I think your suggestions of Magnum or Columbus might be better.

As far as the IBUs go though, I’m aiming for something in the neighborhood of Pliny the Elder which has something like 250+ IBUs. The clone uses about 10 ounces of hops in the boil and another 6 or so in dry-hoping…give or take.[/quote]

are you sure it has 250+ IBU’s? maybe i’m wrong, but that doesn’t seem right. other than that you cant go wrong with your late addition hop mix[/quote]

Yes. When I put the Pliny clone recipe into Beer Tools Pro it calculated 232.6 IBUs. I know it sounds nuts, but Pliny is considered to be one of the best examples of this style.

It has a 3.5 ounce bittering charge; I’ve lowered that to 2 oz in my recipe. That part at least seems really overboard.

I know the calculated bitterness will be much higher than the actual bitterness, which is why the Pliny recipe just lists IBUs as “100+”. It also uses a much lighter malt bill, just 2-row, C40 and Cara-pils.

baratone_brewer · December 19, 2011, 9:42am

Russian Rivers website lists Pliny the Elder @ 100IBU’s. OG 1.071.

http://russianriverbrewing.com/pages/brews/index.html

scott_miller · December 19, 2011, 12:22pm

Chinook works well as a bittering charge if its a small charge. I think.
Like in those recipies that you write the hop schedule backwards,
2 oz of X @ 1, 2 oz of Y @ 5, etc, now I need 3/4 oz of something @ 60 to get my total IBUs.
I like that small charge of Chinook, like it adds a layer of agressive bitterness without wiping all the other hops out.

chinaski1217 · December 19, 2011, 1:05pm

[quote=“Baratone Brewer”]Russian Rivers website lists Pliny the Elder @ 100IBU’s. OG 1.071.

http://russianriverbrewing.com/pages/brews/index.html
[/quote]

Yes, that’s actual IBUs, not calculated. When you put the Pliny hop schedule into any recipe design program, it’s going to give you a MUCH higher number than that. I don’t fully understand it, but the actual IBUs are always less than calculated IBUs.

chinaski1217 · December 19, 2011, 1:07pm

[quote=“Scott Miller”]Chinook works well as a bittering charge if its a small charge. I think.
Like in those recipies that you write the hop schedule backwards,
2 oz of X @ 1, 2 oz of Y @ 5, etc, now I need 3/4 oz of something @ 60 to get my total IBUs.
I like that small charge of Chinook, like it adds a layer of agressive bitterness without wiping all the other hops out.[/quote]

I think I’d change the chinook to Magnum now, after thinking some more about it.