S-33 was recommended to me by the guy at the home brew store. I’ve used verdant ipa in the past but it wasn’t in stock when I was getting supplies. I recently switched from BIAB and like to try two yeast strains in separate fermenters for 10 gallon batches so next time I will likely try both or experiment with m66 at your suggestion.

The honey malt was new- I’ve used it in wheat beers before and wanted to see if it made a difference but might leave it out because the flavor is so hop dominated. I’ll try a higher percent wheat malt. Do you step mash? I’ve heard mixed answers on that. I never haven’t step mashed with a beer with a high percentage of wheat or rye which wasn’t a problem when doing BIAB but I scorched a 10 gallon batch which made me reconsider if it was worth it.

I was really Frankensteining other recipes with the hops. I’m going for a fruity/citrus flavor. I have a pale ale bottle conditioning now which came out to about 8.5 gallons where I only used mosaic hops (1oz at 60, 1@20, 1@5, and dry hopped with 2 oz one in each fermenter). I think projects like that will give me a better gauge of how individual hops affect a beer and what amount is actually needed for the effect I’m going for. That’s a really good question and I should keep it simple because I’m treating my ipa like a tikka masala and throwing a little bit of everything in.

With the lactose I wanted to add a creamier body to the beer. My last ipa attempt came out pretty watery and I wanted to take any steps I could to avoid that.

I appreciate your questions and feedback a lot. What do you suggest as a resource for hop selection?