Experimental Brew

[MacBrews]

G'day AHB!

I'm relatively new to home brewing (4 brews in) and am enjoying it a lot!

My last brew (hefe) was pretty fantastic in my opinion and my confidence is through the roof, so I figure it's time to do some experimenting with BIAB.

I've decided to do away with the pre-hopped tins and go for something a little more adventurous. I'm going for something brown (I guess a brown ale) and fruity/hoppy without too much bitterness.

Would you mind taking a look at the following recipe and let me know what you think? Wouldn't mind someone explaining the pros and cons of steeping vs partial mash in this circumstance. I've put it together using Ian's spreadsheet and the predicted stats are;

23L Batch
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
IBU: 39.6


DME:

Wheat: .5 kg
Light: 1 kg

Grains:

Caramel Wheat Malt: .5 kg
Dark Crystal: .3 kg
Wheat Chocolate Malt: .2 kg

Hops:

Citra 15g @ 60 minutes
Amarillo 15g @ 30,15,5 minutes and dry-hopped

US-05

Method:

Steep grains in 5L 65-70C water for 30 minutes, then sparge.
Boil 10L with 500g wheat DME, follow hop schedule, and add LDME with 10 minutes to go.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. First official post! Mind you, I've been lurking for some time

 

[hoppy2B]

Caramel and Crystal are sweet malts aren't they? That seems like a lot. I think the recommendation is to use no more than about 5% to 10% of that sort of gear.
I'm no expert mind you.

 

[MacBrews]

G'day Hoppy,

Thanks for the comment - to be quite honest I have no idea about any malt characteristics. I simply played around with the spreadsheet until I got what I wanted. With the predicted FG coming to 1010 I wouldn't have expected too much sweetness? But then again, I am just guessing.

Cheers.

 

[hoppy2B]

Hi Mac,
Yeah I just did a quick google of Carawheat and think it may be a bit over the top. Suggest you research caramel and crystal malts a bit before using that amount. Might be alright for a cloudy sour wheat beer. I wouldn't know as I'm not familiar with that style.

 

[thylacine]

G'day Hoppy,

Thanks for the comment - to be quite honest I have no idea about any malt characteristics. I simply played around with the spreadsheet until I got what I wanted. With the predicted FG coming to 1010 I wouldn't have expected too much sweetness? But then again, I am just guessing.

Cheers.

http://brewery.org/library/Malt101.html

 

[MacBrews]

Thanks thylacine and hoppy,

After doing some reading it would appear that your first call was spot on hoppy. What would you think about replacing the CaraWheat with CaraMunich II (same quantities)?

Cheers.

 

[hoppy2B]

You could try swapping it for a base malt and steeping for an hour at about 67C. 10% dark crystal(roughly equal to your .3kg), is probably a good starting point and work your way from there.
That should give you a feel for how your IBU works with that level of sweetness.