Imperial Red Ale (Blood of the Unicorn)

Hey everyone,

I recently scaled down a version of one of Pipeworks Brewing (Chicago, IL) beers.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/pipeworks-blood-of-the-unicorn/175270/

I received the receipe straight from the brewmaster and was hoping to convert it to extract. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the brewing software and do not know how to do this conversion. I was hoping a more experienced brewer could help me out with this, and provide advice as to whether or not this beer would even be worth brewing using extract. I know certain specialty grains do not steep well. Thank you in advance for everyone's help!

8 lbs 14.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) 60.0 %
2 lbs 8.5 oz Munich Malt 17.0 %
1 lbs 0.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L 7.0 %
14.2 oz Special Roast Malt 6.0 %
9.5 oz Rye Malt 4.0 %
4.8 oz Oats, Flaked 2.0 %
1.2 oz Midnight Wheat 0.5 %
8.2 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) 3.5 %

1.05 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 37.9 IBUs
1.26 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min 13.3 IBUs
0.42 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 5.5 IBUs
0.42 oz Zythos [11.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 4.6 IBUs
2.10 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
2.10 oz Zythos [11.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
0.84 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs


2.10 oz Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days 0.0 IBUs
2.10 oz Target [11.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days 0.0 IBUs
0.84 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days 0.0 IBUs

Est Original Gravity: 1.078
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.5 %
Bitterness: 61.3 IBUs

Hey, so as I look over your recipe, it seems like you could *almost* do this as full-on extract. You would do the math (here's an excellent article on how that works: http://byo.com/recipe-calculations/item/616-extract-to-all-grain-and-back) and replace the 2-row with an appropriate amount of light extract, the Munich with Munich extract, the rye malt with rye extract (Northern Brewer sells this, and others probably do as well). You would steep Crystal 80L, Special Roast, and Midnight Wheat (which is only there for color). And you would add the corn sugar to the boil, just like you would with the all grain recipe. The only problem is the oats, which need to be mashed...

My suggestion, then, is to do a partial mash using the BIAB method. It would be very simple. Get a suitable bag from your lhbs, then use it to add a 2-3 lbs of 2-row, plus the oats and all of your steeping grains, to hot water and hold it at 152F (your water would need to start just a few degrees higher, since adding the grain will bring the temperature down a bit) for an hour. Then, just remove the grains, let the bag drain into the kettle, and proceed with the rest of the extract as usual. (Just remember to adjust down the amount of light extract you use based on how much 2-row you use in the mini-mash).

Of course, you could always try it without the oats and see if you like it just as well...

Thanks for the advice! I think I will try the partial mash and see how it goes.

That's a damn good beer by a great brewery! That's awesome that they gave out the recipe. I've noticed on their site they started listing the malts and hops used for a number of their beers. I'm curious, did they give you any idea what yeast they use?

Yeah Bramstoker17, I love Pipeworks beers too! I bring some back to St. Louis any chance I get. Anyways, they use Safale US-05 and mash at 150 for an hour. I also forgot to add that the midnight wheat goes in at the very end, right before the vorlauf begins. I was trying to do the math on converting this to a partial/mini mash recipe and am having a difficult time. Do you think you could help me out? With my equipment I was going to do a BIAB partial mash and ideally end up with 3-3.5 gallons of wort to boil.

I'm assuming this will be for a five gallon batch and that you'll be topping up in the fermenter? IF thats the case, lets assume a 3.5 gal boil down to 2.5 going into the fermenter, and topping up with another 2.5 gallons to make 5.

He's what I would do, Assuming 60% Efficiency from your mash since you won't have much of a sparge to help efficiency.

Heat between 2 and 2.25 quarts of water to 160ish degrees. In your grain bag put:

3 lbs of 2 row pale malt
2 lbs of Munich 10
1 lb of Crystal 80
.75 lb Special Roast
.5 lb Rye Malt
.25 lb flaked oats

These amounts are staying with the %s they told you.

Your water should have cooled to about 150 by the time your grains are all in there. Let that sit covered for about an hour. Add an once of midnight wheat towards the end of the mash and stir it in. Then set your grain bag in a colander over the pot. Take about another two gallons of water that is 168 or so degrees and pour it over the grain bag into your pot. That or put the 168 degree water in another pot and just dunk the grain bag in it for about 10 minutes.

You should then have about 3.5 gallons to boil. Use their hop schedule. At the end of your boil, add 5 lbs of light malt extract and a half pound of corn sugar

I'd round the hop numbers to sensible numbers and not worry about a .10 of an once here and there. I'd pitch two packets of S 05.

I highly recommend reading this thread before doing a partial mash for the first time too.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

This should get you in the right ballpark, good luck and I'll be anxious to see how it turns out!

Awesome! Thank you. The only question I had is should I use liquid malt extract or dry malt extract?

bmwwd6 said:

Awesome! Thank you. The only question I had is should I use liquid malt extract or dry malt extract?

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I personally always preferred dry. Its got better shelf life so you know it'll be fresh. If you get your ingredients from a place with higher ingredient turnover though, it really shouldn't matter so go with whatever you're comfortable with.

Because of the difference in moisture content between LME and DME, you need to use slightly different amounts depending on which you choose. The equivalencies are as follows:
from LME to DME = weight of LME x 0.89
from DME to LME = weight of DME x 1.10

I didn't do the math for you, but you also will *not* need 5 full pounds of malt extract in addition to your 2-row. That puts you WAY over the gravity points that you need. (1 lb of 2-row is NOT equal to 1 lb of extract).

This looks awesome. I'm definitely going to make a partial mash adaption of this at some point.

JordanKnudson said:

Because of the difference in moisture content between LME and DME, you need to use slightly different amounts depending on which you choose. The equivalencies are as follows:
from LME to DME = weight of LME x 0.89
from DME to LME = weight of DME x 1.10

I didn't do the math for you, but you also will *not* need 5 full pounds of malt extract in addition to your 2-row. That puts you WAY over the gravity points that you need. (1 lb of 2-row is NOT equal to 1 lb of extract).

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I suggested 5 pounds of extract in the recipe to make up for lower efficiency for a first time partial mash. I assumed 60%, but maybe he'll get better. When I ran the numbers it only put him just slightly over what Pipeworks says their gravity is, 1.079 or 1.080 if I recall correctly. Again, this is assuming lower efficiency in the mash.

This thread inspired me, I ran out and picked a bottle up! One of my favorite reds for sure!

Bramstoker17 said:

I suggested 5 pounds of extract in the recipe to make up for lower efficiency for a first time partial mash. I assumed 60%, but maybe he'll get better. When I ran the numbers it only put him just slightly over what Pipeworks says their gravity is, 1.079 or 1.080 if I recall correctly. Again, this is assuming lower efficiency in the mash.

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Well, since I didn't run the numbers, I'll take your word for it. I'm surprised, but I also haven't worked with extract in awhile, so maybe I just don't have a good feel for it anymore. One thing that would still be helpful for OP is to know whether you are suggesting 5 lbs of DME or LME, since as I mentioned before, they do not have a 1 to 1 weight equivalence.

JordanKnudson said:

Well, since I didn't run the numbers, I'll take your word for it. I'm surprised, but I also haven't worked with extract in awhile, so maybe I just don't have a good feel for it anymore. One thing that would still be helpful for OP is to know whether you are suggesting 5 lbs of DME or LME, since as I mentioned before, they do not have a 1 to 1 weight equivalence.

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True, i used DME when I plugged the ingredients in so I'd go with that. I prefer DME in general anyway.

OP, you probably could go with 4 lbs of DME if you can get better efficiency from the mash. I aimed low when I ran the numbers to be safe, but its hard to know what efficiency you'll get until you've done a few mashes

Bramstoker, in your original recipe you say to...

"Heat between 2 and 2.25 quarts of water to 160ish degrees."

You mean gallons right, NOT quarts?

Definitely gallons. 2.25 gallons of water with the grain that he laid out gives you a water to grain ratio of 1.2 quarts per pound, which is in the low-medium range of a regular mash.

If you want to get improved efficiency, do your mash, then heat up another 1.5 gallons of water in a separate pot. After your mash, transfer your grain bag to the second pot, stir it around for a minute or two, then allow the bag to drain off into the pot. This is called a "dunk sparge." Then simply pour the wort from your sparge into your main kettle. This will yield you roughly 3-3.5 total gallons of wort for your boil (the mash will yield less than its original water volume, because some water will be absorbed by the grain, but this doesn't happen in the sparge), and will get you better efficiency than just doing the mash and adding water to reach your boil volume.

bmwwd6 said:

Bramstoker, in your original recipe you say to...

"Heat between 2 and 2.25 quarts of water to 160ish degrees."

You mean gallons right, NOT quarts?

Click to expand...

Whoops! Yes I definitely meant gallons! And I'd do what JordanKnudson suggested and do the dunk sparge technique. I do BIAB all grain batches and thats what I do, and it works out well.

I'm going to try this. Thanks for the recipe.