Messed up West Coast IPA recipe, could dryhopping make it good?

My first batch, I followed a recipe using malt extract to create a West Cost IPA.
The wording of the recipe made me invert the Hop additions...

[Edit] Instead of:

  • 2oz of Centinennial at 0mins left in boil
  • 1oz of chinook at 10mins left in boil
  • 1oz of columbus at 60mins left in boil

I did :

  • 2oz of Centinennial at 60mins left in boil
  • 1oz of chinook at 50mins left in boil
  • 1oz of columbus at 0mins left in boil

From my reading I realised it would be a very bitter beer with poor aroma... I estimated the IBUs at 105. Am I wrong? Will dryhopping with Citra can help my beer to taste something better than just bitterness?

The rest of the recipe:

  • 8oz Victory Malt (steeping grain)
  • 9 lbs Gold liquid Malt Extract
  • 1 pkg Safbrew US-05 Dry Ale Yeast

Original Gravity was at 1.050

Thanks!

Topic extract-brewing first-time-brewer taste dry-hop ipa homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

Wait!!! Does the beer taste good?

If so, just leave it, it wont be as bitter as the recipe sure, but good beer is good beer. It's probably OK.

Hop additions are numbered by the amount of boil time in minutes. So a 60 minute addition boils for 60 minutes, and a 0 minute (or "flameout") is added at the end of the boil.

So given you reversed your hop additions, one would expect it to be less-bitter - especially because the biggest lot of 2oz bittering hops were added at 0 instead of 60 mins.

Ok, so it's too sweet or unbalanced, or you want to tinker with it - there a few ways to do this.

A simple way is to make a "hop tea" with a plunger-style coffee maker. Put boiling water in with a bunch of hops - maybe 1oz (28g), or if it really needs more bittering, perhaps 2oz(56g). Let it sit for a while to dissolve/isomerise the hop acids (this happens whenever the water/wort is roughly > 80C (176F)). You can taste the tea to determine the bittering level. If you are adding this to the fermenter, let it cool a bit beforehand. Obviously you are also diluting your beer with this method.

Of course you are left with the question - how much do I add? I can't answer this - but you can do it to taste.

Another option would be pre-isomerised hop extract oils - these can be added at any stage. Once again, you can add these to taste.

But honestly - I think you could just leave it, everything will be OK.

If you must, and a huge whack of dry hops (citra + simcoe) and go for an East Coast IPA / NEIPA.

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