Falconer's Flight IPA Recipe

Beer Recipe Design
1

Hey guys, brewing up an American IPA featuring Falconer’s Flight. Haven’t used this hop (or blend of hops) yet. Here’s what I have.

9.15 lbs. LME
.5-1 lbs. Crystal 40 (Here’s my main question)

.75 oz. Magnum 13.1% AA @60
1 oz. FF 14.1% AA @20
1 oz. FF 14.1% AA @10
1 oz. FF 14.1% AA @5
2 oz. FF 14.1% AA Dry Hop

Yeast will probably be a starter of 1.056

Onto my questions.

Crystal Malt - Should I go with a full lb of Crystal, a half lb or three quarter? I want the FF to really stand out here, and I’m not sure if a full lb.'ll add a little too much sweetness. I stole the grain/extract bill from the Dead Ringer kit, so it is tried an true in an IPA, but I’ve never brewed that kit before and want this beer to let you know you are drinking American hop juice.

Hops - I usually brew smaller, sessionable beers and my question here is if the % of bitterness imparted by the 60 min addition is in line with that provided by the late hops. I want a firm, noticeable bitterness, but also want the flavor and aroma to be huge without going over the 70-75 (maybe 80 if you guys are REALLY convincing )IBUs range.

Yeast - I grabbed 1.056 for this brew, as it’s sort of my no-brainer American Ale yeast, however I also grabbed the rye stout extract kit w/Denny’s Favorite 50. Now I have heard that Denny’s 50 produces an interesting IPA, and I also noticed on the rye stout kit that 1.056 is listed as the liquid yeast for that recipe. Now, apparently NB has changed that yeast selection since, but now I’m considering swapping the two. Anyone brewed the rye stout with either choice and have insight into which yeast/wort combinations will produce the two best beers? My gut is sort of telling me to use 1.056 on the first IPA batch, then maybe try a different yeast next time around, but I’ve never used Denny’s Favorite 50 and I’ve been reading about what it brings to a beer, and it’s really got me interested in adding a new dimension to this IPA, as I’ve heard it can accentuate malt/fruity flavors without tasting cloying or underattenuated. I’m sure in the end I’ll just have to brew both, but I want the best IPA possible ASAP.

Thanks everyone. Cheers!

2

Looks good to me,

I would go with a whole pound of CL 40, could add some sugar to dry it out a bit.
1056 good for this IPA
Personally, I would go with a full ounce of Magnum up front, but I like things a bit more bitter and hate fractions of hops. :wink:

Have fun, nice hop blend and great use of them late.

3

Ok, full speed ahead on this brew today. Realized I ordered Crystal 10 instead of 40, so I guess it’ll be a little lighter. Did up the Magnum to a full ounce, as I’ve found the really light crystal malts can add a lot of sweetness, so the bitterness can play well with that. Going with the full lb of crystal as well, and may play with the last boil hop addition, as far as exact time/amount. Went with 1.056, going to keep it simple/clean on yeast to learn the new hop. Looking at about 7% ABV (projected) and a little under 80 IBUs.

Ok, steep’s done, time to turn up the heat. Thanks for the input on the reply (singular, but I understand that the post was quite the long read.

Cheers!!!

4

So how did the IPA turn out?
Was not sure I like the FF hops at first. But I like them now.

5

Ok new brewer here. The crystal mentioned, this sounds like an extract recipe, so the crystal is steeping only?

Thanks!

6

[quote=“dsidab81”]Ok new brewer here. The crystal mentioned, this sounds like an extract recipe, so the crystal is steeping only?

Thanks![/quote]

In an all grain beer, you add the grains that you’d steep in an extract batch to the mash tun.

7

Hey guys, update time…
First off, back to brew day. Did a ninety minute boil by accident(don’t ask), but kept the late hops the same. Racked to secondary on top of two ounces of FF today. Gravity finished around 1.016. It had started at about 1.071 so in right at about 7% abc. Sample tasted pretty good, might cut down the crystal and/or sub in some table sugar to dry the beer out more next time but it seems like it’ll be a nice IPA. Gonna leave the DH in for 5 days or so then leg it up. All in all I think it’s a success, other than being quite dark, likely from the extended boil carmelizing the wort a little.

Cheers everyone!

8

In reply to my own post above… Damn you autocorrect!!!

9

Kegged the FF IPA yesterday, some tasting notes at kegging.

The hop seems excellent. Getting notes of Citra on the nose, some Chinook and Columbus on flavor. I’m not sure what the blend actually includes, as I haven’t found anything on the net, but I’d be curious to see. I’ve also read that it works great as a bittering hop too, but I wanted to go with magnum to keep the bittering simple, which leads to my next point.

Next batch of this IPA I may change up the bittering hop, I’m thinking Warrior. Just figure it’ll throw another dimension to the hop profile of this beer. It’s excellent as it is, but nothing wrong with playing around a little.

I also may give 1450 a try on this, but I may use it in a hoppy APA first to get a feel. The 1056, as always, did what it says it does, and did produce a very nice IPA in this instance. However, I’m suddenly infatuated with 1450, after using it for the first time. See, the Rye Stout kit was kegged as well, and the character from the 1450 seems excellent for it with its dark malt/spicy rye character, and I’m curious to see how it plays off a boatload of American hops.

On an unrelated note, I used about half of the harvested Rye Stout cake on a Big Honkin’ Stout kit to see how it works with a fairly high OG American style stout, as I haven’t read much about it used in stouts. Perhaps Denny can fill me in on what to expect. Fermenting pretty low tempwise (at least I think so, the swamp cooler water is being kept in the low 50’s as best I can).

All in all, I’m very happy with this IPA (as much as I can know before its carbed anyway) and I recommend the FF to anyone who likes American hops that hasn’t picked it up yet.

Once this batch is carbed fully (set and wait method) I’ll try to update again.

10

I just brewed a very similar recipe myself using FF for the first time. Can’t wait to try it! I used a mix of crystal 10 and 20 L , and with the addition of NB gold, I agree that it seems to be a bit on the dark side. Does anyone have an idea of how dark the NB gold extract is in L. Maybe I’ll use vienna grain instead of the crystal next time. Mmmmmmmm…beer.