First extract, recipe inc and some q's

[ajm]

Hey Guys about to put my first ever brew down over the long weekend, just thought I’d ask a few questions. Firstly I’m jumping straight into steeping specialty malts and using unhopped extract. I’ve read a fair bit on here as well as bits from John Palmers book and it doesn’t seem too complicated.


My Ingredients so far.

1.5 kg Light LME
1.5 kg Amber LME
0.15kg Weyermann Caramunich I
0.10kg Biscuit Malt
100gm Citra Hops


1) I’ve put these ingredients into the excel spreadsheet found here and the ABV is a little low at 4.3% I was wondering if adding some dex to bump it up is a good idea and how much? 0.35kg seems to make it 5% ABV which I’d be happy with. The calculator also shows that DME can bump it but that’s a bit more expensive and don’t want to spend too much for first brew.

2) Not 100% sure on hop schedule. Was thinking

15gm @ 60 mins
17gm @ 30 mins
20gm @ 0 mins
20 Dry hop

This is pure guess, looks like around 39 IBU which seems alright, although I’ll probably only able to boil 5L or maybe 10L if I can find the big W pot.


How does this all look? pumped for the weekend

 

[captnhaddock]

My Ingredients so far.
1.5 kg Light LME
1.5 kg Amber LME
0.15kg Weyermann Caramunich I
0.10kg Biscuit Malt
100gm Citra Hops

1) I’ve put these ingredients into the excel spreadsheet found here and the ABV is a little low at 4.3% I was wondering if adding some dex to bump it up is a good idea and how much? 0.35kg seems to make it 5% ABV which I’d be happy with. The calculator also shows that DME can bump it but that’s a bit more expensive and don’t want to spend too much for first brew.

2) Not 100% sure on hop schedule. Was thinking
15gm @ 60 mins
17gm @ 30 mins
20gm @ 0 mins
20 Dry hop

This is pure guess, looks like around 39 IBU which seems alright,

My first comment / question, what volume are you looking to produce? 20L, or ?

I'm asking as based on your inputs (and my guess of volume of the aforementioned 20L) you're looking at about 4.7% abv (by my preferred calculator). I'm assuming you're saying dextrose? Yah corn sugar should ferment right out w/o any practical impact to taste / viscosity / aromatics.

with regards to your hop schedule I'm seeing an estimated IBU of 46.94, so slighly on the low end, but should be nice hop expression (aromatics) vs. bitterness per se.

My second question would be, why light and amber LME? Why not just go for 3 Kg of Amber LME? the SRM (choose your version of calculating it) seems to be within IPA style guidelines (6 - 14) at somewhere between 9.5 to 11.72. (I should have prefaced this by saying that I'm not suggesting you change, just asking, what you've proposed is just fine)

My third question, what yeast are you planning on?

Anyway, sounds like you've got a good plan over all, have fun!

 

[ajm]

Hey thanks for the reply. I was planing on a 23 L ferment with Nottingham ale yeast. Im using the spreadsheet on here by Ianh for my cals and the hops are 12.9%. not sure why I'm getting different calcs maybe coz the ferment size.
I was actually gonna get 3kg light LME but the lhbs recommend an amber so I went with that.
Didn't even know what SRM was before your post, so much to learn.

 

[captnhaddock]

re: calculators will all have variance between them (based on assumptions that the developer brings to the tool) so don't be too surprised that we're seeing different #'s. And yes, since I was assuming a lower water volume, it will necessarily show a higher abv (dilution : more water less alcohol / less water more alcohol) than your calculations.

Also, don't get too wrapped up in the things to learn. Just get a few brews under your belt before diving into the technical stuff. After all, Beer / Wine / Distillate are all as much art as science.