Newbie-High ABV IIPA?

[minyork]

Hello all,

I've been lurking a while and decided to take the plung and try some home brewing. I will be buying the dual element H&G 10 gallon brewery and would like to brew a high ABV (9ish %) IIPA with a very bitter and hoppy characteristic. Below is my current recipe:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.93 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 78.06 %
2.65 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 12.98 %
0.64 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 3.12 %
1.94 oz Hallertauer, New Zealand [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 54.9 IBU
1.06 oz Hallertauer, New Zealand [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 17.0 IBU
0.88 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
0.71 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (2 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
1.19 lb Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) Sugar 5.84 %
1 Pkgs Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332) Yeast-Ale

IBU 78.9
Estimated ABV 9.07%

I do like a citrus finish and thought about adding a small amount of orange peel to the boil at the very end........

I would love to hear any comments even if its just "Its crap!" or suggestions. Also I'm a little uncertain about the mashing process for this so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Mark

[minyork]

Thanks Chris,

The recipe is for 5 imperial gallons (the other measurements are also imperial), although I may well scale it up to 10. I was trying to base the recipe on an imperial IP hence the IIPA. Will subsitute the the candy sugar as suggested and knock off the orange peel as I was very uncertain about that in the first place.

Thanks for the advice!

Mark

[steve_flack]

You may want to consider dry hopping as well. You didn't mention doing it and maybe you already had it in mind, but you will need a decent sized yeast starter for a beer of that strength.

Not wanting to put you off but for a first all-grain you might want to try something a bit less ambitious/expensive? Have you done any other brewing before or are you leaping straight into this? There's nothing wrong with that (I did it that way) but if I were doing it today I'd start with something a bit simpler and stick with a dried yeast to remove that area for cock up (US-05 would be good in your recipe and save you making starters).

[minyork]

Thanks Steve,

Dry hopping, yes its not mentioned but was in my plan, probably with some of the Amarillo and Hallertauer.

I am aware that this is quite a complex newbie recipe but I will be working on this with someone who has some (albeit fairly limited) experience of commercial brewing (Castle Rock) so I'm quietly confident-maybe I shouldn't be ! Hopefully it'll work out OK, if not it'll be back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the advice on the yeast, i had initially preferred a dried yeast to as you say "remove that area for cock up" but wasn't sure which to go for.

Cheers

Mark

[steve_flack]

What about Nottingham ?

Nottingham would work well, to my mind US-05 is even cleaner but suffers from poor flocculation - Nottingham obviously is a lot better in that regard. If you're planning on fining the finished beer then the flocculation isn't really an issue.

[minyork]

Hi guys,

Thanks again. I think I'll go with the Nottingham, i wasn't planning on fining but we'll see.

As mentioned I'm a little unsure about the mash schedule so any advice in that area would be greatly appreciated I would prefer just a single infusion as that seems to be the most straightforward but is it suitable for this brew. I have seen other high ABV ales that use a temperature stepped mash. I was thinking of a rest for 45 minutes at around 120F and then 80 minutes at around 155F with a mash out at approx 165F for 5 minutes then a 20 minute sparge at around 160F. Does this sound right for this recipe

Many thanks again

Mark

[minyork]

Thanks Chris!

That sounds pretty straightforward to me, lets hope the ale tastes good, the revised recipe for 5 gallon is now:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.93 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 78.06 %
2.65 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 12.98 %
0.64 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 3.12 %
1.94 oz Hallertauer, New Zealand [8.50 %] (90 min) Hops 54.5 IBU
1.06 oz Hallertauer, New Zealand [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 16.8 IBU
0.88 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
0.71 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (2 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
1.19 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 5.83 %
1 Pkgs Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332) Yeast-Ale

With a dry hop of Amarillo Gold and cascade.

Changing the sugars resulted in a slightly higher estimated ABV of 10%.

i think I'll call it Debaser, after the Pixies song and the effect it may have

Any further comments or suggestions are welcome and thanks for the tips so far, very much appreciated!!

Cheers

mark

[yashicamat]

Another thought that's occured to me re it being a first brew, but a brew of this type is going to need some serious conditioning time I would have thought - probably at least 6 weeks.

Maybe it would be an idea to do a simple "ordinary" pale ale, then do this brew afterwards. That way you'll have some beer to drink the meantime.

[minyork]

Thanks Rob,

I think I'll invest in an extra fermenter and go for a standard IPA and then the Debaser maybe over a brew weekend. I do have a couple of brewery firkins and access to a pub cellar for conditioning so that's covered. I may also bottle a little of the Debaser if it turns out well (Rob, Steve, Chris if you want to try it I'd be happy to post one as thanks for your advice).

The reasoning behind the Debaser is that I really like Brewdog Punk and Harcore IPA's (in fact all their beers are stunning ), both regulars at my local:

http://www.brewdog.com/hardcore_ipa.php

Hopefully the kit will arrive in the next couple of weeks and I can get on with it,

Cheers again

Mark