Advice needed for simple all-grain recipe

[LRAT]

Howdy all,

I want to create my first and simple recipe based on a SMASH-beer so that I can become familiar with my homebrew setup.

I want to create a simple recipe from the ingredients that I got laying around. I am aiming for a light Belgian pale ale with an ABV of around 5%.
Due to the size of my system I have to brew a batch of 40 liters minimum.
I have a temperature-controlled fridge that will be used used for the fermentation process.

These are:
Malt:
Cooper Premium Pale Ale Malt, 25kg. (Coopers Ale malt 5 °EBC Quality Home Brewing Supplies and Equipment, Adelaide - South Australia. We ship to your door Australia Wide.)

Hops:
Wakatu NZ 2020 6.1% AA (300 gms)
East Kent Goldings UK 2019 5.0% AA (100 gms)
Pride of Ringwood AU 2019 8.8% AA (100 gms)
Hallertau Hallertau GER 2019 5.0% AA (100 gms)
Slovenian Styrian Goldings 2018 2.5% AA (100 gms)

Yeast:
LalBrew Premium Series (Lallemand) Belgian Style Ale yeast Abbaye (3 x 11 gms).

OK, here it comes: Could somebody advise me a simple recipe based on these ingredients?
I have tried different online calculators but most of them seem to be unable to find these ingredients.
It's all very new to me and, I hope, by creating a simple recipe I will learn a lot of it.
Also, what sort of breweing software would you recommend for a noob?
Many thanks in advance! I hope this will also be usefull for other brewers new to this hobby.
Cheers,

Luc

 

[kadmium]

Hey mate. Beersmith 3 I used for a while but zi have since gone to Brewfather and really enjoy it. You can put the Coopers malt in as Australian Ale malt (I believe coopers is a schooner type malt similar to Votager malts)

I would set up for roughly 60% brew house efficiency and aim for 4.5% ABV that way if you over shoot like crazy you aren't getting an 8% beer (hopefully) and if you undershot you can always add some dry malt or plain sugar to boost the ABV.

Mashing, I would go for around a 65c temp, giving a medium type body. Also gives leeway if you over or under shoot your mash temps on the new rig. I would recommend a Mash Out of 76c but that's my opinion.

For the hops, can't go wrong with Hallertau in my opinion. I think it would suit the Belgian style beer better than EKG or POR. Aim for about 20 IBU using First Wort or 60 min hops, and maybe get another 5 or so from a 20 minute and then do maybe a 20 or 30g flame out.

Probably get away with pitching two packets, unless you hit 1.060 or more, then you might as well pitch all 3 for 40L to be sure to be sure.

Consider getting some Magnum for bittering. I use it in all styles as a bittering hop as it's super clean. Then I can save the fancier hops for later in the boil and use less of them. For example I've gone from 40g or Saaz at 60m (23L) to about 5g of Magnum which saves me a fair bit on hops costs and I find the flavour better if not the same.

 

[MHB]

Problem we are going to have is you don't know how many questions you are really asking.
First up SMASH is single malt and single hop, my first hop choice for a Belgian Pale Ale would be Styrian Golding and you have just enough (100g) to bitter 44L of beer to about 14-15 IBU, which would be right at the bottom of the range for the style, not enough left for a bit late in the boil.
That presupposes you are locked into making a SMASH, if you were willing to open another hop it would get a lot easier. Either the EKG or the Hallertau would work well as bittering hops, letting you keep the Styrian for late additions.

Dug around and found a speck sheet for the Coopers Pale Ale (see footer) assuming you are going to get somewhere around 75% efficiency, will be leaving 10% in the kettle with the trub (its a good idea not to be greedy early in your brewing career), leaving 5-10% is pretty standard, so to put 40L into the fermenter you will be looking at about 44L at the end of boil. your boil off should be close to 10% to so start of boil you would be looking at X*0.9=44, about 49L.
Using the above guestimates, you would need just a smidge over 9.5kg of malt to get an end of boil gravity of about 1.048
You could use all of your Styrian for a 60 minute boil or about half of your (50g) EKG or HH and maybe lob 20-40g of the Styrian into the kettle in the last 10 minutes or so.

It looks like a good malt for single temperature infusion, probably mash at the classic 65-67oC for 60 minutes.
You need 49L in the kettle and will send about 0.9L/kg with grain to waste, so you need to allow a bit over 8.55L, total water will be 57.5 (ish) L, that should all be de-chlorinated and treated with about 100ppm of Calcium (I would use Chloride for this beer).
At this point a bit either way really wont make a world of difference, the most important thing you can do is keep very good records so next brew your boil off, L left in the kettle, OG... wont be guesses you will have hard numbers which will help you refine your recipe no end.
Have fun, good style to learn on, I would go lighter on the late hops so you can taste the beer and any faults easily (just to improve your brewing).
Mark

 

[LRAT]

Kadmium and MHB, thank you very much for spending some precious time answering my questions! I really appreciate it and wish I had enough experience to help out other brewing colleagues as well. Oh well, maybe that time might come but it will take many years I'm afraid.

Yes, I wanted to create a SMASH for "simplicity"-reasons. However, Mark's suggestion makes sense. I've got the hops around anyway and will most likely veer away from a true SMASH beer.
I will definitly take a lot of notes during the brewing process and will be happy to pass them on when finished.
Also, thank you very much for the malt spec sheet Mark!

I will also explore the suggested software and see if I can make any sense of it.

Before this I always brewed my beer from kits that were based on liquid malt. So, producing my own recipes is a logical next step and I'm keen to explore.

Once again many thanks for your suggestions!
Cheers,

Luc

 

[kadmium]

I still learn heaps too mate, always happy to help out. And remember, you don't have to follow all advice, work with what suits you. Don't forget you're brewing for yourself!

MHBs suggestion is a good one to get adequate bitterness. And even on my SMASH beers I use magnum to butter so they are really SMaTH beers. Mike Tyson approved.

 

[LRAT]

OK, today might be brew day! We are completely off-the-grid so it depends on the amount of sun we got during the day.

I made up a recipe in the Brewfather app and have attached the results to this message.
I'm keen to find out how it's going to work out and I will keep you all updated
Cheers,

Luc

 

[MHB]

I have a dollar that says you will get more gravity than you think (I'll take a stab at an OG of 1.055).
If you do, don't worry, just brew it its a pretty forgiving style and if its a touch sweet, wait a month or two and it will settle in nicely.
Good Luck! have fun and hope you learn heaps.
Mark

Edit
Yes on Magnum it is my go bittering hop, clean non intrusive bitterness and often at a good price.
M

 

[LRAT]

I have a dollar that says you will get more gravity than you think (I'll take a stab at an OG of 1.055).
If you do, don't worry, just brew it its a pretty forgiving style and if its a touch sweet, wait a month or two and it will settle in nicely.
Good Luck! have fun and hope you learn heaps.
Mark

Edit
Yes on Magnum it is my go bittering hop, clean non intrusive bitterness and often at a good price.
M

I'm brewing as we speak. Currently I'm halfway through the mashing.
Personally I also thought that 11kg of grain is a lot. But who am I to come to that conclusion?
I will announce the OG when the brew is in the fermenter.
Cheers,

Luc

 

[MHB]

There is a pretty good rule of thumb
1kg of grain and 6L of water makes 5L of 1.050 wort, if you do most thing right.
Be good to let us know what sort of kit you are brewing on, BIAB or Braumeister or whatever...
Mark

 

[LRAT]

You can see my brew installation here:

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/a-good-but-very-simple-and-basic-recipe.102428/
Thanks for that rule of thumb! Yes, it looks like I've used too much grain.
Anyway, I started the boil now. I started with 46 liters of liquid
As I'm draining my mash tun for cleaning I also tried some tasting. There's hardly any sugar taste left. So, that proves the extraction went well.
Cheers,

Luc

 

[LRAT]

OK, I overshot the OG big time : 1.063 !
The recipe stated the OG should be 1.042. Thus, I conclude that the efficiency of my system is higher then 60%.
Anyone got an idea how to calculate the efficiency with these numbers?
Cheers,

Luc

 

[MHB]

cant without the volume

 

[LRAT]

My apologies. with all that exitement I had forgotten to include this.
The end volume is 38 litres.

 

[MHB]

According to the COA for your malt it has a potential of 80.5% (that would be fine dry) its ~5% moisture (max) probably more like 4%, you need to take off the Coarse/Fine difference, from some of the other numbers it will be pretty low, call it 1% giving ~75.5%.
You used 11kg. That times the potential says you have 11*0.755=8.305kg of extract available.
(Thanks) End volume 38L at 1.063. (15.75oP) From Mass extract= V*SG*oP
Mass Extract = 38*1.063*0.1575 = 6.36kg
Efficiency = 6.36/8.305*100 = 76.6%

Good first run, no reason why you shouldn't get that up around 80% with a bit of work.
Mark

Edit
You have had a pretty good boil off, if you got your predicted final volume, 42.71L as apposed to the 38L you got, or if you diluted back to 42.7L your gravity would have been 38*15.75=42.7*oP = 14.01oP or 1.056 so my first guess was out by 0.001.
You might want to look at that boil off or use more water up front.
M

 

[LRAT]

Fantastic Mark!
Thank you very much for your help. Now I do understand how to calculate the efficiency. Great explanation!
Yes, it seems the boil-off resulted in more evaporation than planned. I could dilute it but I will leave it as is for now, so, that I can learn from it.
I haven't pitched the yeast yet as the wort is still sitting at 34 degrees C.
It's been a good experience and I learned a lot along the way. Thanks to the forum members who gave some relly useful information!
Cheers,

Luc

 

[kadmium]

Fantastic Mark!
Thank you very much for your help. Now I do understand how to calculate the efficiency. Great explanation!
Yes, it seems the boil-off resulted in more evaporation than planned. I could dilute it but I will leave it as is for now, so, that I can learn from it.
I haven't pitched the yeast yet as the wort is still sitting at 34 degrees C.
It's been a good experience and I learned a lot along the way. Thanks to the forum members who gave some relly useful information!
Cheers,

Luc

Nicely done mate. Rather over shoot the under generally in general.

 

[Vic]

Hey mate. Beersmith 3 I used for a while but zi have since gone to Brewfather and really enjoy it. You can put the Coopers malt in as Australian Ale malt (I believe coopers is a schooner type malt similar to Votager malts)

I would set up for roughly 60% brew house efficiency and aim for 4.5% ABV that way if you over shoot like crazy you aren't getting an 8% beer (hopefully) and if you undershot you can always add some dry malt or plain sugar to boost the ABV.

Mashing, I would go for around a 65c temp, giving a medium type body. Also gives leeway if you over or under shoot your mash temps on the new rig. I would recommend a Mash Out of 76c but that's my opinion.

For the hops, can't go wrong with Hallertau in my opinion. I think it would suit the Belgian style beer better than EKG or POR. Aim for about 20 IBU using First Wort or 60 min hops, and maybe get another 5 or so from a 20 minute and then do maybe a 20 or 30g flame out.

Probably get away with pitching two packets, unless you hit 1.060 or more, then you might as well pitch all 3 for 40L to be sure to be sure.

Consider getting some Magnum for bittering. I use it in all styles as a bittering hop as it's super clean. Then I can save the fancier hops for later in the boil and use less of them. For example I've gone from 40g or Saaz at 60m (23L) to about 5g of Magnum which saves me a fair bit on hops costs and I find the flavour better if not the same.

Coopers Pale Ale Malt is Compass, it says so on the bag. IMO very similar to Voyager Compass.

 

[TheAussieBrewer]

Howdy all,

I want to create my first and simple recipe based on a SMASH-beer so that I can become familiar with my homebrew setup.

I want to create a simple recipe from the ingredients that I got laying around. I am aiming for a light Belgian pale ale with an ABV of around 5%.
Due to the size of my system I have to brew a batch of 40 liters minimum.
I have a temperature-controlled fridge that will be used used for the fermentation process.

These are:
Malt:
Cooper Premium Pale Ale Malt, 25kg. (Coopers Ale malt 5 °EBC Quality Home Brewing Supplies and Equipment, Adelaide - South Australia. We ship to your door Australia Wide.)

Hops:
Wakatu NZ 2020 6.1% AA (300 gms)
East Kent Goldings UK 2019 5.0% AA (100 gms)
Pride of Ringwood AU 2019 8.8% AA (100 gms)
Hallertau Hallertau GER 2019 5.0% AA (100 gms)
Slovenian Styrian Goldings 2018 2.5% AA (100 gms)

Yeast:
LalBrew Premium Series (Lallemand) Belgian Style Ale yeast Abbaye (3 x 11 gms).

OK, here it comes: Could somebody advise me a simple recipe based on these ingredients?
I have tried different online calculators but most of them seem to be unable to find these ingredients.
It's all very new to me and, I hope, by creating a simple recipe I will learn a lot of it.
Also, what sort of breweing software would you recommend for a noob?
Many thanks in advance! I hope this will also be usefull for other brewers new to this hobby.
Cheers,

Luc

If you would like to try another true "smash", I have attached a link to my Australian Sparkling Ale recipe that drinks really well during summer. If you can get some wheat malt, Substituting 10% of the Pale Ale Malt will improve the head retention. Also try over pitching the yeast slightly to get a really clean ferment.

https://share.brewfather.app/zhKWtgBHVn6SUj

 

[LRAT]

If you would like to try another true "smash", I have attached a link to my Australian Sparkling Ale recipe that drinks really well during summer. If you can get some wheat malt, Substituting 10% of the Pale Ale Malt will improve the head retention. Also try over pitching the yeast slightly to get a really clean ferment.

https://share.brewfather.app/zhKWtgBHVn6SUj

That looks like a great recipe. I will order the extra things and will try it out!
Thanks for forwarding this!
Cheers,

Luc

 

[TheAussieBrewer]

That looks like a great recipe. I will order the extra things and will try it out!
Thanks for forwarding this!
Cheers,

Luc

No worries mate. My original recipe used Super Pride as that was all I could get my hands on but POR is what I had initially intended for this recipe for.

Using the Coopers malt is quite fitting for this style I think too.