First Time Creating Recipe

Beginner brewer here. I made my first batch of home brew last month off of a boxed recipe kit.

I want to branch out and create my own recipe so looking for some help.

I want to create a citrus tasting IPA. Here is what I came up with:

Fermentables:
2lbs American Crystal 40L (steeping)
2lbs American Six-row Pale (steeping)
6lbs Light Malt Extract (extract)

Hops
1oz Amarillo Pellet 30mins boil time
1oz Warrior Pellet 20mins boil time
2oz Centennial Pellet 10mins boil time
2oz Citra Pellet Dry Hop 7 days after in Secondary

OG 1.063
FG 1.016
IBU 68
ABV 6.1%
SRM 11

Pretty basic I know but wanted to keep it simple for my first go around.

Ideas/thoughts appreciated.
:cheers:

A few issues.

  1. 2lbs of crystal is a lot. I’d cut that back to 1lb. You generally don’t want more than around 10% crystal malt in most beers. And some would say even less.

  2. You want a 60min hop addition. That’s where you get most of your bitterness from. Move that Warrior addition to 60min. That’s more of a bittering hop which should be added at 60min. Anything within the last 20mins are for flavor and aroma.

  3. Move that 30min Amarillo addition to 20min so you get some flavor from it and not just bitterness. That’s a waste of good Amarillo!

Hop additions like most choices in a recipe are subjective. BUT I would blend your Citra, Centennial, and Amarillo together and add a bit at 20, 10, 5, flame out, and the dry hop. For a pale ale, I’d probably use about 1oz at each of those additions. This is just something I like to do and personal preference. If I use more than one or two hops, I like to blend them together and space out over the last 20mins.

Do you know how to mash? You need to mash the 2 row for about 60min to get conversion. It happens faster than that, but 60min is the norm. If so, why not mash more 2 row and cut back on that extract. You’ll get better control over your beer and the final product including final gravity, taste, color, etc. For a Pale Ale I’d mash at 150F for 60min.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!

:cheers:

EDIT: Just noticed you are trying to make an IPA. In that case, I’d drop the C40 to 1lb then add maybe 1/4lb of a darker crystal… maybe something like C120. Or maybe scrap the 2 row and mash another base malt like Munich. You’ll get a stronger malt backbone to stand up to the bitterness of an IPA. I’d also dry hop with more than an ounce. I’d probably get the IBUs up to 60-70 and then dry hop with 3-4oz.