Jsmith82

Recipes 

Thinking I'm going to brew this Friday but I coverted a little of it over to LME and subbed some hops plus I have a limited setup (can't brew a full 5 gallons of wort at once), I'm going to post my entire plan for this beer and I was hoping for some opinions if anything looks questionable or iffy, I've based this off of a couple different recipes I've found.

A couple facts about the DFH Aprihop listed at their website:

• American IPA
• Brewed with Pilsner and Crystal malts
• Backtoned with Apricots
• Dry Hopped "irresponsibly" with Amarillo
• 7.0% ABV
• 50 IBU

Here we go:

Aprihop - 5 gal batch

Grains:
7.38lbs Pilsner LME
1lbs Cara-pils/Dextrine
1lbs Munich Malt
.5lbs Crystal Malt (60L)

Hops:
1.0 oz Amarillo [60 min]
.25 oz Simcoe [60 min]
.50 oz Amarillo [20 min]
.25 oz Simcoe [20 min]
1.0 oz Williamette [5 min]

Ferm:
Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II)
0.5 lbs Dextrose

Secondary:
2 oz Amarillo
3lbs Apricot puree (rack beer on top of)

The beersmith stats on this:

SRM: 8.8
IBUs: 53.9
Est OG: 1.071
Est FG: 1.017
Est ABV: 6.95%

I actually feel pretty good about the recipe but here is the fun part, how I actually plan to brew this (at least my plan right now, I definitely need an opinion on this please)

Mash all grains at 158.0 F for 60min in 2gal water. Sparge into the brewpot, then add water as needed to bring level up to 3 gal. Stir in the LME bringing to a boil. Once the boil starts, on with the hop schedule. Chill wort then filter into the fermentation bucket adding water to bring the level up to 5 gallons. Pitch the yeast and oxidize for 2 minutes then let em' get to it... (from this point on, it's the norm)

Am I doomed here or does this sound like I'll have a great spring beer come June?

smagee

Recipes 

It doesn't look like you "converted a little" so much as "converted it entirely" to extract!

As it stands now, I'd suggest adding a bit more dextrose (upping to maybe 1lb) to dry it out a bit more; with that much extract, you'll end up with a solid sweet backbone that could easily get out of hand. However, if you're open to a bit more tweaking, I'd suggest converting it back to a partial mash (as what you have above looks like a steep-extract recipe to me). I don't have Beersmith on hand at the moment, but off the top of my head, I'd drop the LME down to somewhere in the 4-5lb range and add 4-5lb of 2-row pale malt with the specialty grains. (Note that those are VERY rough values; use a tool to balance the two to make sure your gravity remains where you want it.)

With your current recipe, there's not much need to mash, as those are all steeping grains anyway, so you'd be fine to steep anywhere up to 170F for 20-30 minutes. If you go to the partial mash version instead, then you should try to keep the mash somewhere in the 150-152F range (I'd shoot for the lower end of the scale, myself) for about an hour, then sparge as you're suggesting.

The rest of the procedure sounds right, so hopefully these thoughts will be helpful!

Jsmith82

Recipes 

lol... yeah, suppose you're right :P

So I played around in beersmith a bit with your suggestions and found that using 3.3lbs Pils LME, 5 lbs Pils 2row, and 1lbs dextrose evened the numbers out fairly well, OG around 1.075, FG around 1.018 hardly altering the SRM, IBUs stayed the same, and the ABV is around 7.2.

Looks good! Thanks for the suggestions and it's good to know the mash process looks okay though I'm going to try and it to 12qts instead of 8 like originally planned. 60min at 155.0 F at a 1.6qt/lb ratio.

smagee

Recipes 

155F is still fairly high for the mash; you'll end up with a lot of unfermentables that way. Is that what you're shooting for?

Also, be sure that your mash pot can handle 6lbs of grain+water; that'll probably require something around a 4 gallon pot I think. I'm guessing you already calculated that, since you have the qt/lb ratio already, but figured it was worth a mention .

Have you calculated the fermentability of the puree? I haven't used apricot myself, but I'd imagine it has a fair bit of fermentable sugar in it that'll up your ABV as well (assuming it isn't already included in the calculations).

Teromous

Recipes 

Sidebar: Did you get any apricot flavor from the DFH Aprihop? I tried it and picked up the hop citrus flavor I get from their other beers but didn't taste apricot at all. Just wondering if anyone else had a varying experience...

cyclonite

Recipes 

I got the apricot flavor on 2/4 from my four pack. I think it is very subtle and largely lost with the amount of hops in the beer. I think it varies greatly with your palate also. I've had maltier beers done with apricot where it is much more noticeable.

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On Deck: APA, Wee Heavy, CaliCommon
Primary: Blé de Minuit, Belgian Stout, Fuller's London Pride
Secondary: Oatmeal Stout
Bottled: Tripel Wit, Red, APA, Dubbel, Wit, RIS
Kegged: Blonde, Doppelbock, Spice Cider, C3IPA, Weird ass IPA
"Beer... Now there's a temporary solution!"

RomanNumeral

Recipes 

Don Bischel the Chicago division DFH stopped in at my work brew and grow days before they released this beer. He said they were goin to infuse the apricot flavor by placing dried apricots in a Randall. If that helps.

Jsmith82

Recipes 

Smagee - so I max at 4 gal with my current set up so I'm guessing I will have to drop the water level down to 2.5gal, I think I can manage that though now I'm concerned about sparging, thinking I may grab another pot beforehand so I can mash then sparge to the other.

Again, thanks for the input, learning here on the ag, i'm usually all extract.

So my numbers and calculations are all from the beersmith calculations, including the mash. I have the proposed brewhouse efficiency at 75%, 60min at 155. What are your suggestions or concerns?

Teromous - on the flavor of the beer, so I caught a slight and I mean slight hint of the apricot and an awesome hop slap that was surprisingly smooth, everything complementing everything. I just tried it for my first time in Vegas, loved it so much I wanted to brew a batch of my own.

RN - Thanks for the insight, I was planning on rehydrating dried apricots then tossing them in a food processer, then racking onto the mush before adding the dry hops. Good to know i'm on the right path

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Bottled: 2012 DFH 120min IPA
Kegged: Citra Otter SMaSH IPA
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smagee

Recipes 

When I do partial mashes, I have two pots: one 5.25 gallon, one 3 gallon. That way I can do the mash in the smaller one, and sparge in the main kettle. So yeah, two decent-sized pots helps .

Like I said, I'd suggest entering 70% in Beersmith for the efficiency, and I'd go somewhere around 150 or 151F for the mashing. That way you'll get a good balanced IPA, rather than a heavily-malted one. If you stick at 155, I think it'll end up to sweet and the hops won't come through at all.

If you need to tone down the grains a bit, you can use Beersmith to add extract and reduce the 2row accordingly until you have an amount you can comfortably mash. That's how I typically convert my recipes, anyway.

Jsmith82

Recipes 

I'm going to pickup another 4gal pot this afternoon for sure. I dropped the mash temp and BH efficiency as you suggested, it's evened out quite well; everything seems to be about right and on with the proposed specifications of this beer so my confidence level is booming, I'm taking a swing tomorrow with what we have and will post updates and results here in this topic in case anyone else has an interest in this brew.

Here's the recipe I'm rolling with:

Aprihop - 5 gal batch (Boil Volume: 5.72 gal)

Grains:
3.3lbs Pilsner LME
5.0lbs Pilsner 2-row Belgium
1.0lbs Cara-pils/Dextrine
1.0lbs Munich Malt
.5lbs Crystal Malt (60L)

Mash:
151.0 F for 60min, 10qts water
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00%

Hop Schedule:
1.0 oz Amarillo [60 min]
.25 oz Simcoe [60 min]
.50 oz Amarillo [20 min]
.25 oz Simcoe [20 min]
1.0 oz Williamette [5 min]

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II)
1.0lbs Dextrose
2min oxidation

Secondary:
2 oz Amarillo
3lbs Apricot puree (rack beer on top of)

Beersmith stats:

SRM: 8.4
IBUs: 53.9
Est OG: 1.070
Est FG: 1.017
Est ABV: 6.94%