Fourth go round in about two years time…so obviously new and don’t brew a whole lot. Want to get more into it going forward. I’ve put together a recipe, borrowing from a few I’ve seen out there (mainly Pliny the Elder clone) for a Double IPA:
3.50 oz Columbus 90 min
.75 oz Columbus 45 min
1.00 oz Simcoe 30 min
1.00 oz Cascade 0 min
2.50 oz Simcoe 0 min
1.00 oz Columbus Dry Hop 12-14 days
1.00 oz Chinook Dry Hop 12-14 days
1.00 oz Simcoe 12-14 days
.25 oz Columbus Dry Hops 7 days
.33 oz Chinook 7 days
.25 oz Simcoe 7 days
2 Wyeast 1056 American Ale packs
Full wort boil. Grains will steep for 30 min at 165 F in 2.5 quarts water.
Plan on going whole fermentation in glass carboy (no secondary), using loose pellet hops. My last batch was pretty similar, but it felt really thin, so I cutback on the dextrose (from .75 oz) and added DME accordingly and some maltodextrin.
The 1 tsp of gypsum added because it’s an IPA, and not sure of my tap water’s sulfate (past city reports show 17-26 mg/l). I have softener, and I’m not sure at all if I go strictly off the city report or what on that.
What size batch is this supposed to be? One thing I’ve learned making extract DIPAs is you need about 15-25% sugar or else your yeast will poop out too early and end up way too sweet.
15-25% of your fermentables. I’m not sure of the purpose of the maltodextrin as I believe that is 100% unfermentable. i suggest getting rid of the maltodextrin and the dextrose and just adding 2lb of table sugar at flame out. This will put your OG in the level of a DIPA (1.071) and allow a much lower FG which will put this closer to style.
I like the hop schedule. I think you can leave that alone. I’ve never had Pliny though so I can’t comment how close the recipe is.
I must have missed the second half of your post about your previous attempt being too thin. The problem with the recipe as you have it is you will end up with an FG too high and you’ll have a very sweet beer which is pretty undesirable with this style. Is it possible you are looking for a more malty backbone than being too thin? In my experience I’ve never had a IPA with a heavy mouthfeel.
I guess that’s possible. Last batch was fairly similar ingredients wise, with .5 lb or so more dextrose, and 6.5 lb light DME. Seemed to taste fine, but just seemed like it didn’t have the bite in the back of the jaws, if that make sense. Very easy to drink. Sorry…still learning the craft. How can you tell just by glance it’ll be too sweet?
Cause i made a similar recipe with 8lbs of DME and 1lb of sugar and it finished up WAY too sweet. I’m currently aging it and hoping it turns out as a decent barleywine at 6 months but I’m not holding my breath.
If “bite” is what you are looking for I think adding some gypsum should help. Your previous brew could also have been undercarbed which might have lead to less of the bite.
The best IPA I’ve made to date had 6.5lbs of DME and 2 lbs of sugar and finished around 1.008. In my opinion you really want to have a FG around 1.015 or below for this recipe. The way you have your recipe formulated now you’re gonna have trouble getting this below 1.020. You might be able to get it around there if you ferment a little warm around 70 but you might have to many esters if you do that.
