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How do you step up an IPA to Double IPA?

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kraftwerk:
Hey kids, what are some general guidelines for stepping up your favorite all-grain IPA to a double IPA? I'm thinking a little hop extract in the boil to avoid grassy/vegetal flavors from over hopping. Then probably a lot of late boil, whirlpool and dry hops. I've keg hopped with great success in the past, too.

As far as grain bill goes, do I just dial up my base and specialty malts proportionally to one another? I don't have my recipe in front of me but can post later for further input. Thanks!

morticaixavier:
Take the following with a grain of salt as I have not brewed a DIPA as of yet.

When I drink one though my impression is of a big but drinkable brew. Berryessa brewing here in northern cali makes a really great one that is so smooth you wouldn't know it was a 10% bruiser.

I think the trick to that is keeping the FG pretty low and bumping the IBUs up enough to balance the added alcahol and sweetness. The difference between a DIPA and an american barley wine, in my mind, is that the DIPA is lighter bodied and cleaner while the Barley Wine is chewy and rich and a little sweet.

I would want to add more base malt but also add some simple sugars to bump the OG without the corresponding bump in FG.

lots of late, whirlpool, dry, and keg hopping would also be critical I would think to get that huge fresh hop character.

At least that's what I plan to do when I brew one.  ;D

erockrph:
I haven't stepped my IPA recipe up to an IIPA yet, but my plan is basically to add sucrose to my existing grain bill to end up being about 10% of my total fermentables, then adjust the base to get to the target OG I want. I will probably replace some or all of the crystal malt with something like Munich or Victory to keep it super dry but leave at least a little malty or toasty counterpoint to the hops.

Everything I've heard leads me to believe that IBU's max out somewhere between 50 and 80, so I'm not worried about overshooting my BU:GU ratio. I'm probably going to do my usual 1/2 oz of Columbus or Chinook at 60 minutes then stuff an insane amount of hops over the last 20 minutes.

The only other big changes from my base IPA recipe will be holding my hot hop stand for about 90 minutes, and splitting up my dry hops over 3 or 4 additions about 3 days apart. I want to really max out the hop flavor wherever I can.

One other suggestion I've heard is to shoot for a pH on the low end. Supposedly this really helps the hops flavor pop. I would imagine this is especially true if you want to accentuate citrus flavor and aroma.

kraftwerk:
As promised, here's my original IPA recipe (based on Maui's Big Swell)

8.5 lb pale malt  (62.3%)
2.0 lb 40L crystal (15.1%)
1.0 lb 10L crystal (7.5%)
1.0 lb munich I (7.5%)
1.0 lb flaked maize (7.5%)

1.0 oz Cascade
1.0 oz Citra
1.0 oz Magnum
2.0 oz Simcoe (keg hop)

So to step it up to a IIPA, my idea here is to do a small first wort addition, use about 6-9ml hop extract at the beginning and boil for 90 min. Then, as stated above, additions at flameout, whirlpool, dry hop and keg hop. I'll probably boost the base malt % and add some simple sugar (as per morticai's suggestion) to augment the fermentables so I can keep the body on the lighter side and get a little more booze in there.

I want to get just a little more sweetness than normal to balance the hops, alcohol and carbonation (shooting for about 1.080 or so.) So, what is a good target saccrification rest? Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep the conversation going!

erockrph:

--- Quote from: kraftwerk on June 23, 2012, 12:02:42 pm ---I want to get just a little more sweetness than normal to balance the hops, alcohol and carbonation (shooting for about 1.080 or so.) So, what is a good target saccrification rest? Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep the conversation going!

--- End quote ---

Generally, the target sweetness level on an IIPA is less than it is for a standard IPA. A sweet IIPA can get cloying pretty fast. Alcohol is pretty much a substitute for sweetness when it comes to balance in a finished beer. For example, Pliny finishes at roughly 1.010. A lot of IIPA's finish in the single digits FG.

I really recommend caution with crystal malts in an IIPA.

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