Dry Malt Amber Ale Recipe

[cdbrown]

The 50g for 45mins might be a bit much if only planing on boiling a small amount of liquid. May cut it back to about 30gms.

Cheers

SJ

Just want to know why this is the case? Does the boil size matter if the final volume is going to be 23L? ie what's the difference in boiling 50g in 1L compared to 50g in 2L if the end volume is 23L?

 

[Pennywise]

Someone else might be able to explain it better than I, but it's got something to do with isomerisation of the alpha acids. From what I understand the best gravity to boil at is around 1040 so you get the most out of the hops, if you were to boil at a gravity of say 1080 then alot of the bitterness will not make it through and thus you'll need more hops to achieve that same bitterness. Hope that makes sense

 

[Supra-Jim]

I think I may have confused myself in giving that answer. I was probably trying to say the 50gms may give a little too much bittering considering they were being boiled for 45mins.

Then half was through that i got my wires crossed and was thinking that he was going to boil all of his fermentables in a small volume (i.e. concentrated high gravity wort, then dilute with cool water). Hop utilisation drops off as gravity climbs.

The more i try to clarify what i said, the more i realise i stuffed it up. Apologies for any confusion.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[cdbrown]

Makes sense now. I'm betting my hop utilisation is quite poor come to think of it. I normally only do a 1L steep for the grain, strain and rinse the strained grain with another 1L of hot water. Bring the 2L to the boil and chuck all the ldme in there - last time it was 400g ldme. It's about 100g of LDME per L for 1.040 isn't it?

 

[Supra-Jim]

Yeah 100gm & 1 ltr will give 1040.

If you use something like beersmith, this will perform the hops utilisation calcs for you, based on your boil volumes and extract/grain additions. Or Palmers book has them if you feel like working it out manually!!

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[buttersd70]

It's about 100g of LDME per L for 1.040 isn't it?

roughly.

The main effect the volume has is in relation to the BG, which effects utilisation. (as has been confusingly noted by SJ. Don't worry mate, I know what you mean, and know that you know what you mean... )

Just to clarify the previously stated....lower boil volume, with the same amount of fermentable, leads to higher gravity, which lowers utilisation, making it less bitter. And vice verca.

I normally state that it's often easier to just match the BG to the target OG.....that way, if you boil 1/3 of the volume, add 1/3 of the fermentables. Easy peasy. But there are occassions where it pays to be able to manipulate your boil gravity (which is one of the benefits of extract brewing that you can't do as easily with AG).....if you have a low alpha hop, you can lower the BG to increase utilisation and save on hops. If you have high alpha hops, you can increase the BG to deliberately lower the utilisation, to let you get more accurately to target, particularly when doing a low hopped beer (and particularly when using a hopped kit as a 'base').....That one doesn't crop up all that often, but it can happen. I had one where the weight of hop required on the 20min boil for the amount of flavour I wanted caused the bitterness to go over what was needed.....by increasing the boil gravity and thereby reducing the utilisation, I was able to keep my weight/volume requirement for the flavor addition, whilst limiting the amount of bitterness extracted from it.

 

[Supra-Jim]

^^ edzachary!!

 

[cdbrown]

Based on all my questions do you really think I like to work things out?!?

I generally just follow others recipes but change it a bit to suit without really considering the full consequences. I think I tried beersmith but couldn't get it to work out due to not knowing how to put the kit in properly, since then the trial has expired. Guess it's not much to buy.....goes off to purchase beersmith

 

[McCraggen]

In the end i did 1.25KG of dme in about 6-8 litres of water with about 40g of hops i did this X2 for about 45 minutes, then for the last 15 i added about 15g of amarillo, i wanted assertive but not over-powering bitterness with a nice hop aroma, fingers crossed.