[bball3414]

Hey all... I'm going to attempt an American Style IPA. I like them bitter with a very nice hoppy aroma. I plugged all of what i think will be a good IPA into Beersmith.

Couple questions... does this look like a good recipe?
Also... I'm not quite understanding the boil volume. On the kits I have done... ive always boiled 2 or 2.5 gallons. (dont really know the size of the pot, i think its a 12quart pot)
But when I tell BeerSmith to auto adjust, it autosets it to the full boil volume of my pot and changes the IBU caluclation.
What is the reason behind this? And, should I just manually set it to the boil volume of 2.5 I usually use?


Type: Extract
Date: 12/29/2010
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Rich Eyring
Boil Size: 2.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 52.63 %
3.50 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 36.84 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 10.53 %

2.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 53.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.0 IBU

2.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -

1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.16 %
Bitterness: 62.0 IBU
Est Color: 13.2 SRM

Let me know what you all think!

[chezteth]

I would use all pale liquid extract along with the crystal malt.  The hop additions look good. Do you have the recipe type set to "extract" or "partial mash"?  If you have it set to "extract" then it should specify a smaller boil volume which will be based off the size of your brewpot.  Make sure you have the size of your brewpot specified in the "Equipment" section.  Using your usual 2-2.5 gal boil will be fine.

Happy Brewing,
Brandon

[bball3414]

sounds good. thanks for the advice! I ended up fiddling with it some more and figured out what you had said. I didn't specify the size the the equipment section. thanks!

J/W... whats the reasoning behind switching to all pale LE rather than pale + amber?
Also... I'm going to be ordering these from Northern Brewer... from the looks of it their "golden LME" is the same as pale LME right?

[euge]

sounds good. thanks for the advice! I ended up fiddling with it some more and figured out what you had said. I didn't specify the size the the equipment section. thanks!

J/W... whats the reasoning behind switching to all pale LE rather than pale + amber?
Also... I'm going to be ordering these from Northern Brewer... from the looks of it their "golden LME" is the same as pale LME right?

I was going to suggest the same thing. Extracts are already a combination of malts, however my preference would be all amber.

[bball3414]

so it really just depends on preference of color and malt taste/backbone is what you're saying essentially?

[bball3414]

also... someone had mentioned in my post on home brew talk that i should get two wyeast packets and recommended i go to mr. malty. com to see why.
it seems that for a "simple starter" (which i guess the wyeast packs are??) i would need 200+ billion yeast cells and the 1-56 packet only supplies 100 billion.

so, would i in fact need a second pack?

Thanks!

[tygo]

it seems that for a "simple starter" (which i guess the wyeast packs are??)

No, a starter is a small quantity of wort, usually made with Dry Malt Extract (DME) at around 1.030-1.040 specific gravity.  The Mr. Malty calculator can tell you the number of yeast cells you should be pitching and what amount of starter wort you need to achieve that.  Wyeast packs are generally assumed to have a starting cell count of say 100B when 100% viable.  You will almost never be working with a 100% viable yeast pack.  The calculator allows for you to put in the age of the pack, which will help estimate what your viability actually is.

The amount of starter wort that you need to achieve the desired cell count is dependent on several factors including the number of yeast cells you're starting with, the volume of the starter wort, and how you handle it.  A "simple" starter means you make the starter, pitch the yeast into it, and let it ferment out.  Instead of say, putting it on a stir plate.

so, would i in fact need a second pack?

If you're making a starter then no.  If you're not making a starter then yes.

Edit - If this is more confusing than helpful the bottom line is you can just pitch what you have.  It'll make beer.

[euge]

so it really just depends on preference of color and malt taste/backbone is what you're saying essentially?

IMO the flavor and color differences in combination are slight enough to just use one type of extract. But if that's what you got on hand use it. I like the concentrated boil, try dropping the bittering charge to 45 minutes to decrease the boil time. Any more than that and you only get about 3% more hop utilization.

Have fun! First IPA or brew altogether?

[majorvices]

+1 to the simplify suggestion. For an american IPA keep the grain bill simple. All 2 row with aabout 5% crystal 40L is a good place to start.

Now, go back and look at your hop bill. Its weak and will make a dissapointing IPA unless you don't really like hop flavor and aroma. Here's a look at one of my hop schedules for one of my IPAs. Note it is for 12 gallons. And this one is fairly tame.  

1oz Magnum (14) @ 60
1oz Columbus (14) @ 20
2 oz Columbus (14) @ 10
2 oz Centennial (10.5) @ 10
4 oz Columbus @ 2
4 oz Centennial @ 2

Also, when you say "one pkg of yeast", be aware that you will really need a yeast starter to make this turn out best as possible. If you are not comfortable making a starter use a pack or two of US-05 dry yeast. No starter needed. Compares very well to WY1056/WLP001

[ryang]

I agree with major on this one.  you really need more hops (in the right places).

yours will be plenty bitter with 2oz of warrior at 60, but really push the hops later in the boil (read, more).
research 'hopbursting'.  it produces ipa's with terrific flavor and aroma.

you're doing an ipa injustice by just making it bitter.  gotta have the flavor and aroma.  and lots of it.

[svejk]

I also agree that Majorvices is spot on, and will also recommend that you consider dry hopping with a variety of hops to add that "sticking your nose in a bag of hops" aroma.  I like Simcoe, Columbus and Centennial in the Pliny tradition, but you should look up some clone recipes for your favorite IPA to see what the brewery uses.  You'll also want this beer to finish fairly dry with a final gravity of 1.010-1.013, so you really should consider making a starter and limiting the less fermentable additions to minimal amounts (ie leave out the amber extract). 

For additional information on IPAs, this website is helpful (even though it is specifically for double IPAs, the information is still interesting):

http://destroy.net/brewing/IIPA.pdf

[tschmidlin]

Depending on how you like your IPA, you might want to add some sugar to dry it out.