First Brew

[dwoody1014]

Hi all,

I'm getting ready to do my first brew next month. Been doing lots and reading and getting awesome info from this forum so thought I'd try my luck and ask for some expert advice on the following recipe. Loving the new James Squire Hop Thief #7 so wanted something similar. Website says they use galaxy and mosaic (can't get mosaic at my LHBS but read simcoe may be an ok substitute).

20L batch
Steeping 100g of crystal 20L and 100g munich 10L
1.5 kg coopers light malt extract
1.5 kg coopers light malt extract at flame out
500g light dry extract
15g simcoe 60min
20g galaxy 15min
40g galaxy flame out
60g galaxy dry hop 5 days
US-05 ale yeast

Beersmith calcs are:
OG: 1.05
FG: 1.012
IBU: 40.2
ABV: 5%

Thinking of a single stage fermentation, dry hop, cold crash then keg.

I added the dry malt extract because using Beersmith the OG wasn't high enough without it. Is this required?
And is dry hopping 60g going a bit too far with the galaxy?

Appreciate any advice and tips that you gurus may have!

Cheers
Dan

 

[Rocker1986]

What size boil are you using?

Not sure about the Galaxy, never used it myself. Someone else will undoubtedly have some advice there though.

 

[dwoody1014]

Have a 20L pot so was thinking about a 15L boil

 

[stewy]

Recipe looks good

Only problem is the Munich. It can't be steeped, it must be mashed. If you want some Munich I would ditch the Light DME & mash 800gms Munich @ 66C for 1 hour instead. You can use your oven to keep the temp constant at the right temp & get conversion. It's very easy & will take your extract to the next level.
If you can't be bothered doing a mini-mash (plenty YouTube vids will show you how easy it is) I would use some Briess Munich LME. It's 50% Munich & 50% Light. It would be perfect for a Hop Thief type beer IMO. It comes in 1.5kgs so you could replace it for one of the 1.5kg Light additions

 

[dwoody1014]

Thanks Stewy, appreciate the reply. Might go with the Briess LME at this stage. Get a few under my belt before a mash.

 

[stewy]

You won't be disappointed with the Briess Munich. It makes a fantastic beer. In fact I did all my extract brews using the Briess range of malts, mainly the dry malts & the resulting beer is great

 

[pat86]

Recipe looks good

Only problem is the Munich. It can't be steeped, it must be mashed. If you want some Munich I would ditch the Light DME & mash 800gms Munich @ 66C for 1 hour instead. You can use your oven to keep the temp constant at the right temp & get conversion. It's very easy & will take your extract to the next level.
If you can't be bothered doing a mini-mash (plenty YouTube vids will show you how easy it is) I would use some Briess Munich LME. It's 50% Munich & 50% Light. It would be perfect for a Hop Thief type beer IMO. It comes in 1.5kgs so you could replace it for one of the 1.5kg Light additions

You can steep Munich and Vienna.

If you are going to, I would use more than 100g though if you want to add some flavour. I would aim for 500g and keep the crystal the same or you could use half the amount of dark munich which will have more malty flavour. Looks like a good brew for your first one - if things go right you've got a good chance of making a better beer than the hop thief!

Re. DME, you can skip it just be aware of how much bitterness you want. I think 40IBU would be fine though so go for it.

 

[GalBrew]

You can't steep Munich or Vienna. They are base malts and must be mashed.

 

[dwoody1014]

I've read conflicting posts regarding steeping munich, mostly point to mashing, or at a least mini-mash because they're a base. I actually did a batch at ubrewit a while back where they steeped munich, although it was only 150g in a 50L batch so probably didn't add much. In fact most of their brews are pretty bland hence the reason for doing my own.

 

[shacked]

I did a brewery tour at the MSB and the Brewers told me the HT7 is:

Ale
Light Crystal
Munich
Dark Crystal

Super Alpha to bitter
Simcoe and cascade in the whirlpool
Galaxy and Mosaic dry hop

Yeast is WLP002 (I asked them three times if this was correct)

I'd steep some light and dark crystal (100g to 150g of each), add some briess Munich extract and top up with pale extract to get you to your desired OG.

If you want to use Simcoe to bitter, maybe add it at 30 mins and then again at 5 and/or 0 mins with some Galaxy.

When I dry hop Galaxy I tend to add it just before cold crashing. I've never had it go 'grassy' but some others have reported that it has done so for them.

 

[stewy]

You can steep Munich and Vienna.

If you are going to, I would use more than 100g though if you want to add some flavour. I would aim for 500g and keep the crystal the same or you could use half the amount of dark munich which will have more malty flavour. Looks like a good brew for your first one - if things go right you've got a good chance of making a better beer than the hop thief!

Re. DME, you can skip it just be aware of how much bitterness you want. I think 40IBU would be fine though so go for it.

Nope, you can't. They are base malts requiring mashing to convert enzymes to sugars.

 

[dwoody1014]

Thanks for everyone's advice, much appreciated. Think I'll go the munich malt extract and add some simcoe at flame out.

 

[pat86]

Hmmm you might be right, I usually brew ag - and don't know what exactly you mean by 'steeping'. When I started and did extract my idea of steeping was 30-60 mins around 65C so just assumed most people steep between 60-70C which I guess you can call a 'mini mash' depending on what you have in there. I did a couple of brews which included munich before just adding more grain, paying more attention to temp and removing the extract.

According to Brewing Classic Styles, kilned malts like Munich and Vienna fall into the category of 'should be mashed but can be steeped'. This might be referring not to getting proper conversion but just extracting some malty / grainy flavours.

Either way, if you've got a bag and a pot, you'll probably be doing BIAB in one more brew anyway!

 

[Rocker1986]

The one thing that has always confused me with grains is the difference between mashing and steeping. If, the enzymes in the grain will convert the starches into fermentable sugars in water at a certain temperature (say 66C for arguments sake), then wouldn't steeping basically just be mashing anyway? I know temperature isn't really monitored when 'steeping' so there is this difference, but what if it was? What other differences are there? :unsure:

 

[stewy]

Only difference holding temp in mashing also water to grist ratio & PH can play a part. Less so with steeping a few hundred grams of specialty grains

 

[BradG]

Also when steeping crystal malts there is no conversion required as the creation of fermentable (and non fermentable) sugars has already been done by the kiln/malting process. You are just extracting the sugars, flavour and colour by steeping in water to supplement the extracts.
Therefore not so temperature critical

 

[adamh]

Be careful with Galaxy - too much and the beer will taste like onions and garlic. My latest beer I used sparingly and got a really nice balance - only used 10 grams at 15 mins and 10 grams dry hopped.

If you want to clone a James Squire beer you have to make sure the taste is only there the first two mouthfuls - i don't know where it goes after that....

 

[Rocker1986]

Also when steeping crystal malts there is no conversion required as the creation of fermentable (and non fermentable) sugars has already been done by the kiln/malting process. You are just extracting the sugars, flavour and colour by steeping in water to supplement the extracts.
Therefore not so temperature critical

Yeah, I understand all that, I suppose from doing a heap of AG brews myself, it just *seems* like a mash is just a bigger, temperature controlled steep. Obviously things like pH and such are more important as well but the basic process is the pretty much the same.

Either way, it all makes tasty beer in the end

 

[dwoody1014]

If anyone is interested I thought I'd post the results of this brew. I actually surprised myself at how good it tastes A great start to what may become a very time consuming hobby... just don't tell the wife!
Posted a pic below, turned out a bit darker than I intended but still tastes great. Quite passion-fruity like the JS hop thief. And this was on the day of kegging - I couldn't wait so I forced carb'd a bottle. Hopefully it's just going to get better.

Thanks for everyone's input, now onto the next brew.

 

[Coodgee]

looks really good mate! well done! love that head...