Help tweak IPA recipe (Christmas present)

Considering your critiques, I suggest you might want to try a higher alpha bittering hop for your 60 min addition (something like Magnum or Nugget, 14%+ AA) I usually use about 1 oz. I really like Amarillo and Galaxy, but I find Mosaic a little too fruity (very good, just not as awesome as the other two to my taste). Some people love it though. I would recommend Simcoe for a little bit more pine/bitterness to go with the nice tropical/citrusy flavors. You could replace your 15 min Citra with Simcoe and add an extra ounce of Amarillo at flameout, or something like that.

All in all however, your recipe looks quite good.

For depth/longevity of bitterness, you may want to consider adding an ounce of Columbus (or one of the other aforementioned high alpha varieties) to your partial mash grains as a first wort hopping.

The recipe looks pretty great as is. Are you whirlpooling with the knock out hops at all?

Originally posted by JoeMcPhee

Originally posted by italarican
Would there be a bittering hop you’d substitute for the Cascade at 60 minutes that would go well with this profile? I could see adding something there and then boosting up the Citra and Cascade at flameout like CLevar was getting at.

Warrior or some other clean, high alpha bittering hop. I don’t think the bittering charge matters all that much.

Originally posted by pellegjr
For depth/longevity of bitterness, you may want to consider adding an ounce of Columbus (or one of the other aforementioned high alpha varieties) to your partial mash grains as a first wort hopping.

Originally posted by Cletus
The recipe looks pretty great as is. Are you whirlpooling with the knock out hops at all?

I’ll second shifting the hop schedule towards flame out, and the suggestion of using Warrior at 60 minutes instead of Cascade. Cascade is pretty high in cohumulone, which is more acrid than bitter. Other than that, the recipe looks pretty damn tasty!

Malt bill looks good. I find cascade bittering a bit harsh so I’d sub that out. You really can’t go wrong with PNW hops at knock out and dry hop but I like to use only one big flashy hop like citra/mosaic/galaxy then use hops that support it well like cascade/Amarillo/simcoe/Columbus/centennial/chinook etc. try 2-4 different varieties. For an IPA I’d try a blend of 2-4oz at 5 and knock out then 4-6oz dry hop. It will not lack hop flavor or aroma that’s for sure.

I like the ideas of a clean bittering hop to start, adding a little Simcoe for depth, and pushing the citrus hops later (and more).

Based on the suggestions here and more reading on the profiles of these hops, this is my first shot at a revised recipe. If I get the same efficiency, my calculations are at 77 IBU.

3.0 lbs light DME
4.0 lbs 2-row
2.0 lbs maris otter
1.0 lb wheat malt
US-05 Yeast

1.0 oz Warrior 60 min
1.0 oz Simcoe 10 min
1.0 oz Cascade 5 min
1.0 oz Citra 5 min
1.0 oz Citra flame out
2.0 oz Cascade flame out
2.0 oz Amarillo flame out
2.0 oz Citra dry hopped 7 days (maybe 3 oz?)

^Winner