Advice on Session IPA recipe

[Splodges]

Hi,

I'm doing a new brew next week, I'd just like some advice/critique on a recipe idea I've done. I'm pretty new to this so sorry if I've missed anything important out. My first brew I wasn't very impressed with, we toned down the amount of hops from a recipe and didn't add enough brewing sugar and it was a Citra SMaSH, so it came out a bit thin and flat and similar to beer flavoured dish water (in my opinion). I've since done a German wheat beer that turned out quite well albeit a little tangy but I'd like to get my session IPA right before moving on.

Here's the recipe idea so far:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/643185/alibi-2-0

Here are my queries so far but any odd input would be greatly appreciated:

Using 5% wheat for body and head retention. Good idea or not?
Will the % of Crystal malt make this beer too malty/sweet for a session IPA?
Hop combination. Is Citra and Mosaic good together?
Hop timings, how would this effect the beer. Would you do anything differently?
IBU too high in relation to ABV and SRM?
Would a Profloc tablet help clarity better that just Irish moss?
Fermented for 7 days last time, does changing this time affect anything? Would dry hopping at day 4 with 3 days to go be recommended?

And here are a list of things I'm not certain of how to answer on the recipe calculator but could find out:

Water chemistry
The exact type of fermentables (L on crystal malt, which exact barley or wheat)
Fermentation temp
Yeast pitch rate
Mash guidelines (Starting mash thickness/Temp/Amount/Type)

I realise this sounds unusual not knowing all this ^ but I've brewed just twice with a small independent home brew company that guided me through my first 2 brews. I could probably find out most of the info fairly quickly.

Splodges :hat:

 

[Clint]

Buy the Greg Hughes book...

 

[Splodges]

Buy the Greg Hughes book...

Just ordered it for next day delivery, thanks for the recommendation. :thumb:

 

[dan125]

Using 5% wheat for body and head retention. Good idea or not?
It won't hurt but shouldn't be neccessay for good head retention

Will the % of Crystal malt make this beer too malty/sweet for a session IPA?
That's alot of crystal for most beers, but expecially in a session IPA where you want a dry/crsip finish - I'd either use just a few % of a lighter crystal or leave it out all together for this style.

Hop combination. Is Citra and Mosaic good together?
Yep, great combo.

Hop timings, how would this effect the beer. Would you do anything differently?
I'd add the 0 min hops after you've got the temp down to 70-75C to avoid extracting extra bitterness

IBU too high in relation to ABV and SRM?
Not for this style.

Would a Profloc tablet help clarity better that just Irish moss?
They are essentially the same thing, so wouldn't make any difference.

Fermented for 7 days last time, does changing this time affect anything? Would dry hopping at day 4 with 3 days to go be recommended?
Although possible, this is rushing it a bit - I'd aim for 2 weeks in the fermenter to make sure its finished and the yeast clean up some undesirables, dry hopping during the 2nd week.

:cheers7:

EDIT: A cleaner, more neutral yeast like US-05 may be better in this style where you want the hops to shine.

 

[MickDundee]

I see you’ve gone for S-04 as your yeast. For American style beers you’re better using US-05 or Mangrove Jacks M44 to let the hops “shine”.

 

[Splodges]

Using 5% wheat for body and head retention. Good idea or not?
It won't hurt but shouldn't be neccessay for good head retention

Will the % of Crystal malt make this beer too malty/sweet for a session IPA?
That's alot of crystal for most beers, but expecially in a session IPA where you want a dry/crsip finish - I'd either use just a few % of a lighter crystal or leave it out all together for this style.

Hop combination. Is Citra and Mosaic good together?
Yep, great combo.

Hop timings, how would this effect the beer. Would you do anything differently?
I'd add the 0 min hops after you've got the temp down to 70-75C to avoid extracting extra bitterness

IBU too high in relation to ABV and SRM?
Not for this style.

Would a Profloc tablet help clarity better that just Irish moss?
They are essentially the same thing, so wouldn't make any difference.

Fermented for 7 days last time, does changing this time affect anything? Would dry hopping at day 4 with 3 days to go be recommended?
Although possible, this is rushing it a bit - I'd aim for 2 weeks in the fermenter to make sure its finished and the yeast clean up some undesirables, dry hopping during the 2nd week.

:cheers7:

EDIT: A cleaner, more neutral yeast like US-05 may be better in this style where you want the hops to shine.

Thanks so much for the great reply. I'm definitely going to take all that into account for the next brew day!

Yeah I'd read a bit about a week being a little short to ferment. Could this have affected clarity or taste?

Would you recommend just leaving it to ferment for 7 days, then adding the dry hops and just leaving them in the fermentor for another 7 days?

 

[Splodges]

I see you’ve gone for S-04 as your yeast. For American style beers you’re better using US-05 or Mangrove Jacks M44 to let the hops “shine”.

Thanks for the input! Do you have a preference between these 2 or could you tell me how the taste would differ between them?

 

[simon12]

Personally I like about that amount of crystal but it is high for that style in general and I would use US05 for that style but 04 will still make a good beer but with the 04 and the crystal it would be more of a hoppy bitter than a session IPA.

 

[Splodges]

Personally I like about that amount of crystal but it is high for that style in general and I would use US05 for that style but 04 will still make a good beer but with the 04 and the crystal it would be more of a hoppy bitter than a session IPA.

Okay awesome so less/lighter crytal malt and changing the yeast to US05 should give me a cleaner/dryer taste that will let the flavour of the hops come through?

 

[Ben034]

Thanks so much for the great reply. I'm definitely going to take all that into account for the next brew day!

Yeah I'd read a bit about a week being a little short to ferment. Could this have affected clarity or taste?

Would you recommend just leaving it to ferment for 7 days, then adding the dry hops and just leaving them in the fermentor for another 7 days?

Yeah 7 days only in fermenter could certainly impact on clarity and taste. It's usually best to wait at least 2 weeks before bottling.

 

[dan125]

Thanks so much for the great reply. I'm definitely going to take all that into account for the next brew day!

Yeah I'd read a bit about a week being a little short to ferment. Could this have affected clarity or taste?

Would you recommend just leaving it to ferment for 7 days, then adding the dry hops and just leaving them in the fermentor for another 7 days?

Yeah it could affect both clarity & taste. For a brew of this strength I'd start dry hopping at around day 7-8, and start cold crashing on around day 10-11 to package around at around day 14 - but many forumites would advocate giving it a full 14 days (including last few days dry hopping) before doing anything else.
If you have temp control, raising the temp a couple of degrees after the vigorous initial fermentation is over, can help to ensure the yeast finishes its job.

 

[Ben034]

Yeah it could affect both clarity & taste. For a brew of this strength I'd start dry hopping at around day 7-8, and start cold crashing on around day 10-11 to package around at around day 14 - but many forumites would advocate giving it a full 14 days (including last few days dry hopping) before doing anything else.
If you have temp control, raising the temp a couple of degrees after the vigorous initial fermentation is over, can help to ensure the yeast finishes its job.

I recently changed my schedule to the above as it's convenient but have since had a couple of very cloudy beers, which incidentally were not heavily hopped. May revert back to 2 weeks minimum before cold crash although it may have been due to other reasons.

 

[MickDundee]

Thanks for the input! Do you have a preference between these 2 or could you tell me how the taste would differ between them?

It’s personal preference really. I prefer M44 because I find it’s a better flocculator than US-05, but there are a lot of people who swear by US-05. Both are very reliable, clean tasting yeasts.

 

[dan125]

I recently changed my schedule to the above as it's convenient but have since had a couple of very cloudy beers, which incidentally were not heavily hopped. May revert back to 2 weeks minimum before cold crash although it may have been due to other reasons.

If you've given it enough time to ferment out and clean up I wouldn't have thought an extra few days would make any difference to clarity, as you're cold crashing.
Do you use kettle finings?

 

[Saisonator]

Looks almost fine to me, although I would probably go with US05 and Carapils instead of the wheat.

 

[GerritT]

Efficiency: 78% (brew house)

That's high.
70% is normal-ish for a beginner. Add 10% for every fermentable in this recipe and it's probably more realistic.
And wait for the Greg Hughes book. IPA's start at page 131, but the regular ales start at page 116. Single hops, simple grain bill.

 

[Ben034]

If you've given it enough time to ferment out and clean up I wouldn't have thought an extra few days would make any difference to clarity, as you're cold crashing.
Do you use kettle finings?

I did use kettle finings. Yeast was S-04. Good hot and cold break I think. I mashed higher than usual (68c) as my English bitters seemed a little thin which could account for extra proteins. Although I would have thought 68c would be acceptable for a full body?

 

[Splodges]

Yeah it could affect both clarity & taste. For a brew of this strength I'd start dry hopping at around day 7-8, and start cold crashing on around day 10-11 to package around at around day 14 - but many forumites would advocate giving it a full 14 days (including last few days dry hopping) before doing anything else.
If you have temp control, raising the temp a couple of degrees after the vigorous initial fermentation is over, can help to ensure the yeast finishes its job.

I'd be okay with waiting for a good result. So ferment for 14 days, all the hops in at day 7, then leave for another 7 days then cold crash. Then leave it for how long before bottling would you say?

 

[Splodges]

Looks almost fine to me, although I would probably go with US05 and Carapils instead of the wheat.

I've looked into that and changed the recipe and got Carapils in my shopping basket. 3% of total bill you think?

 

[GerritT]

I've looked into that and changed the recipe and got Carapils in my shopping basket. 3% of total bill you think?

Should be good enough, 5% should do it too, I use that in pale ales and it's not (too) sweet.