El Dorado and Amarilo

[AnthonyD]

Toying with another recipe to do in time for my birthday - and beings are your help was invaluable for the IPA I am making this weekend I thought I'd pick your brains again

Imperial Goldrush IPA
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 90.9 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.5 %
0.25 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.5 %
10.00 g Amarillo [8.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 5.1 IBUs
10.00 g El Dorado [15.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 9.3 IBUs
60.00 g Amarillo [8.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 15.3 IBUs
60.00 g El Dorado [15.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 27.7 IBUs
50.00 g Amarillo [8.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 5.1 IBUs
50.00 g El Dorado [15.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 9.3 IBUs

Dry hop with about 25g of each.

Batch Size (fermenter): 3.00 Imp gal
Bottling Volume: 2.67 Imp gal
Estimated OG: 1.082 SG
Estimated Color: 12.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 71.8 IBUs

Any ideas if this Imperial IPA style sounds like a flyer? I was thinking El Dorado and Amarilo together might make a nice beer - interested to hear your views.

Cheers!

Ant

[lancsSteve]

Looks nice I'd think about adding more later and at flameout or as an 80c steep and dry hopping -

[Barley Water]

Hope you don't mind me kabitzing here but I would make some changes to your malt bill. According to your numbers, you have 9% of crystal type malts in the grist (caramunich is a German crystal malt). When the O.G. starts to get high in a beer the problem many run into is that the ending gravity will also end up high making the beer heavy and hard to drink. Additionally with alot of crystal malt the beer will be sweet so you end up with a situation where the hop bitterness is fighting the sweetness and that is hard on the old pallate. What I would suggest is cutting out the crystal malts completely and maybe adding a character malt like special roast/bisquit/amber malt etc (sparingly for character). You might also think about adding some sugar to the grist to help dry the beer out a little while at the same time keeping the O.G. high (maybe as much as 10%). Another alternative which will serve the same purpose would to be add either corn or rice to the grist although both will likely be more work and cost a bit more. Finally, make damn sure you use a yeast strain that will attenuate well, control the fermentation temperature and by all means pitch alot of yeast or you are gonna end up with alot of esters and phenols which could completely screw up the beer. High gravity brewing is more difficult than doing normal strenght beers because you are stressing the yeast alot more and sometimes they rebel. Good luck and have fun.

[AnthonyD]

Thanks very much for the advice Barley water.

I'm just starting out and learning, but I made a concious effort to learn with all grain and maxi-partial mash as it will give me the most control and the most enjoyment to know that it's all my own work and not just a kit. (Not knocking kits though either they have their place for a quick brew!)

It being only a 3 UK Gallon batch means it's in the territoriy of all grain for me! I'll happily take your and others advice on board - I'm not just hear to hear that my recipes look great. I'm here to learn from more experienced brewers.

Thanks once again. It's really appreciated!