Bad Monkey AIPA

[Monkeybrew]

I'm thinking ahead to my first AG brew of 2014, and want to brew my first 'big hoppy beer' and have taken the motto from a bottle of St Austell Big Job that I had, that said 'If a jobs worth doing, it's worth overdoing' and applied it to my recipe!

Bad Monkey AIPA

60min Boil
90min Mash
23L

6.0kg of Maris Otter Malt 5 EBC - 90.0%
0.5kg of Munich Malt 20 EBC - 7.5%
0.17kg of Crystal Malt 120 EBC - 2.5%

23g of Nugget Whole Hops 12.2%AA @60min

25g of Chinook Whole Hops 12.5%AA @10min
25g of Simcoe Whole Hops 13.2%AA @10min
25g of Ahtanum Whole Hops 4.7%AA @10min

25g of Chinook Whole Hops 12.5%AA @5min
25g of Simcoe Whole Hops 13.2%AA @5min
25g of Ahtanum Whole Hops 4.7%AA @5min

50g of Chinook Whole Hops 12.5%AA Dry Hop
50g of Simcoe Whole Hops 13.2%AA Dry Hop
50g of Ahtanum Whole Hops 4.7%AA Dry Hop

OG 1.065 based on 75% Brewhouse Efficiency
20 EBC
62 EBU
6.5-7.0% ABV

Yeast - What and how much?

I would appreciate any feedback, as this is my first hoppy AG.

Cheers

MB

[killer]

Fine looking recipe... Nothing at all wrong with it. You could brew it as is and have a fantastic beer I'm sure - anything people suggest would be a personal preference thing.
Definitely an over the top IPA - very much in the spirit of Punk IPA - you have 3 out of the reported 4 hops that they use. They apparently use 100% pale so you might be ever so slightly maltier/sweeter. I think your IBU's are spot on for a strongish beer like you have.

My personal suggestions (based on what I like) would be:

Redistribute your 300g late hops to a 15/5/0 min (with 30min steep)/ dryhop mix... I have convinced myself (maybe naively) that you get extra layers of hoppiness by doing it that way.
Get maybe 200g Torrified wheat in there for head retention/ lacing

Use maybe 2 packets of rehydrated S05 or WLP001 (with a starter if you like liquid yeast but I've used both an not noticed a big difference) - It's a good yeast for your first big Hoppy IPA.

And sorry to raise the horrible subject but if your water is very alkaline, reduce the alkalinity and get some sulfate (if it's low) in there to highlight the hops even more.

[Oli1979]

Sounds like a big IPA beer this. I would defently consider a yeast starter of at least 1 litre for this high ABV beer.
I would suggest you use a West coast American Yeast.
Maybe up the Crystal to 5%, but thats a personal preference.
Good luck with the brewday.

[Barley Water]

Is there any debate at all concerning the use of a yeast starter? Of course you want to use a starter; you want the beer to attenuate as much as possible. Over here, since we use primarily American 2 row (which does not have the malt flavors that M.O. has) the main idea is to produce a hop delivery vehicle. Mostly it's personal preference on my part but I like to cut out the crystal malt altogether and just go with a bit of character malt for complexity, I like a bit of amber malt (but just a little). You can add a bit of wheat if you wish however I think you'll find that the head will not be an issue due to the abundance of hops. I don't know that I would bother with a 1.060 beer but once the gravity starts getting up there adding sugar is a good idea to get the attenuation you want and thin the beer out a bit for drinkability.

As far as yeast goes the Chico strain will never let you down pluse it's easy to handle. If you want to get out there a bit (and you have the nerve for it) I have used Ringwood for beers like this but that strain can screw with you (been there, done that). Anyhow, have fun and good luck.