BeerBorg

I finally got myself a 5 gallon kit and equipment for Love2Brew. They have really great prices and ambitious goals.

Anyway, I also picket up some ingredients while I was there. For my first 5 gallon batch, I'd like to try to make a White IPA. It doesn't have to be an "IPA" per se, White Pale Ale is ok or hoppy witbier is ok. I'm looking more for something simple clean and crisp with citrus. While my goal is for a flavor, I need this to be at least 6.5% abv or else my friends will drink it too quickly.

Here's what I have to work with. I'm not opposed to obtaining additional supplies.

Fermentables
5.5 lbs. dry wheat extract
4.25 lbs. corn sugar
2 lbs. dry light extract

Hops
1.5 oz. Tettnang
1 oz. Cascade
1 oz. Citra
.5 oz Perle

Yeast
White Labs Belgian Wit Ale WLP400

Here's what I'm thinking
1 oz. Tettnang 60 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 30 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 5-10 minutes

I was going to dry hop with the Citra hops, but I'm not sure how much to use. I'm also planning to use a secondary, as I'd like this clear, even though it's got a lot of wheat.

not a big fan of corn sugar for the Alc portion. I'd go with more Malt. You cold get by with another 4# of Light DME instead of the sugar. Just sayin'

Yankeedag wrote:not a big fan of corn sugar for the Alc portion. I'd go with more Malt. You cold get by with another 4# of Light DME instead of the sugar. Just sayin'

That's exactly what I want to hear. I just listed it as an option because it's what I have on hand.

Some sugar is fine in a bigger IPA if you want to dry it out and make it lighter bodied even though it's a big beer - IE the same reasoning you use sugar in a bigger Belgian.

But I would not go over 20%.

Stylistically, since this is kind of a "Belgian IPA" I would consider some sugar to be appropriate.

Agreed. I think sugar is fine here, but not over 20%. If it were me, I'd either go all DME, or I'd probably go with something like...

5.5lb wheat DME (68.75%)
1.5lb light DME (18.75%)
1.0lb corn sugar (12.5%)

That gets me to 6.85%ish

Awesome stuff so far Borg.

I think I've got some good things to think about for fermentables and this gives me an excuse to check out Cask and Kettle this week.

What about hops? I have to admit, I'm not very experienced with hop editions because I've only used HME's so far. How much hops? How long? Should I dry hop? So many questions, and I don't really know where to start looking to try to figure this out.