Help with hop additions for IPA

[WaterWolf]

Hello, this is my first post here and I'd like some advice on an IPA recipe.

We've done a few BIAB all grain kits from The Home Brew Company that all turned out well and have now started brewing internet recipes and making our own modifications. The first brew of this type was a Belgian Dubbel that turned out quite well. The next brew was supposed to be a hoppy red ale but this turned out disappointing. What we ended up with was a bland red ale with some off flavours and hardly a hint of hops.

The off flavours I would put down to it fermenting too hot - the weather turned hot on the day of the brew and it finished fermenting within a couple of days - but lack of hop flavour is more perplexing. Unfortunately I wasn't in charge of this particular recipe so I don't know what was recorded but as I remember it, the hop additions seemed sensible...

In any case we are now going to make an IPA and I would like to get the hop additions right. I'm looking for a clean beer with a big hop flavour without excessive bitterness. Currently sitting in the freezer I have Fuggles, Bramling Cross, Simcoe, Challenger and Nugget hops (I realise these may not all be suitable for an IPA).

I'm looking for any kind of advice on a recipe and especially how much hops to use. Would adding more hops later to the boil rather than at the start (while respecting the final IBU) improve the hop flavour or is more dry hopping the way to go?

[molc]

I usually go twice the bittering hops for the 5 minute and flameout additions to get the hop flavour and aroma. If I really want to whack up the aroma, a 5 day dry hop helps a lot, but it fades after a few weeks.

Recipe off the top of my head. You could go with an American ipa with the simcoe there or go more English with the fuggles. I'd say bitter with maybe 20g challenger (assuming around 8% aa) then throw in 40g simcoe, both at 5 and 0. If you want a big aroma, then maybe 60-80g simcoe for 5 days after fermentation finishes.

Keep the malt bill simple to let the hops shine. Maybe 5-10% Munich, maybe a tiny bit of carapils for body and then just pale malt for the rest. Also rye can be really nice with simcoe but use rice hulls or you'll cry.

That's a starting point at least

[Leann ull]

Welcome, invest in a couple of basic brewing books for base recipes, you'll want some funky American hops although that Simcoe is useful
Where are you based and source of water?
It can have big impact on hop profile

[Qs]

If you want an example of a hop schedule I plan on doing an IPA on Friday with this:

10.00 g Polaris [16.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 21.7 IBUs
30.00 g Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 12.0 IBUs
30.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 13 9.8 IBUs
50.00 g Galaxy [15.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min Hop 14 14.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg San Diego Super Yeast (White Labs #WLP090) Yeast 15 -
50.00 g Galaxy [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [17.20 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Chinook [11.10 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

Thats a pretty tame IBU level for an IPA too, just 57 IBUs but will hopefully have a big hop flavour.

If you want a good clean beer then you need a good clean yeast too. If you are using dry I'd say definitely go for Safale US-05. Mash low to dry out the beer too.

[WaterWolf]

We're living in Dublin and just using mains water. We haven't had any issues so far but I guess we're not connoisseurs! Is it the chlorine or the hardness of the water that would affect the hop flavour?

We have a Dorling Kindersley Home Brew Beer book which doesn't go into much detail but has some handy tables, lots of all grain recipes and pretty pictures!

So it looks like I should go for a big hop addition at flame out and use between 150g and 200g of hops in total. Again, the lack of records is unfortunate, but I believe our hop additions were more staggered throughout the boil which may have been the problem.

[Qs]

Sulphate levels effect hoppiness. I wouldn't worry about that too much. If you do have very chlorine-ey water get some campden tablets to deal with that. All the local HB shops stock them.

[Ohnidog]

hop flavours and aromas are actually quite delicate and flavour active compounds produced by the yeast will mask a lot of hoppiness, this is why neutral yeast and lower fermentation temperatures are ideal for IPA's. A warm fermentation, coupled with the off flavours you got, could definitely be a factor in your lack of hoppiness

[WaterWolf]

Well I only have 66g of Simcoe and 66g of Challenger but I found I actually had 100g of summit as well. General opinion appears to be that summit isn't good for dry hopping. As such I have rather bodged together this recipe. What do you think?

Batch Size: 20l
Yeast: Safale US-05
Starting Gravity: 1.058
Finishing Gravity: 1.015
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 55
Colour: 11 EBC

5kg of Pale Malt
150g of Munich

60mins:
Summit 15g

30mins:
Summit 10g

10mins:
Challenger 15g
Simcoe 10g
Summit 10g

Flame Out:
Challenger: 18g
Simcoe: 23g
Summit: 28g

Dry Hop:
Simcoe: 33g
Challenger: 33g

[baphomite51]

nailing your bitterness is very tricky, its really system dependent, for example for my ipa's i actually aim for around 20 IBU's on beer smith using the rager formula, it seems low but it really balances out my beers you need to figure out a hop schedule then test it out and depending on how bitter your beer is lower or increase your hop additions. i never use a 60 minute edition in my IPA's i prefare to add all my hops in the last 15 minutes to get more flavour and all my bitterness. big dry hops give you big flavour i usually do around 150g. you dont have to do this for a big number of days, 4 will do it.

[Simon_]

If you want an example of a hop schedule I plan on doing an IPA on Friday with this:

10.00 g Polaris [16.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 21.7 IBUs
30.00 g Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 12.0 IBUs
30.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 13 9.8 IBUs
50.00 g Galaxy [15.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min Hop 14 14.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg San Diego Super Yeast (White Labs #WLP090) Yeast 15 -
50.00 g Galaxy [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [17.20 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Chinook [11.10 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

Thats a pretty tame IBU level for an IPA too, just 57 IBUs but will hopefully have a big hop flavour.

If you want a good clean beer then you need a good clean yeast too. If you are using dry I'd say definitely go for Safale US-05. Mash low to dry out the beer too.

How do you find the San Diego yeast in an IPA? I used it recently and the hops were more muted than I expected. I googled it and others have complained it strips out some hop presence relative to 001/us05.

[WaterWolf]

I thought I should give an update on this beer (better late than never).

I made the IPA just before Christmas and it's nearly all gone now. In the end it turned out very nice and had plenty of hop flavour. I followed the recipe above except I change the 10min addition to a 5min addition.

I made a few mistakes while making the beer, the main ones being forgetting to add the whirlfloc tablet, which caused me sediment issues, and not putting a filter on my racking cane which kept clogging with hop leaves (I'll go with pellets next time!)
The first few bottles I opened were a bit too yeasty - it needed about a month and a half of conditioning before this went away.

I was surprised that the dry hop addition also seemed also increase the perception of bitterness.

Anyway, thanks for the help with this!

[SlugTrap]

Those were all resiny, herbal, spicy hop varieties, and all bittering or dual purpose.

Try an aroma hop variety like Amarillo or Mosaic in late additions to get more bright, juicy, fruity flavours.

[WaterWolf]

The next IPA I intend to make when I get the time would be some kind of combination of Mandarina and Mosaic.

[Qs]

Remember to buy 2015 hops too, 2014 will have lost a lot of their oomph and your really need it in your ipa.

Also a small hop bag on the end of you siphon or racking cane will help a lot with keeping the hop matter out of your final beer. Just remember to clean and sanitise it first. Even pellets need a bit of a filter.

[Pheeel]

Remember to buy 2015 hops too, 2014 will have lost a lot of their oomph and your really need it in your ipa.

Depends on how they were packed. 2014 hops should still be fine. Heard from a few folks that the 2015 Washington hops are missing a lot of umph compared to 2014