Hardcore IPA recipe help

[gibbiem]

Hi all, after some help on a recipe for Brewdogs Hardcore IPA I managed to sweet talk out of one of their PR girls.

This is what I got

Grist:

Extra pale: 87.5%

Cara: 7.5%

Crystal 150: 5%

 

OG 1.086

FG: 1.018

 

 

Hops are Columbus Centennial and Simcoe (lots of it) in equal amounts

 

Start of Boil

1g/liter  alpha acid from Columbus

 

15min before Boil End:

10g/liter alpha acid Columbus

7g/liter alpha acid from Centennial

9g/liter alpha acid from Simcoe

 

@ Flameout or in the Whirlpool

10g/liter alpha acid Columbus

7g/liter alpha acid from Centennial

9g/liter alpha acid from Simcoe

 Any idea what the grain measurements would be for a 23l brew? Thanks

[oakwell]

i'd have expected to see some sugar in there. the beer engine software will calculate the grain bill for you. massive hop additions and losses due to hop absorption if I read you right.

[Hanglow]

Yeah that's not short of hops

I usually like IPAs with no crystal and finishing much drier than that, but Hardcore is a very good beer every time I've tried it

Nice of them to share the recipe

[Barley Water]

Well first the disclaimer; although I have brewed clone recipes (and in fact just did a Old Thumper clone that came out very well) I generally don't try to emulate any particular beer. The reason I do it occasionally is because I want my first try to be decent and I'll immediately start screwing around after the first attempt to "customize" it (in other words I don't want to waste time reinventing the wheel). I absolutely agree with the previous poster, you likely want some simple sugar in the grist. That looks like a recipe for an American Double IPA to me and you really want to avoid it tasting like an American Barley Wine. The difference between the two is the "drinkability" which directly relates to the ending gravity. My personal preference is also to minimize the crystal to again lower the terminal gravity and reduce the background sweetness (I like my stuff pretty dry). I am seriously tempted to try a Pliney the Elder clone which is famous on this side of the pond. It actually has an original gravity of 1.070 and there is .75lb of dextrose in the grist for exactly that reason. And by the way, a dryer beer will showcase the hops better, yet another reason to consider adding sugar. Anyhow, carry on and good luck.

[gibbiem]

Cheers for the input. The amount of hops is mental. I was planning on using half of what they use. What sugar is best to use? I do like quite a sweet brew. I made an extract brew using very similar hops and I couldn't have asked for anything better. Tried re-creating using AG and its just carbing now. Also, is carapills not sugar? I thought it was dextrine?

[DeGarre]

I doubt the sugar here means sweetness, but instead hiking the gravity without the beer becoming too heavy to drink, and to bring the final gravity down.

[oakwell]

fermentables for an iipa I brewed recently:- 86% pale malt 6 EBC, 3% crystal malt 60 EBC, 3% wheat malt 4 EBC and 8% sugar (dextrose)

[Barley Water]

Adding simple sugars to beer is not going to give you sweetness, in fact it will do just the opposite. The reason you should consider adding sugars in a big beer like this is because you want really good attenuation and are trying to drop the terminal gravity relative to a higher starting gravity. The original poster indicated that he likes sweeter beer, well the way to do that is to add crystal malt (sugars not fermentable by ale yeast) and pick a yeast strain that doesn't attenuate. Thing is, when you start getting into the bigger beers I suspect you are going to find that making it sweet is really easy; avoiding a cloying beer is the challenge. By the way, make sure you pitch enough yeast otherwise besides being sweet you are going to end up with fusels which can easly wreck any beer and produce epic headaches.

[gibbiem]

Adding simple sugars to beer is not going to give you sweetness, in fact it will do just the opposite. The reason you should consider adding sugars in a big beer like this is because you want really good attenuation and are trying to drop the terminal gravity relative to a higher starting gravity. The original poster indicated that he likes sweeter beer, well the way to do that is to add crystal malt (sugars not fermentable by ale yeast) and pick a yeast strain that doesn't attenuate. Thing is, when you start getting into the bigger beers I suspect you are going to find that making it sweet is really easy; avoiding a cloying beer is the challenge. By the way, make sure you pitch enough yeast otherwise besides being sweet you are going to end up with fusels which can easly wreck any beer and produce epic headaches.

I've got you. Think I'll go with both sugar and crystal then. Cheers

[Barley Water]

Most IPA recipes you run into feature at least some crystal malt although generally the lighter variety. There are however a few that use none at all, Dogfish Head being a pretty well known example over here. You can also find some old English recipes that don't have any either. After trying it both ways, my personal preference is to leave it out but in fairness I would have to say that the majority of drinkers seem to prefer at least some (and nobody died and made me King so what do I know?). I also notice many on this board just love to toss wheat in almost everything in an effort to increase head retention. My experience with heavily hopped beers is that it's really not needed but wheat will tend to lighten up a brew a bit which is not necessarily a bad thing. I just made a rather large hop purchase yesterday and one of my summer projects will be a wheat IPA; the head on that should last to the bottom of the glass.

[jaroporter]

just to play devil's advocate, the reason i love hardcore ipa is that thick but drinkable malt base, almost like a baby barleywine(!), from the 100% malt grist. the hops seem to change majorly far too often though, can never keep up with whether i like it or worship it..