Beginner Recipe Advice Please!

[Leo1983]

My first post so hello all.

I am about to start all grain brewing, I got a second hand setup and hoping to use my day off tomorrow for my first brew.

I like Ringwoods Old Thumper, so checked this post:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8698

And got the recipe as follows:

Pale Ale 5.200 Kg
Torrified Wheat 0.350 Kg
Crystal Malt 0.250 Kg
Choc 0.035 Kg

Challenger 42g
East Kent Goldings 14g

WLP005 English Ale Yeast
1 Pack of Gervins English Ale yeast (Emergency Yeasties)

But I am totally new to brewing. I have been watching videos for weeks and reading up, so kind of know what I will need to do process wise, but I could do with some recipe advice please!

Basically, does anyone know if I could make something decent using the ingredients I have to hand? (I like 5%ABV and up, I like most styles but like a pale/hoppy beer)

Maris Otter (half sack)
Crystal 1KG
Dark Crystal 500G
Light Crystal 500G
Chocolate Malt 500G
Torrified Wheat 500G

Fuggles 200G
Challenger 100G
EKG 100G

I also have some Irish Moss


If not, I could attempt the Old Thumper above, but do the hops go in at the begging of the boil, and would that be for a 5 gallon batch?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Dads_Ale]

I could come up with loads of recipes with your ingredients but as a start I would stick with your Old Thumper recipe and see how you get on.
The Challenger go in at the start of the boil and the EKG 15 mins before the end.
Good luck

 

[McMullan]

I've spent 3 years trying to clone ringwood OT. Started with GW's recipe. It's ok, but it's nothing like OT. Keep your grains as they are, maybe add a little dark crystal too. It's mainly the yeast and hops you should focus on. Yeast is Ringwood Ale (Wyeast). White lab's WLP005, although a great yeast, is not a substitute or even similar. Make a 1.5L starter. Step up from 1L, if the pack isn't fresh. People often complain about this yeast, but they are underpitching by not making a good starter. Aerate the wort well. I usually shake the jesus out of the FV for the duration of 'Thunderstruck' (ACDC). Leave the FV 'open' (without an airlock) for a few days. Hops: add about 25% Progress to the bittering (early) hops (i.e. Challenger); late hops EKG and a tiny amount of Progress. If you want to carry on from where I am, throw all the bittering hops in after the sparge, i.e. first wort hop. It's lovely. I'll be brewing some for the Autumn.

As a guide:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5iTQf5PDyY[/ame]

 

[McMullan]

****, I was reading your quoted recipe. Use that one. Use that one! Or was the other your inventory?

 

[lukehgriffiths]

Loads that could be made with your grain... For simplicity stick to the basic recipe posted earlier (or tweak it a little if you wish bit less torrified wheat, bit more crystal) the masses of ideas McMullan posted sound like a dedicated attempt to replicate OT but quite complex for a beginner... depends how confident you feel. Stick to the recommended levels and you should do fine. The brewers friend program lets you enter recipes and select a style it will tell you if you are in the right zone for colour abv and bitterness for that style (I found it useful when starting out).

With hops it is usual to chuck a load in at the start of the boil or boil for 60 mins if doing a 90min boil (for bittering) challenger is one of the most widely used varieties for this.
Others are frequently (though not always) added later near the end last 15 mins or 10mins or 5 mins(for aroma and, since aroma influences taste, flavour) these add grassy, zesty, citrus notes depending on the hop.
Some also hop the mash, after the boil has cooled, the fv and even the barrel... but i'd stick to just start of boil and last 15 mins for the first one.

Hope that is helpful
Luke.

 

[Leo1983]

Thanks for the replies gents, so a problem that has become obvious to me just recently is I dont have the yeast for the OT recipe I posted above...

I have 2 yeasts
Safale s-04 (English Ale)
Safale s-05 (american)

I am thinking though just to get a brew going that will taste half decent, I will go with the recipe and use the s-04.

I do like a beer over 5% usually, so I may up the grain a little...

My plan is thus...
Mash for 1 hour at 66 degrees
Batch sparge at 75 degress for 20 minutes
Boil for 1.5 hours

Pellet hops in a hop sock...
Challenger at beginning
EKG 15 mins before the end... (Hope the EKG are ok as they are an unopened pack from 2012 harvest)

 

[Covrich]

Receipe looks okay to me :thumb:

But I have said this before but I will say it again...

I have decided not to try and do clones anymore, do not get me wrong or discouraged infact I am sure whenever you make a clone you give it to your mates your neighbour work colleagues to try and they will be amazed at how great it is, but to you, its just not quite old thumper.. I have found that reference of comparison something that disappointed me regardless of how good my actual result was. When you don't compare it to anything you just drink it and think "wow that's a great pint".

I say that I have made a beer and thought "bloody hell that tastes like ........"

 

[Leo1983]

Thanks and yes the end goal here is to create something that tastes at a minimum ok so that I am not chucking it away!

If I achieve that, I will be happy.

The clone recipe is just something I bookmarked earlier and one I seem to have ended up with the majority of the ingredients for after a trip to the brew shop yesterday. Also, its a 5.1 percent beer so the recipe should hopefully get me something similar in strength to what I like to drink.

 

[Leo1983]

OK so my first brew day was possibly not as good as it could have been...

I decided to do similar things to when I am cooking, and whack a few extra of this and that in, try things out, and hope for the best!

So I did
6kg Maris otter
500g torrified wheat
400 crystal malt

50 g challenger at start of boil
Probably nearly 50g ekg 15 mins from the end...

I also decided to mash for 90mins (while mashing) but then tried to rush putting stuff in the garage and ended up doing a 105 minute mash by which time the temp was down to the high 50's....

After batch sparge and 90 minute boil I checked the remaining liquid after cooling and the gravity and was at 1.60, with 4 gallons in the fermenter...

The hydrometer said 'potential abv 10%' so I though oh jesus. I've basically made special brew.

I boiled and cooled some more water (4 litres) and chucked that in after adding the yeast. I didn't check gravity again so god knows what I will end up with!!!!

I then went fishing and the missus said it was bubbling away last night in the shed...

Oh well I will secondary ferment in a week or so and leave it alone until then.

Lessons learnt! But hopefully it turns out at least slightly drinkable?.

 

[Leo1983]

Oh and there was a bit of chocolate malt in there too... probably 50g-70g worth

 

[MyQul]

Receipe looks okay to me :thumb:

But I have said this before but I will say it again...

I have decided not to try and do clones anymore, do not get me wrong or discouraged infact I am sure whenever you make a clone you give it to your mates your neighbour work colleagues to try and they will be amazed at how great it is, but to you, its just not quite old thumper.. I have found that reference of comparison something that disappointed me regardless of how good my actual result was. When you don't compare it to anything you just drink it and think "wow that's a great pint".

I say that I have made a beer and thought "bloody hell that tastes like ........"

You could always come at it from another angle make clones of beers you've never tasted the original of!! I do this quite often. Theres loads of clones on my BYOBRA book where I've never tasted the original but like the look of the receipe

 

[rodabod]

The recipe you linked to was to mash with 28 litres. Is that how much you mashed with?

Also, 1060 SG down to (say) 1012 FG would be around 6.3%.

 

[Leo1983]

Yes I think I mashed about 30 litres in total.

After boiling and getting the temp down I was left with 4 gallons in the fermenter...

The hydrometer made me think I was making something much stronger so I added some water.

Hopefully it turns out drinkable!!

 

[rodabod]

I reckon you'll be absolutely fine.

 

[Leo1983]

Cheers mate that makes me feel a little better!

 

[McMullan]

Receipe looks okay to me :thumb:

But I have said this before but I will say it again...

I have decided not to try and do clones anymore, do not get me wrong or discouraged infact I am sure whenever you make a clone you give it to your mates your neighbour work colleagues to try and they will be amazed at how great it is, but to you, its just not quite old thumper.. I have found that reference of comparison something that disappointed me regardless of how good my actual result was. When you don't compare it to anything you just drink it and think "wow that's a great pint".

I say that I have made a beer and thought "bloody hell that tastes like ........"

I agree. Many of my beers started from cloned recipes, but evolve into something else. They taste great, which is the main thing.

 

[Leo1983]

After a warmer fermentation than is probably advised (in the shed... in the day it may have occasionally hit highs of 27 or so and at night my heater should have made sure it went no lower than 20 to limit the change it temps too much) and much to the disgust of the missus, I took the FV into the house two days ago in preparation for the 30+ degree heat wave expected for a few days this week.


I checked the gravity on Sunday, and again over 48 hours later on Tuesday, but it was the same at 1020.

I was hoping it would get a bit lower than that, but it seems the S04 has done its job and no more sugars will be removed.

What shall I do now do you think? Leave it in the primary for a bit longer before bottling?

Also, if I had a initial gravity of 1060 at 4 Gallons, then added 1 Gallon of water to make it 5, im guessing it would have gone down to the range of 1050-1055... Which seems like the drop to 1020 is going to give an ABV of between 3.8-4.5. A bit lower than I was hoping for. Does that sound about right?


Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[MyQul]

After a warmer fermentation than is probably advised (in the shed... in the day it may have occasionally hit highs of 27 or so and at night my heater should have made sure it went no lower than 20 to limit the change it temps too much) and much to the disgust of the missus, I took the FV into the house two days ago in preparation for the 30+ degree heat wave expected for a few days this week.


I checked the gravity on Sunday, and again over 48 hours later on Tuesday, but it was the same at 1020.

I was hoping it would get a bit lower than that, but it seems the S04 has done its job and no more sugars will be removed.

What shall I do now do you think? Leave it in the primary for a bit longer before bottling?

Also, if I had a initial gravity of 1060 at 4 Gallons, then added 1 Gallon of water to make it 5, im guessing it would have gone down to the range of 1050-1055... Which seems like the drop to 1020 is going to give an ABV of between 3.8-4.5. A bit lower than I was hoping for. Does that sound about right?
Thanks for the help in advance!

Using some online calculators

http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

http://pint.com.au/calculators/alcohol/

Adding 1G to 4G of 1.060 gives you 1.048.

1.048 OG and 1.020 FG gives you 3.6% abv

That's only 58% attenuation for the yeast which is really low. I'm thinking your FV being out side is going to go through some big temp swings which can shock/stun the yeast out of suspention leading to a stuck fermentation. I'd give the sediment at a the bottom of the FV a gentle stir with a sanised spoon/ladle/whathaveyou to rouse the yeast and see if you can get it drop some more points

 

[Leo1983]

Thanks for the links and the info...

I will give it a stir tonight and check gravity again in a few days :thumb:

 

[Leo1983]

Well I'm going to bottle this soon, perhaps tonight.
I didn't notice the gravity go down after the stir I gave it, but perhaps it has gone down a bit more since I last checked.

Sadly I brewed again on Saturday, an IPA that i found in the recipes section from here, I was thinking it would go much smoother, and in fact it did... Shaved a good couple of hours off the process, got the full 5 gallons this time, but post boil gravity was at 1040.

After pitching yeast and a day or two of decent bubbling... No more bubbles. Checked the reading and it was at 1020 (same as first brew). Another couple of readings over the next two days and no change...
So this one is looking like its stuck below 3% ABV. Not good.

I gave it a stir this morning, hopefully it starts up again.

I used Mauribrew 514 for this as it apparently handles the heat a bit better, but there was less temperature swing this time around so not sure what is happening here!

If it doesn't start fermenting again i'm tempted to chuck it away as i'd rather not drink a 3%er! :-(