16.5 lbs American Two-row Pale
2.125 lbs Vienna Malt
.75 lb Crystal 15L
.38 lb Melanoidin Malt
.25 lb Acid Malt (to bring to proper pH)
1 lb Rice Hulls
first wort .75oz Centennial
75 mins .5oz Chinook
15 mins 1.25oz Centennial
10 mins 1.25oz Centennial
5 mins 1.25oz Centennial
1 min 1.5oz Centennial
dry hop 7 days 2.0oz Centennial
6 gals (about)
OG~1.090
IBU~75
SRM~7
Little cluttered? I’m going for a bit of malt depth, but mostly hoppy and delicious. Semi-kinda-sort-of modeled after Muller’s Two Hearted Clone.
I’m not up to allgrain brewing yet so I can’t comment on your recipe except that at OG 1.090, somebody is going to be getting their drunk on! :cheers: So this will be like a 2-Hearted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator?
Thinking the same thing. Not needed for this recipe.[/quote]
Sorry, I should have dropped or explained the rice hulls. I’m brewing with some newbies, and I’m adding them just to make sure I don’t scare them off with a stuck sparge. I don’t foresee it, but just in case.
Yeah, 0.39 lb does seem like a much more appropriate amount for this batch. I don’t know what I was thinking :lol:
I get the point with the rice hulls but would still go without them. A proper crush and not opening your ball valve all the way right away should make it so that you dont get a stuck sparge. Other than that looks pretty solid, although I would personally drop the melanoidin if going for a 2 hearted clone.
Why the rice hulls was my first thought too. But now that that is explained, the follow up questions is: is an IIPA the right style to brew when breaking in newbies? If it was me, I’d ask them to pick the kind of beer they most like, then brew something like that.
No issues with your recipe though, looks like it would come out good.
It was actually rounded from .375 lbs, which is 6 oz.
Yeah, more of a “nod to” if anything, I wasn’t going for the exact same beer.
So we brewed this up on Sunday and all went really well. The only thing that was a little off was my efficiency; I only got to about 60%. This was probably due to my mash acidity. I really need to invest in a pH meter.
I threw the rice hulls in just for good measure, and the sparge went fine. They actually were the ones to suggest the style, so I figured I’d come up with something tasty. They enjoyed the experience and are excited to try the final beer in a few weeks. I’ll admit, after getting a whiff of the airlocks this morning I’m really looking forward to this one as well.
Thanks a ton for the input. I’ll try to remember to let you know how this one turns out.
So after giving this beer a try, I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the results. Orange/grapefruit hoppyness on the nose, hoppy and bitter with a slightly malty background on the tongue. OG was 1.079, FG 1.011 which equates out to about 9%. Certainly a bit warming, but the alcohol is pretty well hidden for such a young beer.
My only complaint is the finish. The chinook hops added an aggressive bitterness, which was what the guys I brewed with wanted, but that bitterness kind of lingers on the tongue almost leaving a bad, bitter, hop taste in your mouth. I’d say that what it’s missing is, to use a wine term, “brightness” in the finish. For those of you that are unfamiliar, bright, crisp, and tart are all terms that describe a balancing acidity in wine and beer.
So I guess what I’m asking is this:
What’s the best way to brighten up the finish of this beer? My first instinct is yeast choice. I used US-05 fermented at 67F. Maybe switch out for Wyeast 1272? Any other suggestions?
I think some of it might be that it is so dry. If you could change the mash to get more like 1.015 FG it’d help. 1.011 is pretty darned dry for a 1.079 brew. Or brew it to 1.060 OG.
I know what you mean about Chinook, I’ve used Magnum mostly and when I first used Chinook I was taken aback with the bite.
This beer aged into something worth talking about. Think: candied hops. Like candied orange peel or candied ginger, the incredible flavor is there, matched with a balancing sweetness. I don’t know what it is about this beer, but despite the low FG, the sweetness of the crystal malt really comes through pairing wonderfully with the hop flavor. Not cloying in the least. Thanks to the low FG, it drinks like a 6-7% beer and since it weighs in at 9% it can be quite dangerous.
My compaints with the beer are that any grapefruit/orange aroma that was there is completely gone at 3 months in. Now it smells much more like Centennial’s typical floral aroma. Even this is subdued though. I now realize that it wasn’t exactly a ton of hops to begin with. I wouldn’t call it an IIPA without more hop aroma.
Next go around, I’m adding Cascade to the mix to bring more grapefruit to the party, which it seems to need. I’m also thinking of bulk aging a month or two after racking, and prior to dry hopping. I’m hoping to get that same delicious flavor that the beer has right now, with a little more hop aroma left over.
This truely turned out delicious. Certainly the best beer I’ve made from my own recipe.
Final Recipe
16.5 lbs American Two-row Pale
2.125 lbs Vienna Malt
.75 lb Crystal 15L
.38 lb Melanoidin Malt
.25 lb Acid Malt (to bring to proper pH)
first wort .75oz Centennial
60 mins .5oz Chinook
15 mins 1.25oz Centennial
10 mins 1.5oz Centennial
5 mins 1.5oz Centennial
1 min 1oz Centennial
dry hop 7 days 2.5oz Centennial
US-05 yeast
if you’re still concerned about the hop brightness, i found out that after i adjusted my water that my hops definately jumped out at me. i have soft water and had to add quite a bit of gypsum.
Thanks a lot for the update. I’m definitely interested in getting a bit more hop character out of this beer. I’ll have to play with the water adjustments a little more next time. With a little tweaking, this beer has the possibility of being my favorite IIPA, whether commercial or homebrew.
