critique my american pale ale - house brew - recipie

tranceamerica · 01-25-2008, 04:38 PM

Ok, I'm working towards my first partial mash brew - and want to make a 'house brew' american pale ale.

Idea is for a very drinkable, middle range alcohol recipie, that I can share with friends, and enjoy myself on a regular basis.

**********recipie***************

4 pounds light two row - partial mash
3 pounds light DME
1.5 oz cascade hops 60 minutes
.5 oz cascade hops 15 min
windsor ale yeast (this is what I have collected from my previous all extract batch)

I would mash the 4 pounds two row for 60 min, in 5 quarts of water, then sparge with an additional 1.5 gallons. add this to boil water to total 3.5 gallons. Add in DME as soon as boil starts again. do hops as described above, add to cold water in carboy & pitch as soon as possible.

I think this gives me 32 IBU.

comments?

**Mutilated1** · 01-25-2008, 04:40 PM

That sounds pretty good. I would drink that.

tranceamerica · 01-25-2008, 04:54 PM

sorry, forgot to post my questions:

1) what alcohol content should I expect? shooting for about 4-6% 5 would be ideal

2) I've never done a partial mash before, only extract brews. I usually use 6-8 pounds of LME, and get excellent results. Would the 4 pounds of grain equal about 3 pounds of extract? That's sort of my goal.

**Mutilated1** · 01-25-2008, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tranceamerica

sorry, forgot to post my questions:

1) what alcohol content should I expect? shooting for about 4-6% 5 would be ideal

ProMash puts you at about 1.049 to start with, if you finish at 1.010 that would be a bit over 5%.

Quote:

2) I've never done a partial mash before, only extract brews. I usually use 6-8 pounds of LME, and get excellent results. Would the 4 pounds of grain equal about 3 pounds of extract? That's sort of my goal.

It doesn't exactly equal it, but yeah thats pretty close. Depending on your efficiency it could be more or less.

Beerthoven · 01-25-2008, 05:30 PM

That looks like an OK recipe to me, but I'd do a little something different.

First, I'd add some Crystal malt to the mash...maybe half a pound of Crystal 20. That would add some light caramel/honey flavor that I enjoy. It would also add a touch of color.

Second, I'd switch up the hopping schedule to give more flavor and aroma, maybe something like this (I'm assuming you have 2 ounces of Cascade to work with):

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Third, I'd use a different yeast, maybe Nottingham or SafAle US-05. Windsor doesn't attenuate very highly and I'd want something that isn't going to leave much residual sweetness.

Soulive · 01-25-2008, 05:33 PM

What temp are you planning to mash at?

tranceamerica · 01-25-2008, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mutilated1

ProMash puts you at about 1.049 to start with, if you finish at 1.010 that would be a bit over 5%.

It doesn't exactly equal it, but yeah thats pretty close. Depending on your efficiency it could be more or less.

Sorry for the stupid noob questions but:

1) how do I calculate what gravity I would end at? I'd assume it's a function of the amount of fermentables I put in, and the type of yeast.

2) how do I calculate how much efficiency I'd get out of the mash?

tranceamerica · 01-25-2008, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soulive

What temp are you planning to mash at?

good question. I was thinking I'd shoot for 155-160*F, and sparge at 170 - 180*F. I'm open to suggestion though.

Regarding yeast, I'll use the suggestion to use Nottingham. I can get that easily from my local homebrew supplier and it's cheap enough.

thanks for the hopping schedule. I'll try. I usually can't work fast enough to do that many hop switchouts.

tranceamerica · 01-25-2008, 05:42 PM

ok, here's the modified recipie

**********recipie***************

4 pounds light two row - partial mash
1/2 pound crystal malt
3 pounds light DME
1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.
nottingham ale yeast

Soulive · 01-25-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tranceamerica

good question. I was thinking I'd shoot for 155-160*F, and sparge at 170 - 180*F. I'm open to suggestion though.

Regarding yeast, I'll use the suggestion to use Nottingham. I can get that easily from my local homebrew supplier and it's cheap enough.

thanks for the hopping schedule. I'll try. I usually can't work fast enough to do that many hop switchouts.

If you want this beer to be crisp, mash around 150-151F. If you want it to be maltier mash around 153-154F. The Windsor yeast combined with the extract will be conducive to more body. Mashing lower will help balance that out and dry the beer slightly. Sparge near 175F regardless of mash temp...