# First BIAB Pale Ale/IPA Recipe Suggestions w/ Citra/Centennial/Galaxy



## SBOB (19/8/14)

So, having recently acquired a 40L birko urn I am on my way to my first all grain and first BIAB brew day..

My hurdle is finding a recipe to use for my first couple of attempts..
I currently have heaps of Citra, Cascade and Galaxy hops so was hoping for a recipe which could utilise one or more of these hops and unfortunately the recipe DB on here isn't 'searchable' making it finding a compatible recipe a bit difficult

So, can someone point me to a any good recipes which will work well for a BIAB novice and make use of the hops I already have?

Thanks for any pointers


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## Dan Pratt (19/8/14)

Hi Sbob,

If this is your first all grain biab brew I can truly suggest that you make a SMaSH beer, Its a great starting point that will show you the flavour of one malt and one hop.

Keep it simple and make a Pale ale with the Citra. then on the next beer you can add 5% crystal malt to the grain bill and add say cascade to the flavour addition and dry hop to see how they play together.

Pale Ale/Citra SMaSH:

OG - 1.052
FG - 1.012
IBU - 35

100% Ale Base Malt - JW, Breiss, TFUK, Weyermann etc etc

Bittering
Citra - 15ibu @ 60m

Flavour
Citra - 20ibu @ 10m

Aroma - Dry Hop after fermentation is complete for 5-7days @ fermentation temp
Citra - 28g

Mash the beer at 66c for 60mins and if possible do a mash out at 78c for 15mins.

Boil for 90mins.

US05 Fermentis yeast @ 18c - rehydrate if you know how too or direct pitch into the wort.

This should take about 2 weeks from mash to packaged beer.


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## lukencode (19/8/14)

I would go something that leaves you a lot of room for error - it is pretty difficult to hit efficiency and volumes first try.

Something like Dr Smurtos Golden ale (in the recipe DB) substituting the hops you have would work well.


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (19/8/14)

Heck, it's like this thread was written for me.

I have a lord Nelson Citra Cascading out of this galaxy pale ale (with a thread containing an altered recipe for a no-Nelson Sauvin version). Sub Centennial for Cascade and you're away.

I would add that I do prefer CTZ/Chinook or something non-fruity to help really give the beer extra shine.

Otherwise, the recipe I generally formulate around goes something like:

25L

5kg Bairds Perle or Maris Otter (or Thomas Fawcett) - a good british
.3kg Medium (preferably heritage) crystal.
.2kg Rye Malt or Red Wheat or something 'different'.

Mash at 65 degrees (single infusion is fine, the Perle or MO copes nicely with it)

IBU - APA is about 35IBU and AIPA is about 50IBU, made up of:

xx grams Centennial at 30 minutes (APA) or 60 Minutes (AIPA) to give you 15 IBU (APA) or 30 IBU (AIPA) - plug it into beermate or smith or whatever.
Equal amounts of centennial, Citra and galaxy at 10 minutes (assuming you chill) to give you 20IBU.

US 05.

You could dry hop with some citra and centennial - it works really nicely.

This pretty much forms the basis of all my APA and AIPA recipes. I can adjust (and experiment) with hops or malts as I need to or have available and the formula is pretty much always spot on.


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

Thanks for the tips..
I will have to find out what grains are available at my local places (or online from somewhere like barleyman) and make a shopping list...


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

I'm pretty sure I understand the various hops and yeasts as their names are much more easily 'google-able'.. So, for the grains people are recommending can anyone tell me if I have found the types being suggested:



Pratty1 said:


> Hi Sbob,
> 
> If this is your first all grain biab brew I can truly suggest that you make a SMaSH beer, Its a great starting point that will show you the flavour of one malt and one hop.
> 
> 100% Ale Base Malt - JW, Breiss, TFUK, Weyermann etc etc


Something like this?
http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/bb-ale.html


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

And same as above.. am I on the right 'grain' track?


Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> Heck, it's like this thread was written for me.
> 
> I have a lord Nelson Citra Cascading out of this galaxy pale ale (with a thread containing an altered recipe for a no-Nelson Sauvin version). Sub Centennial for Cascade and you're away.
> 
> ...


These 3?
http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/fawcett-floor-malted-maris-otter-malt.html
http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/dummy-malt-86.html
http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/weyermann-rye-malt.html


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

And if anyone wants to suggest somewhere (like barleyman) who has a decent online ordering system, range of grain and with decent postage price then feel free to let me know..

Barleyman's ordering system looks good as you can select the milling type and also have it put in a single vacuum sealed bag, so I can order a couple of different recipes and have them already turn up vacuum packed...but there may be others who do a similar thing


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (19/8/14)

SBOB said:


> And same as above.. am I on the right 'grain' track?
> These 3?
> http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/fawcett-floor-malted-maris-otter-malt.html
> http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/dummy-malt-86.html
> http://www.barleyman.com.au/products/malts-grains/weyermann-rye-malt.html


Spot on.

I always got 5kg of base malt because a. it fit with the 25L my system was comfortable producing and b. craftbrewer (site sponsor too) had it for $1/kg less if you ordered 5kg. So I did. That was when I was in BNE (and will be for a period of time again).

Here in Tas, I've been bulk buying base malts and swapping/buying smaller amounts of spec.


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## Blind Dog (19/8/14)

Before I add my 2c, i'd just point out LRG's recipe is a good one (never brewed it exactly as given, but close enough and without Nelson Sauvin)

My basic Pale Ale is 85% - 100% base malt (usually Marris Otter), 0-10% Munich and 0-5% crystal (colour varies). It’s rarely 100% base malt

Hops vary depending on what I’m after, but generally aim for 60% to 70% of the final 2 numbers of the OG (e.g. IBU of 30 to 35 IBU with an OG of 1.050) for an APA/bitter and 80%+ for an IPA (e.g. IBU of 48+ at an OG of 1.060)

Agree with LRG that I’d want something else with the hops you have to balance the fruit or you can end up with fruit punch.

For American styles, I aim for about 25% of the total IBUs from the initial addition and then 75% from late additions. As I no-chill, these are usually added to the cube

US-05 is a good yeast and a good place to start as it adds little, and works well for US style ales

Brewmate (free) or beersmith (not free) are great pieces of software for designing recipes, making notes and tweaking.


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## The Village Idiot (19/8/14)

My 2 bobs........ Maris, Pale or what ever you have (I like Ashburne Mild)....10 ibu's of something @ 60 min(Magnum is good) and 50g of Citra in the cube. 
Drink fresh before the hops mellow. :beerbang:


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

Blind Dog said:


> My basic Pale Ale is 85% - 100% base malt (usually Marris Otter), 0-10% Munich and 0-5% crystal (colour varies). It’s rarely 100% base malt
> 
> Hops vary depending on what I’m after, but generally aim for 60% to 70% of the final 2 numbers of the OG (e.g. IBU of 30 to 35 IBU with an OG of 1.050) for an APA/bitter and 80%+ for an IPA (e.g. IBU of 48+ at an OG of 1.060)
> 
> ...


Got a suggested hops to try? I have those 3 because i bought them doing the extract hop hog clone last weekend..


By 'late addition' hops I assume you mean 25% of the IBU from an addition at the start of the boil then the rest thrown in the cube with the finished wort (and the into the fermenter when it comes time to ferment/temp drops/you feel like it)

You're guide on IBU -> OG is helpful, thanks


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## SBOB (19/8/14)

The Village Idiot said:


> My 2 bobs........ Maris, Pale or what ever you have (I like Ashburne Mild)....10 ibu's of something @ 60 min(Magnum is good) and 50g of Citra in the cube.
> Drink fresh before the hops mellow. :beerbang:


Thanks...


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## Blind Dog (19/8/14)

SBOB said:


> Got a suggested hops to try? I have those 3 because i bought them doing the extract hop hog clone last weekend..
> 
> 
> By 'late addition' hops I assume you mean 25% of the IBU from an addition at the start of the boil then the rest thrown in the cube with the finished wort (and the into the fermenter when it comes time to ferment/temp drops/you feel like it)
> ...


As per LRG, chinook or Columbus would work well. Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus (CTZ) are essentially the same hop. I like Columbus as a bittering hop and as part of the late addition mix. Chinook I only use as a late addition as I find it harsh as a bittering hop. YMMV

I generally add most or all of the late hops to the cube as I nochill, but a 20 steep if you chill should achieve the same thing. I remove the hops as I transfer to the fermenter, usually by straining the last bit of wort from the cube through my old BIAB bag


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## Blind Dog (19/8/14)

So yes, about 25% of the bittering from the 60 minute or first wort hopping addition. Rest from late hop additions for American styles

Think I picked up that one from a post by the famed Dr Smurto


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## fletcher (19/8/14)

my 2c.

simple pale ale with your hops:

94% pale malt
6% crystal
starting gravity of 1.040-45ish
mash at 65C

bitter (60 mins) with centennial to 15-20 ibu
flavour (20 mins) with galaxy to about 15-20ibu
aroma (5 mins) with citra to about 5 ibu
dry hop 60gm citra after ferment has finished for 3 days

us-05 at 16-20c

boom


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## Blind Dog (19/8/14)

I know you've had a lot of information thrown at you. But any of recipes above would give you a great beer and there's loads of info on BIaB here and elsewhere. Its a great start to AG brewing

Whatever you choose, good luck


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## fletcher (20/8/14)

my reason for a simple recipe template - aka, only 1 base malt (pale malt) and 1 specialty malt (crystal) - is so you can identify the taste of the hops, and get an understanding of what they bring to the beer. if you start with a grist of base malt plus 4 or 5 different specialty malts, you're not going to get a good understanding of what each one brings to the beer. it's like trying to fly before you can crawl. this is my own opinion of course. 

after a few years brewing, i've now gone back to really simple base grain bills and have started just adding hops at different times and trying different yeasts to understand them more, THEN paired it with different levels and types of specialty malts to enhance the characteristics i like. it's worked really well. 

as blind dog's said mate, it's a top start to brewing. have a stack of fun with it


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## SBOB (20/8/14)

consider me ready for this slippery slope 

Going to take a couple of these recipes and throw them into one of the numerous spreadsheets (like biabbrewer's 'biabacus') so I can save them and have something give me estimated starting water levels etc...

Now to order some grains for next weekends maiden attempt :beerdrink:


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## Dan Pratt (20/8/14)

fletcher said:


> my reason for a simple recipe template - aka, only 1 base malt (pale malt) and 1 specialty malt (crystal) - is so you can identify the taste of the hops, and get an understanding of what they bring to the beer. if you start with a grist of base malt plus 4 or 5 different specialty malts, you're not going to get a good understanding of what each one brings to the beer. it's like trying to fly before you can crawl. this is my own opinion of course.
> 
> after a few years brewing, i've now gone back to really simple base grain bills and have started just adding hops at different times and trying different yeasts to understand them more, THEN paired it with different levels and types of specialty malts to enhance the characteristics i like. it's worked really well.
> 
> as blind dog's said mate, it's a top start to brewing. have a stack of fun with it


100% agree with this. simple and build from there, know your raw ingredience and understand your system before making multilayered or somewhat complex beers.


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## fattox (20/8/14)

I use a base recipe given to me by my local shop, it's essentially their Sierra Nevada Pale clone base, and just change around the hops.

My base additions for smash is as follows- 
10 ibu each at 60, 20, and 5, with a 10 minute hop stand of 5 ibu (optional)
Dry hop with 1g/L for 4-5 days maximum, i find it gets a bit grassy past that point with some hops (and also learnt that The Alchemist only dry hop their hop bombed Heady Topper a maximum of 4-5 so if it's good enough for them!!)

I use BB Pale or Maris Otter at 100% in a Smash, but you could add say 2.5% carapils and 5% of a cara-something (caramalt, caravienne or caramunich do a great job here)

That's my 2C anyway, I actually dumped 2 Smashes due to infection (bloody fruit flies got into the airlock!) but my most recent one was done minus the 5 ibu hop stand and it turned out absolutely superb. Used Azacca from Yakima Valley (60g packet for $3!!) and basically did it as per that, and dumped the rest in for 4 days on the dry hop. Great sessionable pale ale


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## SBOB (20/8/14)

fattox said:


> I use a base recipe given to me by my local shop, it's essentially their Sierra Nevada Pale clone base, and just change around the hops.


whats the base recipe/grain bill?


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