Critique my recipe before I make it!

This is my first go at my own recipe. Brewtoad helped. I'm shooting for something with some complexity; a fall/winter dirty red ale.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc appreciated!

5 Gallon batch.

3 lb Rice Syrup Solids
3 lb White Sorghum Syrup
3 lb Candi Syrup, D45 Amber
8 oz Maltodextrine

Hops

Columbus 0.75 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 15.0%
Willamette 0.5 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 4.8%

Yeasts

Safale S-04 S-04 Fermentis 70.0%


Steep:

Pecans, toasted 1.0 lb 30.0 min
Red Samba Rice, Toasted 3.0 lb 15.0 min
Rooibos Red "Tea" 14 oz (by volume) 10.0 min at Flameout



14oz of Rooibos means 1.75 CUPS of the dry tea, put in a mesh bag or two. Steep at flame out for 10 minutes or steep separately in a few cups of water for 10 minutes and add at end of boil. [This is the amount for full strength tea at 5 gallons. Seems like a lot. This recipe is in progress and may be adjusted]

Steep Rice and Pecans before boil at less than boiling temp.

I like everything but the willamette. I have used it twice and to me seems to not do well with sorghum. Other people may disagree, but that is my .02.

Thanks for the input. I was kinda flying blind on hops because I don't know anything.. I used Igliashon's Russian Red Imperial Stout recipe as a bit of a guide for some of the proportions and it uses that combination of hop varieties. Plus I already have the Columbus.

Any hop suggestion that might go well in this recipe?

Thanks

Same critique I've had of others in the past...that is a lot of fermentables!

When I do a 5 gallon batch, unless it is a dark beer, I use 3lbs sorghum, 1.5lb brs and 1-2lbs (though usually 1lb) candi syrup.

Just looked at recipe again. Definitely drop about 2 lbs of fermentables from somewhere. I'd say the d45 personally.

Thanks guys. That makes sense. I might be trying to go too intense for the style.

Just wondering, what would it do to have too much fermentables? Too much alcohol taste for balance? Too sweet?

I didn't want to fall below 5% ABV, and brewtoad was giving me 6.3 for this recipe, which is a percent I like

Also I selected Candy Sugar in Brewtoad since Candi Syrup isn't on there. Don't know if they would give different results or not. Figured it would be close enough for my purposes. ?

I'm pretty excited to brew this. Hopefully it will be pretty drinkable by thanksgiving. Planning on brewing early next week.

The higher your OG, the higher your FG. The US05 is a really clean yeast. You said at one point that you wanted something malty, so I am not sure that is the yeast that I would use for that. Then again, if you use something like windsor or s04, it will mask anything you might get from the tea. If it were me, I would drop my IBUs to the teens, use the US05 or maybe a BRY97. Look up D45 in Brewtoad because sugar is probably a 90, I believe? Don't worry too much about any style, the main thing is just to have fun.

Brewed this up last night. I changed the recipe a bit and went with:
3.3 lb Sorghum
2 lb 10 oz Brown Rice Syrup (they came in 1 lb 5 oz containers)
2 lb D45
8 oz Maltodextrine

Steeped for 15 minutes at 160-180: 3 lbs Toasted red samba rice and 1 lb of Toasted Millet instead of pecans. Didn't feel like dealing with the crushing and absorbing oil and all that. The millet smelled great.

Went with only .5oz of Columbus for 60 minutes

2 cups (4.5 oz by weight) Rooibos steeped about 15 minutes.

and S05 yeast. Couldn't find my S04 anyway..

Oh and threw in a Whirlflock at 10 min.

OG 1.056

The aroma changed from sweet and toasty to rooibos/toasty/bitter with less obvious sweetness once I added the sorghum and rooibos. The wort had a cloudy mass in it while cooling.. I'm guessing it's solids from all that rice I steeped in it?

Color was more brown than red, due to 2lbs of d45 mostly. I guess I got my "dirty red"

:cross:

Seems good. Let us know how the rooibos comes through.

I think that looks great. Good call on the lighter hops and yeast, I think. Should really let the rooibos shine. Enjoy!

bubble bubble bubble...

Just an update for anyone interested.

Today is day 8 in primary. It stopped bubbling a couple days ago, so I thought I'd take a gravity reading and a taste. I plan to leave it for a while longer because of how cloudy the wort originally was, in hopes it will clear up a bit.

First off, it tasted pretty damn good. Notes:

Very fragrant; still smells pretty clearly of rooibos and toasted rice.
Fairly light, velvety mouthfeel. You can definitely taste the rooibos and a toasty-rice taste.
Finishes with a light toasty-ness (as opposed to dark toasty) and a light & pleasant bitterness, both with good linger.

Here's the color... Pretty reddish!


Gravity reading looked like about 1.046 so I guess it still has a ways to go. Does that sound right after a week? The yeast were looking at me like "WTF are you doing here bro"

1.046 is pretty high after 8 days. What was your OG? Does it taste excessively sweet? I would think this to be I. The 1.015-1.020 range at this point. But if it tastes good, who cares.

OG was 1.056 I thought my reading was high too.. There was a layer of what I assume was yeast on the top of the liquid... And temp has been in low to mid 60s.

Used US 05 yeast.

I dunno :/

Did you use a hydrometer or refractometer for your gravity readings? Refractometer is not accurate with fermented beers unless you use a conversion.

I used the hydrometer that came with a brewers best home brewing kit. I put it directly in the bucket.

Could it be the solids from all my steeping grains still in suspension in the liquid affecting it? Or maybe I did it wrong..? Is there a way to do it wrong?

the stuff was bubbling like crazy for like 5 days.. Everything seemed normal. I'm not too worried about it. It would suck if this stuff ended up as a sweet 2% abv juice though.

Try putting it in a hydrometer tube. 1.046 seems WAY too high. Throw up a pic if you are uncertain. Should finish low. Around 1.008 or similar.

Took a gravity reading again last night in a tube.. 1.030 or so.

It has been in the low 60s in the basement and maybe colder overnight, so I moved it upstairs where it will be 65-70 all the time.

Would anyone recommend adding more yeast? I'm trying to get this bottled this weekend or shortly after if I can.

Thanks for the help
This stuff smells good!

Quick update... I moved it upstairs to a warmer environment for a week or so and it seemed to help. Gravity reading was... I have no idea but it was in the "finish" zone so I kegged it up.

I'm drinking it prematurely because... FREE BEER. However, it's pretty dang good. The toasty taste is minimal, but I can detect it a little. Rooibos is still the main flavor, but while still tasting like beer. Definitely has some good head too!

I highly recommend trying something with Rooibos. It adds a lot of red color and as I was hoping, it marries well with the sorghum and masks it like crazy! I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

What I will try in the future: Darker toast on the rice/millet, maybe 25% less Rooibos, and try a different yeast just for s&g's.

gfreebrew said:

I highly recommend trying something with Rooibos. It adds a lot of red color and as I was hoping, it marries well with the sorghum and masks it like crazy! I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

What I will try in the future: Darker toast on the rice/millet, maybe 25% less Rooibos, and try a different yeast just for s&g's.

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting us know how it worked out. I had been thinking of using tea for some cheap color/flavor contributions and it's nice to know it works.

The world of tea has a lot to offer, and when you think about it it's just some stuff you use to flavor water. So it's a good bet for our purposes!

As far as this brew goes, now that it's starting to condition it seems the rooibos taste is mellowing out a bit and it's starting to taste more... beery

But then again, maybe I'm just getting used to the taste.

Another thing I'll try for sure is toasting the rooibos. Or at least some of it. I'm trying to get something nice and toasty tasting and haven't quite gotten it yet.