RecipeDB - DrSmurto's Golden Ale

[Dunkelbrau]

Well, I finally got around to doing the kit version of this bad boy, I'm going to do a couple of mini BIABs until I get back from a holiday in march next year and get a burner and a big ass pot.

ATM i just have the 19L big w pot to get me over the hump.

Did 3 additions of 20g at 15, 5 & 0.. Hopefully she's a happy camper.

 

[Juzdu]

So after 3 successful kit brews, I think it's time to move to a partial/extract brew. Again i've done a ton of reading....but I get the feeling i'm thinking about this too much, so I may just have to jump in and brew the extract version of this DSGA tomorrow. I haven't been able to find any solid info around what volume of water I should steep the 250gm of "MALT GRAIN CRYSTAL CRACKED (EBC 115-145)" into before starting my boil...some people saying 3 litres for every 1kg of grain (but that means i'd only need 750ml of water for my 250gm grain). Others saying the volume of water for steeping doesn't make much of a difference to the end result. So here's what i'm going to do....(my biggest pot at the moment holds a little over 7 litres, and i'm using my gas kitchen stove-top):

Target: 21 litres, OG 1.047, FG 1.014, ABV 4.8%. IBU 32, EBC 12.4

Ingredients:
250gm crystal cracked malt grain
1.5kg unhopped Coopers Wheat Malt extract
1.5kg unhopped Coopers Light Malt extract
50gm Amarillo hops
US-05 yeast

Method:
Boil 7 litres of water in my pot, then add it to the fermenter to cool.

Heat 4 litres of water to 65 degrees on full flame
Lower the flame so it keeps heating, but slowly
Add the 250gm cracked crystal malt grain in a hop/grain bag, start timer
When heat approaches 75, turn off the flame
Dunk/swirl the grain bag every now and then, make sure temp doesn't drop below 65
While steeping, re-hydrate the yeast
When timer reaches 30 minutes, remove grain bag and allow to drain

Add 1.5 litres of boiling water from kettle to make 5.5 litres total in pot
Bring the 5.5 litres to boil, once boiling switch off heat
Add both cans of malt extract, stir until completely dissolved
Return to the boil, stirring occasionally, being careful to avoid a boil-over
Continue boiling until I see the "hot break" (kinda hoping this is obvious given I haven't seen it before).
Once the hot break has occurred, add 20gm Amarillo, boil for 60 minutes
With 15 minutes left of the 60, add 15gm of Amarillo
With 5 minutes left, add the final 15gm Amarillo

Once the 60 minutes is up, drop the pot into an ice bath in my laundry sink, wait for it to drop to around 25 degrees.

Give the 7 litres of boiled water in my fermenter a good aeration
Pour the cooled wort from my pot (down to 5l or so?) through a stainless steel colander into the fermenter
Check the temperature of the 12 litres in the fermenter. Add hot/cold water from the tap to get it up to 21 litres at around 24 degrees.
Pitch the re-hydrated US-05 yeast

Any glaring omissions here? There's a couple of mysteries I'm hoping to learn the answers to, such as what a hot break looks like and when it happens, and is 5.5 litres of 'rolling boil' too much in a 7.5 litre pot.....also how the 5 odd litres of wort will strain through the colander. Certainly sounds like fun anyway....

 

[drsmurto]

So after 3 successful kit brews, I think it's time to move to a partial/extract brew. Again i've done a ton of reading....but I get the feeling i'm thinking about this too much, so I may just have to jump in and brew the extract version of this DSGA tomorrow. I haven't been able to find any solid info around what volume of water I should steep the 250gm of "MALT GRAIN CRYSTAL CRACKED (EBC 115-145)" into before starting my boil...some people saying 3 litres for every 1kg of grain (but that means i'd only need 750ml of water for my 250gm grain). Others saying the volume of water for steeping doesn't make much of a difference to the end result. So here's what i'm going to do....(my biggest pot at the moment holds a little over 7 litres, and i'm using my gas kitchen stove-top):

Target: 21 litres, OG 1.047, FG 1.014, ABV 4.8%. IBU 32, EBC 12.4

Ingredients:
250gm crystal cracked malt grain
1.5kg unhopped Coopers Wheat Malt extract
1.5kg unhopped Coopers Light Malt extract
50gm Amarillo hops
US-05 yeast

Method:
Boil 7 litres of water in my pot, then add it to the fermenter to cool.

Heat 4 litres of water to 65 degrees on full flame
Lower the flame so it keeps heating, but slowly
Add the 250gm cracked crystal malt grain in a hop/grain bag, start timer
When heat approaches 75, turn off the flame
Dunk/swirl the grain bag every now and then, make sure temp doesn't drop below 65
While steeping, re-hydrate the yeast
When timer reaches 30 minutes, remove grain bag and allow to drain

Add 1.5 litres of boiling water from kettle to make 5.5 litres total in pot
Bring the 5.5 litres to boil, once boiling switch off heat
Add both cans of malt extract, stir until completely dissolved
Return to the boil, stirring occasionally, being careful to avoid a boil-over
Continue boiling until I see the "hot break" (kinda hoping this is obvious given I haven't seen it before).
Once the hot break has occurred, add 20gm Amarillo, boil for 60 minutes
With 15 minutes left of the 60, add 15gm of Amarillo
With 5 minutes left, add the final 15gm Amarillo

Once the 60 minutes is up, drop the pot into an ice bath in my laundry sink, wait for it to drop to around 25 degrees.

Give the 7 litres of boiled water in my fermenter a good aeration
Pour the cooled wort from my pot (down to 5l or so?) through a stainless steel colander into the fermenter
Check the temperature of the 12 litres in the fermenter. Add hot/cold water from the tap to get it up to 21 litres at around 24 degrees.
Pitch the re-hydrated US-05 yeast

Any glaring omissions here? There's a couple of mysteries I'm hoping to learn the answers to, such as what a hot break looks like and when it happens, and is 5.5 litres of 'rolling boil' too much in a 7.5 litre pot.....also how the 5 odd litres of wort will strain through the colander. Certainly sounds like fun anyway....

Close.

You can use beersmith/brewmate etc to do the calculations for you to take into account the actual AA% of the amarillo you are using.

20g of amarillo as a bittering amount is a guesstimation but one that assumes a full volume boil. If you are doing less than a full volume boil you'll need to make adjustments for that. I don't having any brewing software in front of me so I can't do that right now. You need to tell it your total batch size as well as your boil volume since these aren't the same.

If you add all the fermentables to the boil you'll end up with a very high OG and your hop utilisation will be very low so you'll end up underbittering by a long way.

As a guide, aim to add enough fermentables to get the starting SG of the boil to ~1.040. As you are using already boiled malt in the form of extract you can boil with the lid on as DMS is not an issue. You can tell beersmith (and presumably other brewing software) when you are adding extract to the boil - before or after. This allows you to tell it exactly what the gravity is that you are boiling the hops in.

I'd be pitching the yeast at or below 20C, not 24C.

You shouldn't really see hot break when boiling extract as the boil and consequently, hot break will have already been formed and removed. You may get a small amount from the crystal malt.

5.5L boil in a 7L pot will keep you on your toes.

Have fun!

Cheers
DrSmurto

Steeping grains - volume you use to steep is not particularly important. I would use 1L for 250g for no reason in particular. I would also rinse with another 1L of water (a sparge of sorts).

 

[Juzdu]

20g of amarillo as a bittering amount is a guesstimation but one that assumes a full volume boil. If you are doing less than a full volume boil you'll need to make adjustments for that.

Ah ok, thanks, I hadn't realised that the gravity of the wort during boil made a difference to the IBU's added by the hops. I think you've helped me understand the "Hop Concentration Factor" on IanP's "Kit & Extract Beer Designer" spreadsheet...I had always wondered what the 'boil volume' and HCF were about.

It looks like if I put my boil volume in as 5 litres (after steeping my grain in a litre of water as you suggested), that I have to add roughly 500gm of LME to bring it up to a 1.040 gravity. Then I need to adjust the hop additions slightly to get to an IBU of 31. Here's the adjusted method, I think this addresses each of your concerns.

Method:

Boil 7 litres of water in my pot, then add it to the fermenter to cool.

Heat 1 litre of water to 65 degrees
Lower the flame so it keeps heating, but slowly
Add the 250gm cracked crystal malt grain in a grain bag, start timer
When heat approaches 75, turn off the flame
Dunk/swirl the grain bag every now and then, make sure temp doesn't drop below 65
While steeping, re-hydrate the yeast
When timer reaches 30 minutes, remove grain bag and allow to drain. Rinse grain back into pot with 1 litre of ~70 degree water

Add ~3 litres of boiling water from kettle to make 5 litres total in pot
Bring the 5 litres to boil, once boiling switch off heat
Add ~500gm LME, stir until completely dissolved
Return to the boil, stirring occasionally, being careful to avoid a boil-over
Once a 'rolling boil' is achieved, add 40gm Amarillo, boil for 60 minutes
With 10 minutes left of the 60, add 10gm of Amarillo

Once the 60 minutes is up, put the pot into an ice bath in my laundry sink, wait for it to drop to around 25 degrees.

Give the 7 litres of boiled water in my fermenter a good aeration
Add the rest of the LME (2.5kg) to the fermenter and mix it all in
Pour the cooled wort from my pot through a stainless steel colander into the fermenter
Check the temperature of the 12 litres in the fermenter. Add hot/cold water from the tap to get it up to 21 litres at around 20 degrees.
Pitch the re-hydrated US-05 yeast

-----------------

I'm curious on the remaining 2.5kg of LME, should I add that to the fermenter at the start, when i add the 7 litres of boiled water? Or should I add it at the same time as I add the boiled wort, at the end? I need the water hot enough for it to dissolve, so that's why i'm thinking to add it first....but then I have that mixture sitting in the fermenter for a couple of hours while steeping my grain then boiling the wort. Problem?

 

[Diesel80]

I'm curious on the remaining 2.5kg of LME, should I add that to the fermenter at the start, when i add the 7 litres of boiled water? Or should I add it at the same time as I add the boiled wort, at the end? I need the water hot enough for it to dissolve, so that's why i'm thinking to add it first....but then I have that mixture sitting in the fermenter for a couple of hours while steeping my grain then boiling the wort. Problem?

I see nothing wrong with this.
Don't suppose much will happen to 7L of near boiling wort in a couple of hours.
It might get a bit cooler, but I see no problems. It is like no chilling in a cube heaps of headspace.

Should remain hot enough to stay 'pasturised' for a few hours.

Cheers,
D80

 

[drsmurto]

Only 10g amarillo as a late addition in a 20L batch?

Do you have any other hops you could use for bittering to allow you to use the amarillo for flavour/aroma? If so, adjust and add 20g at 15 mins and 30g at flameout. I don't use amarillo as the bittering hop in a GA these days, particularly given how hard it is to source. Save it for flavour and aroma and use something high AA% like Magnum or your preferred bittering hop.

Dump all the remaining fermentables in the pot after flameout, stir. If it won't all fit then dissolve them in a separate pot and cool that down too.

Other than that I think you are on track. You can download beersmith for free for a trial period and brewmate i beleive is free although i have never used it. Both of these allow for full extract calculations. Beersmith definitely has the capability of taking into account boil volumes vs batch volume. Worth the investment IMO.

 

[Juzdu]

Only 10g amarillo as a late addition in a 20L batch?

Do you have any other hops you could use for bittering to allow you to use the amarillo for flavour/aroma? If so, adjust and add 20g at 15 mins and 30g at flameout. I don't use amarillo as the bittering hop in a GA these days, particularly given how hard it is to source. Save it for flavour and aroma and use something high AA% like Magnum or your preferred bittering hop.

Dump all the remaining fermentables in the pot after flameout, stir. If it won't all fit then dissolve them in a separate pot and cool that down too.

Other than that I think you are on track. You can download beersmith for free for a trial period and brewmate i beleive is free although i have never used it. Both of these allow for full extract calculations. Beersmith definitely has the capability of taking into account boil volumes vs batch volume. Worth the investment IMO.

This is my first ever brew with adding my own grain and hops, I only bought what I thought the recipe called for...I saw "add 15gm of Amarillo @ 15, 5 and dry hop". Looking at your recipe again I think I must have missed the bit where you said if doing it as full extract rather than kit, add 20gm of Amarillo as bittering hops @ 60 minutes. I only have a 50gm bag of Amarillo and 500gm bag of Crystal Malt 120. The grain is already cracked, so I think i'm supposed to use it pretty quickly. I've already had it sitting in my pantry for 2 weeks. Perhaps i'll nick out today and grab some more hops. I wonder if those un-refrigerated ones from Costante will be any good.

 

[mikeybycrikey]

What a great recipe, did the pilsener version, unfortunately couldn't find amarillo so used citra. Just had first glass from the keg and it's delightful (bit thin but that was my problem, FG=1.002 woooops) Cheers for sharing Dr Smurto

 

[Camo1234]

Ok so I threw this one down today as I was home whilst the aircon guys were installing my aircon... Got about 50 mins into the boil, 60min addition was in for 20mins and they needed to turn the electricity off! Well that stuffed me and by BIAB urn!
I have the urn off now as they will need to turn the elect off again for a while soon but not sure what to do with the rest of the boil.... I still have 40mins to go and the rest of my hop additions but not sure how the 60 min addition will react from here???
Do I just bring it to the boil again and go for the next 40 mins like nothing happened or should I make some adjustments to my 10 and 5 min additions?
Spewing as this is half of my last packet of Amirrillo and everyone seems to be out now!

 

[vortex]

Don't have a gas stove and some pots?

 

[Camo1234]

Don't have a gas stove and some pots?

Only got a 20ltr pot.... Get my 100 Ltr pot tomorrow though!

 

[stux]

Ok so I threw this one down today as I was home whilst the aircon guys were installing my aircon... Got about 50 mins into the boil, 60min addition was in for 20mins and they needed to turn the electricity off! Well that stuffed me and by BIAB urn!
I have the urn off now as they will need to turn the elect off again for a while soon but not sure what to do with the rest of the boil.... I still have 40mins to go and the rest of my hop additions but not sure how the 60 min addition will react from here???
Do I just bring it to the boil again and go for the next 40 mins like nothing happened or should I make some adjustments to my 10 and 5 min additions?
Spewing as this is half of my last packet of Amirrillo and everyone seems to be out now!

Restart your boil, treat your 60 min addition as a 90 minute addition for hop calculations

Personally, I'd just finish the boil and chalk it up as a learning experience... might be the best brew you ever made

 

[Camo1234]

Restart your boil, treat your 60 min addition as a 90 minute addition for hop calculations

Personally, I'd just finish the boil and chalk it up as a learning experience... might be the best brew you ever made

I like that idea!

 

[sp0rk]

I did my first AG yesterday, a biab of DSGA
i did a yeast starter, but not sure if it's good or not (it has a lot of trub in it)
should i risk the starter being funky, or pitch a single fresh pack of US05 on it?

I've also got 2 x 10g packs of West Coast Ale Yeast (guessing danstar BRY-97) that MHB sent me free, would i better off pitching both of these to make sure i have enough yeast cells?


also forgot to raise the temp for the mash out...


Stuff it, in goes the US 05

(the starter is going into a 5l bacon ESB experiment)

 

[vortex]

also forgot to raise the temp for the mash out...

Don't worry about it. The enzymes will have been denatured in the kettle anyway. Most people generally don't bother with mash out.

 

[adz1179]

hey guys

have a DSGA fermenting at the moment. ended up with 23lts of 1.040 instead of 20lts at around 1.045 and i mashed in at around 70 expecting the usual 3-4 degree drop i get with my system but it held at 68 degrees for the 60 min mash, i wasn't too worried about either of these points until now...

day 5 of fermentation and the fermenter looks like its full of a caramel milkshake. when i take a gravity sample im getting heaps of froth also. both of which i have not seen in my 10-15 AG brews. using the standard recipe BIAB.

again, im not overly worried as the smell and taste is great... but what would cause either of these issues? and is there anything i can / should do now. was maybe thinking of hitting it with some gelatin and CC for 1 week around 1 deg

 

[carniebrew]

hey guys

have a DSGA fermenting at the moment. ended up with 23lts of 1.040 instead of 20lts at around 1.045 and i mashed in at around 70 expecting the usual 3-4 degree drop i get with my system but it held at 68 degrees for the 60 min mash, i wasn't too worried about either of these points until now...

day 5 of fermentation and the fermenter looks like its full of a caramel milkshake. when i take a gravity sample im getting heaps of froth also. both of which i have not seen in my 10-15 AG brews. using the standard recipe BIAB.

again, im not overly worried as the smell and taste is great... but what would cause either of these issues? and is there anything i can / should do now. was maybe thinking of hitting it with some gelatin and CC for 1 week around 1 deg

Did you use US-05 yeast? How did you pitch it?

 

[adz1179]

Did you use US-05 yeast? How did you pitch it?

Yes. Us-05. Rehydrated for 30mins in cooled (room temp) boiled water.

Poured the wort into the fermenter getting as much oxygen as possible, added the yeast halfway through.

 

[waggastew]

I recently brewed a low gravity ale using US05 that looked much the same at that roughly that time. Mine cleared a few days after reaching terminal gravity. I think it was just lots of happy yeast busily doing there thing.

 

[carniebrew]

Yes. Us-05. Rehydrated for 30mins in cooled (room temp) boiled water.

Poured the wort into the fermenter getting as much oxygen as possible, added the yeast halfway through.

Are you planning to rack it to a secondary? Perhaps it'll need to spend an extended time in the secondary clearing up.