India Pale Ale - Hops??

[Trizza]

I'm planning my first IPA and I wasn't sure which hops to use in conjunction with the coopers kit. I'd like to make this brew as close to the James Squire's IPA as possible. I've heard that Goldings go down well so this is my recipe at the moment:

1.7 Kg Thomas Coopers India Pale Ale + kit yeast
3 Kg Coopers Light Liquid Malt Extract
20g Goldings Hops @ 60 mins
20g Goldings Hops @ 30 mins
20g Goldings Hops @ 15 mins
20g Goldings Hops @ 5 mins

I'm not sure if Goldings are the best hops for the job, does anyone have any suggestions for alterations or additions to this recipe?

[rwh]

If I was you I'd use Northern Brewer for bittering and Goldings for flavour/aroma. Norther Brewer is as solidly British as they get (as are Goldings). It's normally used for bittering as it has a highish AA%.

[OldBugman]

I prefer Target and Fuggles.

[Trizza]

Does anyone think I have the right balance of hops and malt extract, supposing I use a more aggressive bittering hop at 60 and 30 mins say, Northern Brewer?

Do I need more malt or hops? (i'll be using hop pellets courtesy of G&G)

[OldBugman]

Why not drop the kit, ad another kilo of liquid malt, steep some crystal say 250grams and for yeast use some S04 Safale.
And then take total control of the bittering yourself.

[blandy]

Use the British hops if you want the traditional IPA flavour, and American (cascade, horizon) if you want what some stuff is selling as IPA now.

Charlie P has recipes using both American and British hops, so I guess it's OK to use either.

At the end of the day, if it tastes great, brew it ... then drink it ... then brew it ...

[Trough Lolly]

If I was you I'd use Northern Brewer for bittering and Goldings for flavour/aroma. Norther Brewer is as solidly British as they get (as are Goldings). It's normally used for bittering as it has a highish AA%.

Agreed - NB for bittering and Goldings for flavour/aroma if you want to keep true to an English IPA...

Cheers,
TL

[Emo]

Out of the few Pale Ales I've done, the one I did with Cascade hops came out the best.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

In this house, we like the American Pale Ales, so we tend to use American-styled hops.

Today, we made a hop-burst with Amarillo, Cascade, Willamette and First Gold (108gm in 22 litres).

Wednesday last, we used all the above but for the First Gold in a much more restrained way (80gm hops in 23litres).

The English-style Pale Ales in this house have used Willamette and Goldings, are strangely warm and are comparatively poorly carbonated...

[Chris]

Willamette is by far my favourite hop for IPA. It works wonders.

[chris.]

If anyone is interested in reading up on the style I recommend you get a copy of Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. He writes indepth about the origins of both styles of IPA.

I was personally surprised to find that the first IPA's (shipped from England to India in the 1800's) were commonly pale in colour (100% base malt most of the time) & low in alcohol & body. & high in hopping rates. The lower residual sugar content & dry hopping helped hold infections at bay on their journey to India.

[Trough Lolly]

And if you can't afford to buy a copy of Ray's book, you can have a read of this equally enlightening article on IPA's on the Brewing Techniques website:
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... style.html

Cheers,
TL