House brew help

[roverfj1200]

On to my 14th BIAB with the urn now and have been trying to nail a house brew, you know the one that you can roll out in ya sleep and always tastes the same. I don't have the area to condition beers for to long and most batches are in the fridge within the 2 to 3 week mark.So....

Base I have been using is

23 litres
4.25kg bb ale
0.25kg bb caramalt.
Mash around 65c
90min mash
60min boil.

Can no chill or dump in pool and cool to pitch in about four hours.

No.1 20g POR @ 60 and 15g Cluster @ 15.

Not a bad beer but I would like a little more aroma.

No.2 20g Centennial @ 60.

Good beer not to bitter but has a bit of harshness to it. Maybe a little flavour and aroma needed too.


Have been reading about FWH would this help?

Longer boil?

Add late addition to cube?

Any way interested to hear any ideas.


Cheers

 

[Yob]

Have you tried other hops for bittering?

POR I dont enjoy much any more (pellet bittering) Flowers late are a different story..

10g Magnum at 40-60 is my go to bittering hop, or Simcoe recipe dependent.. I will usually have 2 or 3 late additions also, in the order of 10, 5 and WP.

TBH Rover, you probably need a few more late additions to beef up the flavour/aroma, getting a target IBU is one thing but having all 3 play together is where it's a brilliant game.

 

[manticle]

1. Add more aroma hops.

2. Use a different bittering hop and add some flavour and aroma hops. If I were going to sub centennial, I'd use all cascade. get half the IBU from a 60 minute addition then the rest from additions after 20 . I find small frequent additions every 5 minutes works well with a small dry hop post fermentation.

Depending on your water and mash pH, a touch of gypsum in the mash and/or boil will lift the hop profile as well.

 

[lukiferj]

Need more (some) late editions. Easy formula is around half IBUs at 60 mins and half after around 10 mins.

This is the basic recipe for my house APA mid. Ends up around 3.5-3.7%. I change the hops around a fair bit but nice easy drinking beer that still has quite a bit of flavour. And doesn't knock you on your arse too quickly.

Grain Bill
----------------
3.415 kg Pale Ale Malt (98%)
0.070 kg Caramunich I (2%)

Hop Bill
----------------
5.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 g/L)
5.0 g Columbus Pellet (14.2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 g/L)
10.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.7% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
10.0 g Columbus Pellet (14.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
0.5 g Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with Safale US-05

edit: beaten by manticle on the hop timings.

 

[manticle]

Yeast choice will make a difference too.

 

[roverfj1200]

Would cube hopping work like a Hopback?

Would FWH smooth out the single Centennial smooth it out?

Cheers

 

[lukiferj]

I would try some flavour and aroma additions before playing around with FWH and cube hopping. Keep is simple.

Are you bottling or kegging? I find keg hopping adds a heap of aroma and flavour and takes away some of the bitterness.

What yeast are you using?

 

[roverfj1200]

I am looking for a simple house brew so I can play with other things but have old faithful to fall back on.

I have a Galaxy hopped I like now and then and so does the wife.

Reason for house brew is Bulk buy cheep. High AA% cheep. re use yeast cheep.

Mostly use us-05, S-23 and Coopers bottle have been wondering about other yeast.

What about some rice to smooth them out clean them up?

cheers

 

[lukiferj]

Yeah I get that. My house brew costs around $10 to fill a keg. Bulk grain, bulk hops and reusing yeast. I BIAB/No chill (or slow chill in the pool). I generally have an APA, IPA and dark mild on tap at the moment and then another keg with different things I am trying. Pretty happy with how they are turning out these days.

Not used rice as an adjunct but still think you could look at your hopping schedule.

 

[Yob]

Going for the cheapest option isnt always the best option... For the sake of about $2 (less probably) try cube hopping and chilling, failing that go for a few late hop additions as advised,

 

[Bribie G]

Da sugaz is a good option as well, even just 300g can lighten the body for a "cleaner" taste and would be well in character as you are using POR. Nothing wrong with POR as a bitterer IMHO, it's used in the likes of Cascade Premium - currently doing one for a comp finished with some Hersbrucker as per Cascade.

However I agree the flowers are definitely the go, no reason to use pellets as the flowers are always available from CraftBrewer.

Edit: for a lager style which can be fermented at your garage ambient over winter, S-189 is a good yeast.

 

[Donske]

I'm really not a fan of Centennial as a bittering hop unless you're going into IIPA numbers and have some backbone to distract from the harshness I get from it.

I think the key to a great house beer is simplicity, 1 or 2 malts, 1 or 2 hops and a versatile yeast with a wide temp tollerance, just makes getting consistant brews out so simple.

My current house beer is a stupidly simple APA, going to do a double batch next week to get my kegs filled back up actually.

Recipe;

20L

4kg BB Pale Ale
0.5kg Medium Crystal

Simcoe to 30 IBUs
20g each of Simcoe and Cascade at 15
20g Cascade at flameout
20g Simcoe dry hop

US-05


Kegs of this last 3-5 days in my house, last one had some harsh bitterness going on but after the first mouthful you didn't notice it.

There are probably cheaper house brews around, especially as I can't be bothered reusing US-05 but it's bloody tasty.

 

[Yob]

Must be said to that a house beer is rather subjective to whose house it is.. what Im happy with as a standard may well be over the top to others and not enough for some..

A house beer really evolves with your tastes... FFS I used to drink Coopers Green by the shed full and love it and now I find it to be bland and without character or complexity.. so.. (still, it's better than many others that have a market superiority in Aus.)

with all thats been said above Rover, what you probably need to do is experiment with a few of the options as noted above, one thing at a time, it may be that you add a cube addition and all your problems are solved.. it may be that you need an extra late addition and a cube addition and you fall in love with it... it may be that you need to change the bittering hop or FWH.. all I can really say is experimentation is (one of) the joys of home brewing.. and you are brewing for your home and not mine, so what works for me may not be your cup of char..

2 ha' pence

 

[roverfj1200]

Truth is I kinda know what I am going to do. But its good to throw it out and see what others think. The wife looks blankly at me if I mention FWH or dry hopping. "What do you think of BB ale and some crystal" I say "F#$ked if I know" she replies.

Anyways thanks for the input. I will fiddle with them.

I have a all Hallertauer Mittelfrüh in the cube right now. just waiting for a coopers clone and galaxy to finish.

Cheers

 

[kenlock]

Let's try this in reverse. What do you want your house beer to taste like? Do you have a commercial, craft or otherwise, which you like and would happily drink on a regular basis? Otherwise, we are just throwing darts and hoping to hit a winner.

:icon_cheers:

 

[roverfj1200]

Kenlock. Happy to drink most beers. Not a fan of stouts and dark beers but can still drink them.

I like a good pub beer. That is why the 2 list recipes are in the Aussie lager style.

So a Pale ale. Oz lager type of thing.

I'm not after a recipe. I was looking for ways to improve on what I have found I like. Kind of sand off the rough bits.

 

[kenlock]

Fair enough.

So, FWH with Centennial or try a staple such as Magnum or Warrior for bittering. Boil for 75 - 90 minutes, can't put my hands on the science, but 15 minutes of boiling before hop addition has a positive effect on the hop utilisation, characteristics,etc . Thus, may help overcome your harshness issue.

Aroma can be improved with flameout (0 mins) additions or dry hopping. I'd suggest leaning more towards flameout additions given the combination of cost and quick turnover (though this is marginal, and no doubt dependant on hops, exact timing, etc).

Flavour wise there are plenty of options, one of which you have identified in Galaxy.

I hope this helps.

Cheers Ken

Edit: in red