I’m brewing an IPA tomorrow and wanted to get opinions on my water adjustment. I thought I might have to dilute my well water with distilled but it doesn’t look like it.
Here’s the recipe:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
Boil Size: 6.7 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.67 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 7.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 63.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 83.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Briess 2 Row (1.8 SRM) Grain 1 90.9 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.1 %
0.75 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 26.7 IBUs
1.02 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 22.1 IBUs
0.26 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 -
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 14.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124 Yeast 7 -
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
If I use the Pale Ale water profile in Brunwater I find that just adding gypsum to get to the sulfate target of 300 and calcium chloride to hit the chloride target of 55 actually puts me at 5.4 mash pH. With most of the beers I brew I’m ok with that. Should I shoot for a lower pH on the IPA?
5.4 should be good. I have heard that 5.1 to 5.3 is the best for ipa’s and others say 5.4-5.5, I think as long as your between 5.1-5.6 you will be fine. I would bump the dry hops up to 2oz, but that’s just me. I’ve done 1.0 oz it’s just a little light an flavor/aroma.
Here is a good thread about IPA and mash pH.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=121113
That’s the one I was looking for last night and couldn’t find! Thanks Josh. Good stuff!
I like your strategy. I made some good beers with 1272 and a pH of 5.4. I hope you acidified sparge.
I did. Brunwater said 3.3ml of lactic acid to get to 5.4 and it was spot on correct. Kettle pH was 5.3. I forgot to get a post boil pH.
This beer turned out really good. I’m not a huge fan of massively hopped IPAs so this is about my upper limit actually. Great aroma which is kind of grapefruity for me, very crisp light beer, citrusy and more grapefruit, some bitterness hangs around on the back of the tongue afterward. This will be a great summer day by the pool beer. Will definitely make it again. About a month or so in the keg before it really rounded out. Before that it seemed kinda green and grassy to me.
I find my PA/IPA beers are best at around 4-5 weeks old.
I think using a hopstand instead of a dry hop and real late additions gives a more rounded/refined and less fresh/grassy effect. I think if you are waiting a month for an IPA to mellow I would suggest trying a hopstand. I think IPAs “fade” after a month but I am kinda into the fresher/grassy thing.
I’ve never done a hop stand but it sounds interesting.
Do you add the hops right after flame out and let it sit or do you whirlpool/chill at the same time?
Would you use the same amount in the hop stand? For 30 mins ?
If I change the dry hop to a whirlpool/steep in BS2 it increases the overall IBU by about 10 points.
Will this add noticeably to the bitterness of the beer? I don’t want to change the overall character or bitterness of the beer but if I could offset that young green grassy taste in the first few weeks that would be cool.
For my hopstand, I add hops at flameout and cover for 30 minutes, stirring intermittently. I do believe stirring makes an impact. IMO a hopstand does add IBU. I estimate a 30min hopstand as a 15min addition. Looks like your software does it for you. Just reduce the bittering addition to offset the additional IBUs from the hopstand. I believe the hopstand is worth all the fuss.
Last IPA hop schedule was 4oz @ 15minutes, 4oz hopstand, 4oz dry hop. No other additions. Kegged it yesterday and it is pretty grassy still ( 2 weeks old, 1 week dry hop).
[quote=“zwiller”]For my hopstand, I add hops at flameout and cover for 30 minutes, stirring intermittently. I do believe stirring makes an impact. IMO a hopstand does add IBU. I estimate a 30min hopstand as a 15min addition. Looks like your software does it for you. Just reduce the bittering addition to offset the additional IBUs from the hopstand. I believe the hopstand is worth all the fuss.
Last IPA hop schedule was 4oz @ 15minutes, 4oz hopstand, 4oz dry hop. No other additions. Kegged it yesterday and it is pretty grassy still ( 2 weeks old, 1 week dry hop).[/quote]
Been reading on hop stands all morning. Sounds like the general consensus is that the hop stand adds more to flavor while DH adds more aroma. I would like the keep or even improve on the aroma from my original batch so it appears I will be DHing ether way.
I think I’ll combine my 5 min hops with the DH hops, split that, hop stand half and DH the other half.
Since it’s improved flavor and aroma I’m looking for I’ll chill to 175 then do the hop stand which should add minimal to no bittering based on what I’ve read. So not sure how much of a reduction to the bittering hops I’ll need to do.
There are different schools of thought on hopstanding, but the main camps are high temp and low temp. I prefer my results at high temp but I like the flavor. One of my best IPA was a made with only a hopstand. Supposedly the elusive Heady Topper is brewed similarly. But these are hop bombs… I think you’re spot on to keep temps under 185F if you want to minimize IBU from it.
I would like to try a method Charlie Papazian employs. A 30 minute stand where the kettle is then partially submerged in a tub of water. Hits both temp ranges. Simple, elegant, and practical.
Stones Ruination and I believe also their standard IPA are both brewed with only a bittering addition and a hopstand/whirlpool followed by a dryhop. No hops are added during the boil. I brewed a Ruination clone and while I just bottled it a few days ago it was pretty “spot on” to the hop flavor/aroma of the commercial brew. Can’t wait till this bad boy is fully carbed.
It’s convinced me to turn all my usual 10 minute additions to hopstands instead. At least for my IPAs
I brewed this IPA again yesterday and ended up doing hops at 60,20,5 and will DH. Next time I brew it I’m going to try doing a bittering, hop stand and DH.
The only thing I would change about the finished beer would be to enhance the aroma so it would seem I should just increase my DH.
I do want to try the hop stand at some point just to experiment though.
Brewed this beer again 6/4 moved the 5 min hops to a hopstand. I wanted to drop them in at 160 but it cooled faster than expected so they went in at 145 and got stirred every few minutes until 63 degrees, probably 40 mins. I’ll DH with 1.5 oz centennial.
I also adjusted the pH down on both these last 2 batches. 5.2 post boil kettle pH. If the yeast performs as before that should push the pH to 4.3 in the glass.
[quote=“dannyboy58”]Brewed this beer again 6/4 moved the 5 min hops to a hopstand. I wanted to drop them in at 160 but it cooled faster than expected so they went in at 145 and got stirred every few minutes until 63 degrees, probably 40 mins. I’ll DH with 1.5 oz centennial.
I also adjusted the pH down on both these last 2 batches. 5.2 post boil kettle pH. If the yeast performs as before that should push the pH to 4.3 in the glass.[/quote]
Just to follow up on this thread. The hop flavor and aroma did not hold up in this beer. We finished the keg in about a month and the last few pints were more ‘pale ale - like.’ I’m attributing this to the lower kettle pH.
Brewed the same recipe again last week with a kettle pH of 5.4.
I recently brewed the Jamil’s Evil Twin kit from NB. Only 0.25 oz of Columbus bittering hops at 60 minutes, with another 0.5 oz at 20 minutes. One oz each of Centennial and Cascade were added at 10 minutes and again at flameout, with a 30 minute hops stand. What a difference that made, when compared to other big, hoppy IPAs that feature lots of hops during the boil and dry hopping! I tried a partially carbed bottle last night (nine days after bottling.) All of the hop flavor is right up front, with a small of amount of bitterness up front and none on the back end. I can’t wait for this to be fully carbed!
One thing I started doing that seemed to improve hop flavor was throw my final flameout hops directly into the wort and don’t filter them out (go right into the fermenter). I use a hop spider (5 gal bag if using more than 3 oz) for all other additions but i think the extended contact with the wort helps that hop flavor stay with the beer longer. I haven’t run any controlled experiments so it could be any number of other variables or even just my perception but I’ll keep doing it cause it appears to be helping.
You’re ignorant if you’re simply doing it because it works… get a clue!
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=122681
