Planning my second brew day

Even though it got stuck at 1.020, my brown porter from Midwest still turned out pretty good. I'm thinking about doing the Cascade Pale Ale PM kit for my second batch. After running it through brewtarget, the IBU's looked a bit lower than I'd like, so I'm thinking of modifying it slightly. As is, the kit comes with 3 oz. of Cascade for 60, 15, and 2 minute additions. I'm thinking of getting an ounce of Simcoe, and using half of it as the bittering addition instead of the Cascade. Then I'll use the Cascade and the other 1/2 oz. of Simcoe to dry hop with. BT calculates it to 40.5 IBU's, which sounds just about perfect for me. So would about 7 days be good for the dry hop, or should I go closer to 14 with it?

Don't go longer than 7 days for dry hopping. 3-5 days would be better.

itsme6582 said:

Don't go longer than 7 days for dry hopping. 3-5 days would be better.

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Cool! Thanks for the tip. Also, right after I submitted the thread, it occurred to me to ask if I might be better served by adding the extra Simcoe at flameout rather than dry hopping with it. Also, would it be best to do the dry hop near the end right before bottling?

This may be off topic but I noticed you say your fg was stuck at 1.020. MINE IS TOO! I have been searching for the cure. It is the difference between a 5.7 and a 6.7 ABV by my calculations. Anyhow, I moved in a heater to bump the temp. Will take another reading then. I have heard it can be difficult to drop below 1.020 when extract brewing heavy beers. Lack of fermentables or something. What was your method to try to get it to drop?

mike024 said:

This may be off topic but I noticed you say your fg was stuck at 1.020. MINE IS TOO! I have been searching for the cure. It is the difference between a 5.7 and a 6.7 ABV by my calculations. Anyhow, I moved in a heater to bump the temp. Will take another reading then. I have heard it can be difficult to drop below 1.020 when extract brewing heavy beers. Lack of fermentables or something. What was your method to try to get it to drop?

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I tried moving it to a warmer room in the house. Got a bit more airlock activity, but when I checked the gravity a few days later, it was still 1.020, so I went ahead and bottled. From what I've read on here, it seems to be a common problem with dark LME. I added the whole thing before the boil as per the instructions, though it's often been said here that it's best to only add half at the beginning and the other half at 15 minutes. Live and learn.

Interesting. I placed a heater in the room my batch is in and got activity again as well. I was excited until I read this. Oh well. I will check fg tomorrow and transfer to secondary. Trying desperately to break into the sixes on ABV. At this point I'm at high five. Thanks for the help.

Alright, placed the order with Midwest today. After running it through BT, I decided to pick up some extra DME as well to boost the ABV to about 5.1%. Here's what the recipe is looking like right now:

3.3 lbs Light DME
1 lb Extra Light DME
8 oz. Cara-Pils
8 oz. Caramel 10L

.5 oz. Simcoe @ 60 min
1 oz. Cascade @ 15 min
1 oz. Cascade @ 2 min
.5 oz. Simcoe @ Flameout
1 oz. Cascade Dry Hop
1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 15 min
S-05 yeast

So do you think it would be best to save all the DME for 15 minutes, or should I go half at the beginning and half later on?

I think you need some DME to help with the hops. That may have changed like everything else has though.

itsme6582 said:

I think you need some DME to help with the hops. That may have changed like everything else has though.

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With the pound of extra light added, BrewTarget is calculating 39.9 IBU's and .76 IBU/GU. Think it might be off for some reason?

You need something from the malt, probably sugar, to help isomerization. BrewTarget isn't taking this into account. This isn't something that fits in the equations. Bitterness equations are only a model. If you change the model, the equations don't work.

Let's assume it's the sugars from the malt that is important. It doesn't matter how much sugar is in there as long as there are enough. Once you have enough, the limiting factor is eliminated and isomerization matches the model.

Maybe a pound of extract is enough but maybe it's not.

Well, now I'm wondering if I should just go with the kit as is and save the Simcoe and DME for a future batch. I'd like to do an IPA next, since I'll have plenty of S-05 from the slurry that will be left over. Maybe I'll figure out a recipe that can use those 2 and just throw the hops in the freezer for the time being.

Decided to just go ahead and do the kit and save the other crap for later. The only deviation was I added 1 tsp. of Irish Moss @ 15 min. After vigorous stirring, I ended up with an OG of 1.050. Figure it's probably closer to 1.048, but I'll take it either way. :rockin: Now just gotta give my BK another 10 minutes or so soaking in Sun Oxygen and this one will officially be in the books.

And now: a moment of silence for my trusty digital thermometer. After guiding me through another brew day, it took a dive off the counter and into a bucket of StarSan solution. Good night, sweet prince.

No good can come of this. lol