Brewing an IPA

[OUdrank12]

I've recently noticed IPA's are generally always a higher ABV beer 6-8%. I assume that it's so the bitterness gets some balance from the higher malt content. Would it taste strange if the brew was thinner? I generally brew beer that has an OG of about 1.050 for two reasons

1. My equipment is small scale so that is about all I can do with my AG batches.
2. I like to keep the calorie content lower, you know, for the waist line and all.

Would the bitterness be overpowering if I had an OG of 1.050 and an IBU of 70?

[MadBrewer]

I hear what you are saying. I generally brew beers right around 5% abv. That's what I consider my session beers for the most part. You could brew something of an IPA at a lower gravity, but you might not be able to call it an IPA at least by "style" but who cares. The thing is IBU alone is just a number. To me it's more important to how that 70 IBU is developed. As in, is 50 IBU of that 70 from bittering or is it mostly from huge late hop additions? But if you wanted a gravity of 1.050 and 70 IBU that's a BU/GU ratio of 1.4 which might be quite high for a 1.050 beer. I might shift the ratio of bittering IBU's and those from late addition hops more towards the late hop addition IBU's as you went with a lower gravity. This way their is less bittering punch and more hop flavor and aroma. As gravity goes up, more bittering IBU's will be needed. The "overall" IBU is not as important I don't think.

[Gymrat]

I've recently noticed IPA's are generally always a higher ABV beer 6-8%. I assume that it's so the bitterness gets some balance from the higher malt content. Would it taste strange if the brew was thinner? I generally brew beer that has an OG of about 1.050 for two reasons

1. My equipment is small scale so that is about all I can do with my AG batches.
2. I like to keep the calorie content lower, you know, for the waist line and all.

Would the bitterness be overpowering if I had an OG of 1.050 and an IBU of 70?

The reason IPAs are higher in alcohol is also the same reason they are higher in hops. IPA stands for India Pale Ale. In the days of wooden ships these beers were brewed with extra alcohol and extra hops as preservatives to protect them over the months long voyage from Britain to India.

[BlackDuck]

MadBrewer makes some good points about IBU's here. Just because your total IBU's are in the correct range, doesn't mean that it's going to be balanced with your lower OG. It's interesting that you bring this up because there have been a few threads lately about Session IPA's. And some very good conversations too.

And because of those discussions, I wrote a recipe for one. To elaborate on the IBU conversation....my recipe has an OG of 1.046 and a total IBU rating at 67. But, only 25 of those 67 IBU's comes from the 60 minute bitter addition. The rest come from flavor/aroma additions at 15 minutes and under. Hopefully, if this turns out OK, there will be a nice bitter that balances well with the lower OG. One that is definitely there, but doesn't punch you in the face.

[OUdrank12]

Thanks for the input, I was thinking along the same lines as the advice given. I'm using a lot of high AA hops (Simcoe, summit, and Citra), so the longest I have hops going is for 20 minutes in the boil. They're all late additions and dry hopped.

[mashani]

If you don't go "all west coast" style with your IPA and use some "more malty malt" such as Munich or Vienna as part of your base, or even a bit more crystal or some honey malt/brau malt, then you can use more hops and still have it seem "balanced" in a lower ABV beer. The resulting beer will not make a west coast IPA fan happy, but if you like east coast IPAs or English IPAs then you will like it a lot.

Most of my IPAs are more of this style and in the 5%ish range as I don't drink a lot of 6%+ beer. I brew big quads and triples an the like but I drink them as treats, not as every day beer. I hardly ever buy commercial IIPAs because I don't want to drink 7% beer most of the time.