Recent content by The-Baron-of-Charnwood

At 100+ IBUs, I wouldn't add anymore bittering hops. Good luck with the brew! Make sure to aerate the wort and use plenty of yeast nutrient to help the buggers out.

If you really want to highlight the hops, I'd go with a standard IPA. I'd drop the roasted malt, the 120C addition, and the munich malt to simplify the malt profile and really bring the hops to the forefront. You could add some flaked barley or carapils to ensure a good head.

Overall, I think that looks really good. A couple changes I'd suggest: Mash lower: aim for 148. Your final gravity is pretty high and you don't want this to be cloyingly sweet. A lower mash temperature will help increase your attenuation. Drop or increase the late hop additions: the hop aroma...

I'd suggest a Belgian Wit. Also, I might suggest a short protein rest (~10 minutes at 130 degrees F) due to the high protein content of wheat and since pilsner malt tends to be less-modified.

Thanks pjj2ba! I mash in a cooler so I'm thinking I might add a protein rest for 20-30 minutes at about 1 qt water/lb grain and then add hot water to bring the mash temp up and about 1.5 qt/lb. Currently, I do a single-infusion mash (usually around 1.5 qt/lb) and a mash-out to bring the temp to ~165

So, how long of a protein rest would you recommend? At what temp?

If you've never done a mash before, look into "Brewing in a Bag" or BIAB. That's the easiest and cheapest way to transition to partial mashing, which is required by the recipe you wrote. Boiling hops for 60 minutes still drives off any aromatics.

These are grains that need to be mashed, so I assume you're mashing them. In that case, 165 is WAY too high of a temp. Not sure how much residual sweetness you want in this, but the range of acceptable mash temps is mid/high 140s to mid/high 150s (lower temp generally makes a drier beer). Also...

I agree with the previous poster that 153 is a bit high for an IPA. I would go with 150 in my system. But then again, you are doing BIAB. Not sure of your system or how many batches you've done this way, but I'd be willing to bet you lose somewhere around 5+ degrees over the hour. In this...

I wouldn't add sugar to boost barleywine's gravity. You'd have to add a lot of sugar and you'll thin and dry the body out and a good barleywine is anything but dry. You could add LME as KeystoneHomebrew suggest. Personally, I'd just call it an Old Ale instead. And I think an oak-bourbon Old Ale...

I'd just like to point out that the author of that manual is none other than Ron Swanson.

I have never done two batch sparges, but my concern would be over-washig the malt and extracting tannins. Has anyone had this issue? Thanks!

Crystal malts add unfermentable sugars (dextrins) which contribute to body and residual sweetness. A higher AA yeast will dry out the beer, but it still won't be able to ferment the dextrins from crystal. Also, 2-row is a base malt and needs to be mashed. So you don't want to steep it unless...

IMO, 10 oz of Chocolate is a bit much and might over-power any of the toasty/biscuit flavors you're hoping to get from the Amber. Also, it's hard to evaluate a recipe when some key information is missing (batch size, yeast, brewhouse efficiency/anticipated gravity, etc).

Give it some time!