I've started to create my own IPA recipe. I am doing this to create a good beer on my own and to learn more about what flavors the different ingredients impart in the beer. However, I got off to a bad start with this beer by accidentally getting crystal 60 instead of crystal 40. So my IPA is a little darker than it should be, but I don't know enough to understand how that will change the flavor.
The brew was very smooth and I didn't have any issues except with a new hop bag I was trying out. The bag is over a foot long and maybe 2-3 inches wide. It is made of very fine mesh and I thought it would work well for the pellet hops I use. However the bag is not wide enough. The hops just soaked up water and were stuck in the end of the bag. I ended up only putting my bittering hops in the bag and the rest went straight in the boil kettle. I am a little worried that I did not get full utilization of the hops, but I won't know for sure until I drink the finished beer. The gravity sample had a nice bittering to it though so I could be alright.
The first version of my recipe is below. I will be tweaking it as I go forward to try to make a better beer. My LHBS did not have an alpha acid percentage for the Amarillo hops.
8 lb Gold LME
1 lb Crystal 40 60
1 oz Columbus (14.4%) - 60 min
1 oz Amarillo - 45 min
0.5 oz Amarillo - 20 min
0.5 oz Amarillo - 5 min
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
