First Recipe Attempt

[Moad]

After brewing other peoples recipes and finding a few favourites for a year and a half I'm ready to start working on a recipe of my own.

I don't pay too much attention to different malts but have a bit of an understanding of the hop characteristics. Please don't take the piss, I am not asking to tear this one apart but just tell me if I am going to waste 5 hours and $40. If this looks a reasonable starting point then I am happy to work on it from there.

I am pretty much over the big hoppy APA's and IPA's and am after something with a bit more of a malty profile, I like a caramely sweet malt so am looking for biscuity caramel with enough hops to give it some complexity and balance out the malt. Something relatively simple to tweak moving forward.

I'm planning to mash at 68 to get it sweet, can afford to sacrifice some FG.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.88 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.88 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 18.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 15.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 33.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.10 kg               Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        69.7 %        
0.80 kg               Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC)     Grain         2        17.9 %        
0.55 kg               Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC)          Grain         3        12.4 %        
26.25 g               Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min      Hop           4        23.7 IBUs     
26.25 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           5        8.6 IBUs      
8.75 g                Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min       Hop           6        1.2 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         7        -             


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.45 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash              Add 20.00 l of water and heat to 68.0 C 68.0 C        60 min        
Mash Out          Heat to 78.0 C over 10 min              78.0 C        10 min

 

[Blind Dog]

personally I would dial back on both the Munich and crystal. I did a faux lager with a similar grain bill but Pils malt not MO and IBU over 40 and it was still cloying sweet and eventually dumped. Maybe start at 80/10/10 or 80/15/5 with a darker crystal as the 5% to add the dried fruit / burnt toast complexity, or 80 MO/10 Munich/5 light crystal/5 dark crystal to add another layer. YMMV

Maybe use an english yeast as well,a lot finish dry but with fruity esters that accentuate the malty flavours you are after (the Bedford bitter white labs strain is lovely and should be on limited release now; otherwise the supposed brakspear year round strain is my personal favourite (WLP023/wyeast 1275)

Hops look good and I reckon those 3 hops complement each other and the malty profile you want nicely

If you are after malt complexity without the sweetness from crystal/caramalt maybe try 80/20 or70/30 MO to Munich and no crystal

 

[Pilchard]

Um, listen to the blokes that have done it. I too am kits brewer forging my own path. 20 brews and I still use the novice explanations to get bye, it's not that I need to but it helps AG is a lot diff and I am finding it hard to get a good one, when I do it is repeatable.
Take from this what you will and. Rew anyway.

 

[Eagleburger]

I agree with blind dog. I put 500g of crystal into an ale and it was disgusting. I put 1.5L of it into my next brew that had none and was a bit bitter and it was perfect. I now use brewmate and dont go outside the guidelines. I have 50g crystal in my current fermenting brew.

 

[Moad]

Thanks blind dog, will dial back the caramalt. I only had Munich light as I have a bag of it to use. Will sub half the caramalt for something a bit darker.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I agree with Blind Dog with his comments and try a Pale/munich/Crystal at portions of 80/10/10 or a more prefered balance is 80/15/5.

But if you are going to use 12.5% crystal then dont mash higher, you already get alot of unfermentables from the crystal malt, so mash lower at 65/66 for 60mins. I recently made a AAA with 18% and mashed low and it still is very sweet and cloyey ( for the record my intention was 12% and we weighed out 18%, woops ) even with a bunch of hops the malt is thick and too much, my next recipe of that style will be half that %

Again the yeast could be better, such as an english strain as mentioned or if you can get it Dennys Fav from Wyeast, its known for accentuating the malt and mouthfeel.

 

[Moad]

Awesome thanks fellas, will revise that crystal/caramalt and use a different yeast. I haven't ventured away from us-05 much except when doing styles like saison, hefe and darker beers.

I've added cararoma to darken it up a little, not that I'm aiming for a style but it is right in the middle of ESB territory now (figures wise).

Mash @ 66

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 26.92 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.92 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 19.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 21.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.30 kg               Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        71.0 %        
0.85 kg               Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC)     Grain         2        18.3 %        
0.30 kg               Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC)          Grain         3        6.5 %         
0.20 kg               Caraaroma (256.1 EBC)                    Grain         4        4.3 %         
28.00 g               Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min      Hop           5        24.2 IBUs     
28.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           6        8.8 IBUs      
10.00 g               Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min       Hop           7        1.3 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [1 Yeast         8        -

 

[Dan Pratt]

You should check the EBC rating for that Caraaroma, it looks like the default data from the BS software.

The caraaroma from weyermann is ~ 400ebc.

Check out this pdf.


View attachment Weyermann_Product_Information_GB_03_2014.pdf

 

[Blind Dog]

Personally I would be tempted to drop the JW caramalt and increase the MO by 250g and the caraaroma by 50g to replace it., and still mash at 68. That should bring you closer to the 80/15/5 ratio and should get you a beer nicely balanced towards malt with good body and mouthfeel..

I know you're not going for a style, but even the malty end of the bitter/best/ESB spectrum rarely use more than 5% crystal if the published recipes / records / fourm discussions are anything to go by

 

[Moad]

That pdf is awesome, it was the defaults so I've updated it. Went to confirm the other malts but can't find specs on the cargill website for JW malts but I think they are about right.

Thanks again for the help

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 26.92 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.92 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 19.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 29.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 33.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.90 kg               Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        78.0 %        
0.80 kg               Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC)     Grain         2        16.0 %        
0.30 kg               Caraaroma (400.0 EBC)                    Grain         3        6.0 %         
28.00 g               Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min      Hop           4        23.5 IBUs     
28.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           5        8.5 IBUs      
10.00 g               Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min       Hop           6        1.2 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [1 Yeast         7        -             


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 5.00 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash              Add 22.50 l of water and heat to 68.0 C 68.0 C        60 min        
Mash Out          Heat to 78.0 C over 10 min              78.0 C        10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 9.43 l water at 75.6 C

 

[moodgett]

This is a great recipe I have made this a couple of times and it is fantastic, obviously extract but would be easy enough to convert to ag http://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/
Also is quite forgiving if you want to add in other hops in the last 2 additions I also throw in about 100g of carapils. From memory there is about 14% of crystal in the grain bill.

 

[Moad]

Well the recipe I made in my last post is drinking well, maybe a little too malty but certainly not as sweet as I expected. It is more of a biscuity malt then sweet which could be the MO?

Think I might sub some of the MO for a bit of crystal, it could do with a bit more late hops but I think I'll play with the malts first.

 

[Blind Dog]

Glad to hear it's drinking well. The biscuity flavour is likely to be the MO, buts it's usually a fairly dry taste if that makes sense. The Munich is likely to be contributing the maltiness.

Now you have a base recipe, make sure you take really good notes and then try to tweak it to get it where you want it. Try to resist the urge to change too much at once - ideally just change one thing at once. You still know you should end up with a beer you like and you should dial in on the perfect pint reasonably quickly, or just keep playing.

Was this the last brew on the BM before you switched to the more beer system?

 

[Moad]

Thanks BD, yeah it was the last brew on the BM. I'll change the malt profile first to see what impact it has.

It is a shame I can't keep the BM to do small batch experiments like this but I think I'll be able to do BIAB for 20L batches on the More Beer Rig.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hi Moad,

You can do anything you like........like keeping the BM!!

Can we get a picture of the beer, Id like to see what colour you got from 6% Caraaroma?

 

[Moad]

I'd love to mate but I "need" a bigger fermenting fridge and oh yeah I have to pay the guy for the 3v rig!

Guess I'll just have to have one tonight to take a pic...bugger!

 

[Moad]

Crap photo but you get the idea,pretty dark

http://i464.photobucket.com/albums/rr7/moadymoad/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140901_182627.jpg