Whoah, partial mash IPA recipe from scratch...

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SpruceBrew
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Whoah, partial mash IPA recipe from scratch...

Post by SpruceBrew »

2.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
2.5 lbs Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
2.5 lbs Amber DME
2.5 lbs Pale LME

1 oz Centennial Pellets 60 min.
0.7 oz Citra Pellets 15 min.
1 oz Cascade @ Knockout / Dry hop

Yeast : White Labs WLP051 California Ale V

What do you boys think?
SpruceBrew
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Post by SpruceBrew »

So I have a brew kit that should be here friday 7.5 gallon ferment / bottling bucket, a 5 gal carboy and a 6 gal, + 32 quart stock pot.. Ive never brewed before but have been in the books and online researching my brains out for the last week and a half, I put this partial mash recipe together tonight for an IPA and was wondering if I can get any sort of feedback as to whether I am in the ballpark with it, can any of you IPA officionados help me out? is this recipe good?
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slothrob
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Partial Mash IPA

Post by slothrob »

First, starting with a beer that requires a mash is ambitious. How are you going to mash the grain?

For the extract, I prefer to use extra light extract and add Crystal Malt for color and flavor, instead of using the Amber Malt Extract. This makes it easier to adjust the recipe to your taste later and the light extracts are usually more fermentable than the amber extract, so the beer is less apt to end sweet.

I haven't calculated the IBUs, but it does look like there is some room for more hops at the end, maybe another ounce at 5 minutes. However it depends what you are looking for. Do you want an IPA with a big hop flavor, or mostly just bitterness and aroma with a subtle hop flavor?
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SpruceBrew
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Post by SpruceBrew »

Well, ok, this may not be the very first beer I do, but as an IPA I will be doing it fairly soon after the first batch. My plan was to mash and sparge in a cooler with a manifold setup. I am in the process of building a three tier setup consisting of the brew water up top w/ propane burner, cooler on the middle tier and the brew kettle on the lower to facilitate consistency and ease of process.

I like the idea of a nice dark(er) hoppy IPA with with a malty flavor and sharp hop flavor and finish, I figured the amber extract would give it some good body? If I used light extract, being more fermentable, wouldnt that bump the ABV% up also? I wont complain about more hops! Thanks for the suggestions and advice!
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slothrob
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partial mash IPA

Post by slothrob »

I just wanted to make sure you understood what equipment you would need to do a partial mash. Though,for 5 pounds, you could easily get away with a paint strainer bag in a kettle.

The Amber extract will leave more body, and it's a perfectly acceptable choice, but having extract attenuate too much is not usually a problem. You can still make the beer as dark as you want by adding Crystal Malt, but it was just a suggestion. Go ahead with your plan and see what you think. There's plenty of opportunities to make changes with the next batch.
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