Advice on a recipe please...

[peteplus1]

Did my first AG brew a few weeks ago which is sat conditioning now and I'm sat with fingers crossed. Was a simple pale with Challenger and Amarillo hops, 4 kg maris otter.

I'm keen to get another brew on the go before the end of the month. I have enough (about 50g) of Amarillo left over for another brew, I just wondered if any experienced fellow brewers might point me in the right direction of a recipe and method to achieve a batch of 19ltrs or more..? Think the last one may have turned out on the high bitterness side (which I like), but I'd be keen to do one not quite so bitter perhaps to pass around...

Thank you

 

[clibit]

What ingredients do you have apart from Amarillo?

 

[peteplus1]

What ingredients do you have apart from Amarillo?

None apart from the Amarillo. Buying Friday...

 

[TartanSpecial]

You could do a less bitter simple pale ale eg 3.5kg Marris otter or other pale malt, 0.5kg wheat malt , 0.25kg crystal 40l (80EBC), then do 25gram amarillo a tfirst wort or 60minutes, 15grm amarillo at 5 minute and 10 gram amarillo at flame out. IBUs would be in low 30's and abv around 5%. Personally I'd buy a clean bittering hop like magnum to use for bittering at 60minutes and use the more expensive amarillo at 10min 5min and 0min split equally. maybe even hold a little back for dry hopping. With 20gram magnum plus the 50gram amarillo you should get something in the high 30's which shoudl be nice , but 'accessible'

 

[TartanSpecial]

see what clibit suggests..he is the Dark Lord of recipes...:evil:

 

[clibit]

You're doing alright there Tartan! Sounds good. I'd use all the Amarillo late, increase the late hops, and maybe pair it with another hop to vary it from the first brew. Simcoe, Citra, Cascade, Centennial. Bitter with one of those and chuck some in late with the Amarillo.

 

[rodabod]

I always think that people should suggest existing examples of beer which they like, as it makes it easier to suggest something else to try making.

 

[peteplus1]

Appreciate the feedback. I've decided not to bother to find a recipe that can include Amarillo as such for my next brew. Got all the ingredients to do a stout instead, which is pretty much a Guinness recipe I believe. Chatted with my supplier about it and he suggested the Amarillo could be used at the end of this,perhaps after flame out... give it a bit of a twist instead of a straight forward stout. Anyone think this might work out ok, and if so how many g's to use?

Also, is there a thread on here about scaling back recipes at all? This recipe is for 23 ltrs but I'm thinking of not doing so much for my first few brews until I'm happy with my set up/volumes/readings etc. (The ingredients came as a pre-weighed out bag and suggests it is for 23 ltrs).

Thanks :)

 

[clibit]

Yes you could add the Amarillo. See what it does.

To scale recipes back, divide the weight of the ingredients by 23 and multiply by the number of litres you want to make. Mix the grains well if they are all in one bag.

If you have 4kg of grain, then 4000 / 23 = 174

if you want to make 8 litres, then 174 x 8 = 1392g

if the bittering hops are 30g, then 30 / 23 = 1.3g and 1.3 x 8 = 10.4g


Hope that helps.

 

[peteplus1]

Yes you could add the Amarillo. See what it does.

To scale recipes back, divide the weight of the ingredients by 23 and multiply by the number of litres you want to make. Mix the grains well if they are all in one bag.

If you have 4kg of grain, then 4000 / 23 = 174

if you want to make 8 litres, then 174 x 8 = 1392g

if the bittering hops are 30g, then 30 / 23 = 1.3g and 1.3 x 8 = 10.4g


Hope that helps.

It really does, thank you!

What would happen if I aimed for example for half the volume with the current ratio of ingredients? Would it be far too strong and bitter?

 

[clibit]

I wouldn't make half the volume with all the ingredients. But if you want a stronger beer you could add 10-20% more grain, perhaps. So, for 8 litres as above, round off 1392g to 1400g, and 10% of that is 140g, 20% is 280g. So use 1540g to 1680g. You could add 10-20% more hops too to balance the hops against the grain. Though 10% of 10g is 1g! 20% = 2g.

If you want to make a half batch why not just halve everything? You could then experiment later with the rest of the ingredients by adding ingredients, and maybe making a bit less to increase the strength.

 

[peteplus1]

That makes sense. Although all these pre weighed ingredients are in one bag, mixed up. I might not get the necessary ratios by halving eh? Probably stick to the 23 ltrs for this one and do less from next brew onwards.

 

[clibit]

If youmix the grain up well it will be even enough to split it.

 

[peteplus1]

Would doing a slightly less amount work? Say a final volume of 19ltrs? Entered that into my app with original ingredients figures and it all seems to come out right with a bit of a higher abv. Or should you best not mess?!

 

[clibit]

Yes you could do that.

 

[peteplus1]

Rather than create a new post i thought I'd just put this query on here to you knowledgeable chaps..

Fermentation seems to be done pretty quick again on my second brew (a stout). I know things can still be happening without bubbles from the trap, but action seems to have stopped after a week like last time. My question is, if I leave it in the fermenting bucket for 2 weeks like the last one, can I now (after 1 week) leave it at room temp? Had a heating belt on to keep at a steady 20°, is it ok to turn that off?

 

[TartanSpecial]

what is your room temperature? Assuming room temp is above 15 or 16c I'd just leave it with the heating belt off..23ltrs will take a few days to cool. When it comes to bottling (if you are bottling) you'll need to keep the primed bottles in the warm (eg 20C) for a couple of weeks before taking to a cooler place to condition.

 

[peteplus1]

Yeah, did that with the bottles last time. Will leave the belt off then I think until the weekend when I'll be bottling.Thanks TS