American IPA recipe help

[Eclipse9101]

Hello everyone.

I'm planning to make a powerful Amarillo and Citra AIPA in the next few weeks and would appreciate it if I could get some pointers/advice on my recipe before I do something that could have been done better!
Here's what I have so far...

23 litre batch.
OG 1.068
IBU aim 55
MASH TEMP 67 degrees c

MALTS
6.5kg Maris Otter
500g Munich
150g Crystal 60

HOPS
25g Amarillo 60mins

25g Amarillo 15 mins
25g Citra 15 mins

25g Amarillo 5 mins
25g Citra 5 mins

40g Amarillo 0 mins (30 mins steep)
40g Citra 0 mins (30 mins steep)

DRY HOP
50g Amarillo 7 days
50g Citra 7 days

I'm looking for this to be quite a rich full on flavour IPA with a powerful hop presence. Is the amount of crystal malt what I'm looking for to achieve this? Are my hop additions OK or is there a better way of doing it?

Thanks guys, looking forward to some feedback.
Cheers

[orlando]

I wouldn't waste the Amarillo at 60 minutes, have you got another big alpha hop like summit? Otherwise it looks a winner. One other thing to try is splitting the dry hop into two stages, removing the first lot after 3 days, heavy dry hopping can cause haze in the final beer and a sometimes a little astringency. Use a sanitised slotted spoon to remove the old hops. Stan Hieryonomous in his book Hops talks about this technique, there is some evidence that after 3 days of soaking there is little to gain in aroma.

[6470zzy]

What yeast are you planning on using? Something like US-05?

Cheers

[Eclipse9101]

Cheers guys.

Yep US-05

thanks for the advise so far. Do you think the mix of crystal malt and Munich is about right or should I up the crystal a little?

[orlando]

Cheers guys.

Yep US-05

thanks for the advise so far. Do you think the mix of crystal malt and Munich is about right or should I up the crystal a little?

You're already mashing high and the Munich will help with the body so I would be inclined to leave as is.

[Matt12398]

Are you looking for body, sweetness or both? That will determine what you want to put in and in what quantities.

[Eclipse9101]

I little of both ideally.

[Matt12398]

What you've got there should give you what you want. The Munich some nice maltiness, the high ABV coupled with the mash temp and crystal addition some body and sweetness.

Some people say mash low with little to no crystal malt . If you want a dry beer that only tastes of hops thats fine but I mash pales at 68 and use crystal malt plentifully and they taste good.

[Barley Water]

The main difference between a British ale and an American ale (besides the west coast hops used) is that American malt does not have the depth of flavor you enjoy in your corner of the world. What we try to do over here is essentially make a hop delivery vehicle and malt flavors are for sure a secondary consideration. Although some use crystal malts I personally leave them out as the sweetness imparted tends to mask some of the hop character I'm looking for. Also, you are making a fairly big beer (O.G. about 1.065) and that crystal malt will tend to make the beer "less drinkable" if that makes any sense. I would go so far as to suggest adding some simple sugar just to dry it out if you can't get the attenuation you are looking for. I would also agree with the previous poster who suggested using a high alpha bittering hop rather than your prescious Amarillo (I like Warrior and of course Magnum is good also; I'm a big fan of smooth bitterness). Anyhow, your beer will be good just you way you have drawn it up; most of the above is just personal preference and last I checked nobody died and made me king.

[charliemartin]

Hi,
As you can see from the replies everyone has their own opinion about what makes a good recipe. At the end of the day you have to brew it and drink it yourself then make adjustments to the next one if necessary. Your recipe looks okay to me and I like a bit of sweetness to balance the hops, even in an AIPA. I see you are using US05. You might want to try an English yeast if you want to leave a bit of maltiness in the beer.

Cheers,
Charliemartin