Hippity Hoppity IPA

[arturobandini]

Up the FWH of Target to achieve a higher EBU as it's essentially all that hop is good for.

[Philipek]

I'm only just getting my head around hops. Although flame out contribute to aroma, they don't impart much of any bitterness, but do they contribute to the flavour at all?

I've read of hops being described as bittering, flavour and aroma hops, depending on when you add them to the boil, but flavour hops contribute a bit of bittering.

[Barley Water]

Well, first the disclaimers: Being and American and Texan, I probably have some wierd ideas about IPA's and also, I am not really a hophead so take anything I post with a grain of salt.

First of all, I would boost the O.G. up to around 1.065 or there abouts. If you do that, make sure that the beer attenuates really well so mash cooler, make sure to pitch alot of yeast and maybe even swap some of the malt for sugar to get the attenuation you want. Secondly, I would for sure get rid of the roast barley, you really don't want a roast flavor in an IPA. I might also be tempted to simplify the hopping some what. Use your high alpha hops for bitterness and your higher quality hops for flavor and aroma. Have you thought about dry hopping also? One of the better IPA's I have tasted recently has been Meantime IPA, those guys really know how to do hops. It's bitter but smooth bitterness, if you know what I mean. Oh well, hopefully that will be helpful to you, let us know how it works out.

[adm]

Just putting your suggestion into Beer Smith, and it brings the IBU's down from 50 something, to just over 30.

Sound about right? Beer smith reckons that's low for an IPA

Sorry for the slow reply Paul....

Yeah - that's about 30 IBUs. If you want more, move some of the Bramling from the 15min addition to the FWH until you get what you're looking for - or, if you have more hops, add some more to the FWH until you get where you want to be.

30 IBU is indeed too low for an IPA according to the style guidelines.....personally I like them about 1:1 BU:GU and at about 6% but you'd need to add more malt and hops to get there - or reduce the brewlength.

[adm]

I'm only just getting my head around hops. Although flame out contribute to aroma, they don't impart much of any bitterness, but do they contribute to the flavour at all?

I've read of hops being described as bittering, flavour and aroma hops, depending on when you add them to the boil, but flavour hops contribute a bit of bittering.

Yes.

[PaulStat]

Just putting your suggestion into Beer Smith, and it brings the IBU's down from 50 something, to just over 30.

Sound about right? Beer smith reckons that's low for an IPA

Sorry for the slow reply Paul....

Yeah - that's about 30 IBUs. If you want more, move some of the Bramling from the 15min addition to the FWH until you get what you're looking for - or, if you have more hops, add some more to the FWH until you get where you want to be.

30 IBU is indeed too low for an IPA according to the style guidelines.....personally I like them about 1:1 BU:GU and at about 6% but you'd need to add more malt and hops to get there - or reduce the brewlength.

I ended up increasing the amount of target to 19gms to get it up to 40 IBU's. I didn't have EKG but I did have plain old Goldings, is there much of a difference.

Initial tastes just before I put it in the barrel were WOW that's bitter, hopefully it will mellow a fair bit over the next few weeks. I'd like to send someone a bottle of one of my brews one day just to see how they rate it, never having tried anyone elses homebrew it's hard to tell how well I'm doing

[arturobandini]

EKG are THE Goldings that most recipes refer to as far as I am aware. The other Goldings varietals will be more specifically called for eg: Whitbread

[adm]

I ended up increasing the amount of target to 19gms to get it up to 40 IBU's. I didn't have EKG but I did have plain old Goldings, is there much of a difference.

Initial tastes just before I put it in the barrel were WOW that's bitter, hopefully it will mellow a fair bit over the next few weeks. I'd like to send someone a bottle of one of my brews one day just to see how they rate it, never having tried anyone elses homebrew it's hard to tell how well I'm doing

It will definitely mellow over time. It'll probably need at least 4 weeks in the bottle until it smooths out.

I'd be happy to do a bottle swap with you some time in the near future....it's great trying other forum members beer!

[PaulStat]

I ended up increasing the amount of target to 19gms to get it up to 40 IBU's. I didn't have EKG but I did have plain old Goldings, is there much of a difference.

Initial tastes just before I put it in the barrel were WOW that's bitter, hopefully it will mellow a fair bit over the next few weeks. I'd like to send someone a bottle of one of my brews one day just to see how they rate it, never having tried anyone elses homebrew it's hard to tell how well I'm doing

It will definitely mellow over time. It'll probably need at least 4 weeks in the bottle until it smooths out.

I'd be happy to do a bottle swap with you some time in the near future....it's great trying other forum members beer!

cool, I'll get back to you in a few weeks time then when it's ready, not sure how you'd deliver a single bottle whilst making sure royal mail kept it upright

[adm]

cool, I'll get back to you in a few weeks time then when it's ready, not sure how you'd deliver a single bottle whilst making sure royal mail kept it upright

The secret is not to worry what Royal Mail do with it - as you can guarantee they shake the crap out of it, but just to malke sure to leave the one you get in return to stand for a few days before drinking it so the yeast can settle back down again....