Critique my IPA, please

[alwilson]

Hi Guys,

Would you mind casting an eye over this ipa recipe I'm thinking of brewing - its not been through beer engine as im writing this from my girlfriends house using my phone!

25l brew length, 90min boil

--grist--
6kg pale malt
200g vienna malt

--hops--
35g fuggles @T-90
35g goldings @T-90
15g of bramling cross @T-15

--yeast--
2 sachets danstar windor, rehydrated.

At this point I cant decide if bramling cross (never used before!) would be good or first gold, or maybe an additional hop during a steep when below 80c

With my efficiency im estimating this to be about 5%


any help is appreciated, thanks again!

Alex

[mysterio]

Couple of things,

200g of Vienna malt is nothing, you won't notice that and there's no point adding such a small amount. If you're looking for a bit of malt backbone I would bump it up to 600g, assuming that's what your aim is.

I calculate that as around 30 IBUs which is on the low side, I would be looking at 50g of each Fuggles & Goldings. Also when you're using bittering hops at 90mins there is little need to blend hops (unless you're trying to use them up). Any subtlety will be lost.

15g of late hops will barely register, what kind of IPA are you trying to brew? If it's something like Marston's Old Empire (not very hoppy) then the recipe is about right. If you're looking for a decent hop flavour then I would think about dumping the whole pack in at the end of the boil, or at least 30g at 15 mins and 30g at 0mins. Bramling Cross are more blackcurranty, First Gold are orange marmalade.

[TheMumbler]

Mysterio makes some good points

It is a little hard to know without seeing the alpha acid values of the hops but I'd say you want to be a touch more bitter. I would look for maybe 40 EBU with that grain bill for an IPA that isn't overly bitter. Your recipe looks like it is in the 1060s and a good rule of thumb is that the ratio of EBU/OG should be 1/2 for a balanced beer, 1 would be on the bitter side. So for a 1060 beer with 40 EBU it is 40/60 = 2/3. An IPA should be at least a bit bitter IMO. Big US style hop bombs tend to have ratios above 1. That seems to work for my beers, I make my recipes with qbrew (because it runs natively on linux) using the tinseth calculation for bitterness btw.

This chart and this page may be useful. Apologies if I'm telling you how to suck eggs btw

Personally I wouldn't go with Bramling Cross as the late hop in an IPA, it is pretty blackcurranty but you could use some for bittering if you want to use up hops. I like EKG as a flavour hop in IPAs but of the two you suggest those two I would try First Gold, purely because I really didn't like the blackcurrant I got from Bramling early on in my smoked beer and I think it would show more without the big smoke flavour. I have only used late Bramling that one time though and have never used First Gold so you may want to take that advice with a pinch of salt...Some 0 min hops and/or dry hopping would be appropriate for an IPA. That said it is your beer so do whatever you like really

edit to add links

[Manx Guy]

Some good advice above...

You do need to be aiming for an IBU in the 40's for that grain bill... Personally I'd use a drier (more attenutive) yeast too maybe Nottingham or US05 which should let those hops through (whichever way you decide to go!)

Personally I like BramX but If I were tempted to use them in an IPA I'd use them for bittering along with the goldings or maybe challenger/northdown.

I think pantsmachine has used Bram X in his'midatlantic IPA, you might want to try a search on this forum for it...(?)

I agree with whats been said about flavour aroma too.. I'd use the goldings as the late/0 min addition

So basicly (INHO) swap the BramX and Goldings round and aim for IBU's in 40's and you should be good to go!
Its all about experimenting, enjoy!

Good luck & happy brewing!


Guy

[Deebee]

+1 regarding the yeast. If you want more body mash at a different temperature. You could use carapils too but then we are moving away from IPA ( traditional)

If you want to go reallyy traditional themn you could do a SMASH, pale malt to 1060 and just EKG as hops.

loverly.

otherwise you will need to up the vienna, at that low ppercentage it is only there as a ( small) source of fermentables:)