First post! Recipe advice.

[Hoser]

Hello,

This is my first post. I am a fairly new all grain brewer with 9 batches under my belt. I was wondering what you think of the below recipe I plan to brew this weekend. Also, what would you class the beer style as?

20l patch, 60 min boil.

Grain
Maris Otter- 4kg
crystal- 400g
Carapils- 200g

Hops
Magnum- 20g, start of boil
Chinook- 50g, 55 mins
Citra- 50g, 55 mins
Nelson Sauvin- 30g, 55 mins

Yeast
Wyeast American Ale 1056

Priming surgery
Dextrose, 100g

Thanks all!

 

[clibit]

The recipe looks fine to me, it's an American Pale ale or American IPA, depending on IBUs and ABV. Probably the latter, looks a bit like Punk IPA.

 

[Niman]

Mmmm just checking beersmith with its presets which are way off....my last lot of chinook 2013 harvest where 17.2%a beersmith says 13....
so an american ipa its under in og and abv ...high end of bitterness 63.2 ibu fine on colour (though who cares)

 

[Hoser]

Thanks guys. Maybe it is time for me to get to know beer smith. Sounds like it's a handy tool.

 

[philld]

That looks a lot of flavoursome hops at 55 mins ( I assume that is 5 mins before end).
NS & Citra can both be very 'In your face' you should get a lot of lovely perfume and a sharp fruity/floral taste. I would probably ease back a bit & save some for dry hopping after it's been in the FV for 1 week.

 

[Hoser]

Thanks Philld. Went ahead with the recipe as it was and it has been happily bubbling away in my newly build fermentation chamber, which I made out of an old fridge this weekend. I will let you know how it turns out. Tempted to dry hop with a spare 25g of centennial & 25g of citra but worried that may be overkill!

 

[Hoser]

As a sub question. The beer smith app said the OG should have been 0.055. I only managed 0.045. Any idea why this may have happened?

 

[clibit]

Your efficiency was less than the efficiency used by BeerSmith. Your mash and sparge didn't extract the amount of fermentables sugar predicted by the software.

 

[Hoser]

Is beer smith usually pretty accurate? It seems like a missed by a long way. Cleary I need to tune my process up.

 

[clibit]

How did you mash and sparge?

Beersmith is probably set to 75% efficiency. You probably got about 60%. Which isn't terrible. You can adjust beersmith, and just use more grain. Or improve your efficiency. I usually get 70-75%. I don't worry too much about it. Higher efficiency takes time, I go for short mash 45 to 60 mins and a quick sparge.

 

[Hoser]

I mash at 66-68C for one hour. Then sparge with 78C water for about 30 mins. I then run off into my boil kettle, before sparging again with another 10 litres of 78C water for about 15-20 mins. Does that sound okay? I am not overly fussed about missing the OG but would be great to know why.

 

[clibit]

Yes, does sound fine to me. So without being there, I can't really work out what has happened. The grain crush can be a factor. And presumably you measured OG at around 20C? And achieved the target volume, approximately?

 

[Hoser]

Yes. I measured the OG at 20C. I have read that the crush can affect the efficiency. I am not sure If I can be bothered to invest in a mill and start crushing myself the commercial brewery local to me doesn't even mill themselves. Do you think a mill is a worth while investment?

 

[clibit]

I got a basic Corona mill online for £25 inc delivery. Milling 4 or 5 kg is a bit of a chore but I do small batches so only do about 2kg. It means the grain is freshly milled. I sometimes get pre milled though. It's by no means essential. And I don't think the crush explains all of your efficiency problem. Just see what happens next time, and alter the efficiency to 65% in beersmith. Which probably won't be far away.