Been a LONG Time!

[yankfan9]

Man has it been a long time since I have been here. It feels good to be back I have been away for a while, not sure if anyone noticed. I have been busy with a few different things. One being my final year of college, with classes and an internship I have been quite busy. The other reason for being busy is my starting the process of joining the Air Force. Well I am happy to say that I am graduating college this May from the University of Louisville, and will be shipping out for the Air Force with a Pararescue contract in July! But with all this going on, I haven't had time to brew, which brings me back to the Borg to seek out advice on a new recipe since I have been out of the game for at least 4-5 months.

I want to brew up an IPA, something with light but tasty malt flavor, and obviously some juicy delicious hop flavor. All I have so far is the grain bill, which I am up to suggestions/recommendations. I am really up in the air on what hops to use for this though, and would like some recommendations on what you all think would go well with these grains?

Grains:
12lbs American 2 row
1.5lbs White Wheat
1lb Munich 10L
.5 Crystal 40L

[berryman]

Glad to see you back and brewing and returning back to your brew brothers here at the BORG. Sometimes life gets in the way of our beer making.
Good luck with your endeavors and your next brew

[Beer-lord]

Congrats and Best of luck to you in the future. Thanks for your service.

[John Sand]

Welcome back Yank! Your grain bill looks good, similar to others I have seen.
Congratulations on your graduation. I very sincerely salute you for volunteering to help protect America, and save Americans. I served six years active in the the USCG, and we saved a few people from the sea. Be careful.

[FedoraDave]

Welcome back! You've been quite busy, and successful, too! Continued success to you.

As far as your hops bill, it depends on what type of hop aspect you like. Some people prefer IPAs with more of a citrus aspect, so Citra or Pacific Jade or some other hops that has the citrus aroma and flavor would be appropriate. Others prefer the more piney, woodsy, earthy hops, such as Chinook.

One of my favorite recipes uses a combination of Centennial and Warrior hops.

[philm00x]

Welcome back, and thank you for your service! There are a lot of new experimental hop varieties coming out now that run the gamut of flavors from citrus, to tropical, to berries and everything in between. Mandarina Bavaria seems to be one getting a lot of attention these days and has a distinctive mandarin orange/tangerine type flavor and aroma. Even one from Yakima Valley called Chocolate Experimental which has (you guessed it) chocolatey flavor and also a little spicy. I say, pick something new and try it out!

[yankfan9]

Thank you all, it is my pleasure, I have always wanted to join the military and now is the time.
Playing around with experimental hops or hops I haven't used does sound interesting, I think I will try that out! Here are the varieties I am thinking. Should I use them all? Or try a select few of them together? They all sound really interesting and delicious.

New Zealand Motueka - Lively lemon and lime tones with background hints of tropical fruit
German Hull Melon - Distinct fruit characteristics including honeydew melon and strawberry flavors
German Mandarina Bavaria - Distinct tangerine and citrus flavors
UK Pilgrim - Distinct fruit and spice characteristics with pleasant lemon, grapefruit, pear and berry flavors

[philm00x]

motueka is a nice one and is used in conjunction with sorachi ace in the limeade hefe recipe from HBT. haven't tried hull melon but I've heard it's a good one as well. A wheat IPA would be a great use of any of those fruity hops. Maybe even a hoppy hefeweizen... Yumm!

[BlackDuck]

Our minds think alike Yankfan!!! I've used the Motueka, Hull Melon and the Mandarina in a Session IPA....And it was AWESOME. In fact, I just started a thread on it today. You can see what I did here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4157

The Hull Melon and Mandarina may be hard to fine. I ordered some from AIH and MoreBeer today. Most places are out of stock.

[philm00x]

If I'm not mistaken, Farmhouse has them both currently.

[yankfan9]

I think I will drop the pilgrim and just stick to the Mandarina, Hull Melon, and Motueka. BlackDuck that recipe does sound tasty! Should I also drop the crystal or the munich to let the hops shine through more, or keep those in?

[Rebel_B]

I vote for brewing the original recipe!

[BlackDuck]

I would leave your grain bill alone. You mentioned in your OP that you wanted some malt flavor. What you have isn't too much maltiness at all.

[yankfan9]

Alright, hops have been ordered (Motueka, Hull Melon, Mandarina), and grain bill will be kept the same. Thanks for the advice guys! I will pick up the grains tomorrow and hopefully brew this up on Sunday! Whoops, never mind, have to wait until the hops get here

[BlackDuck]

Can't wait to hear how everything goes. I think you're on to a good recipe.