Please comment on my Amber/Bitter Recipe

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Snood

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I've just created my first recipe using beer smith, I have previously used Brewmate but was drawn to Beersmith's nicer interface, tools, inventory etc..

My recipe is a first for me on quite a few levels, It will be the first time I use any non-british hops, the first time I use a beersmith generated recipe, the first time I use my new (still to be built) Cooler mash tun, the first time I attempt to dry hop and also the first time I use a cornelius keg, the first time I use finings to clear the beer. LOTS of firsts!!

The style of the beer is based on an english bitter, it's perhaps closer to an american ale though due to the use of citrusy hops. I plan to dry hop in the primary then rack to a secondary purely for using gelatin to really clear it before transfering to a cornie.

Here's the recipe, any input would be greatly appreciated:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 22.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 38.7 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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4.75 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) Castle Maltings (3.5 E Grain 1 86.0 %
0.75 kg Crystal Malt 100 (100.0 EBC) Grain 2 13.6 %
0.02 kg Chocolate Malt (900.0 EBC) Grain 3 0.4 %

15.00 g Chinook - Humle [13.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 19.5 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade - Malt Magnus [6.80 %] - Boil 20 min Hop 5 8.0 IBUs
15.00 g Nelson Sauvin - Humle [12.60 %] - Boil 20 min Hop 6 11.2 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
20.00 g Cascade - Malt Magnus [6.80 %] - Aroma S Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
25.00 g Cascade - Malt Magnus [6.80 %] - Dry Hop Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
15.00 g Nelson Sauvin - Humle [12.60 %] - Dry Hop Hop 11 0.0 IBUs


British Ale (White Labs #WLP005)
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
 
I'd scale the crystal malt back. What's the batch size? 20L? I probably wouldn't use more than 5% crystal malt, and I don't use any crystal in bitters.
 
I'd scale the crystal malt back. What's the batch size? 20L? I probably wouldn't use more than 5% crystal malt, and I don't use any crystal in bitters.

batch size of 23L (about 5 imperial galons, enough for a cornie plus some bottled to keep longer)

for what reason would you say to scale the crystal back? I put it at that much to keep some sweetness, would it be better to switch the crystal to a darker variety so that the colour can be kept or just compensate the colour with chocolate? What's your thoughts on the hopping? i've only really made darker beers before so i don't know an awful lot about hop flavours with such light beer.
 
I find too much crystal to be cloying. I prefer well-attenuated beers in general, so I seldom use more than 5% crystal malt on any recipe. WLP005 is a medium attenuater, so even with 0% crystal malt it will still have some sweetness to it. The "British Bitter" thing threw me off. My bitters are very pale in color. Are you targeting more of an amber color?

The hop schedule looks fine. I like to add some Chinook when I dry hop, but some people don't care for that.
 
Yeah i'm going for a light amber colour.

I'ce removed the chocolate from the recipe, it was such a small quantity anyway.

I've also switched the 100 EBC crystal for 150 EBC and reduced it to 7.5% with the pale malt being 92.5%. The colour is a couple of points lighter now but that's okay.

Does this sound good?
 
Well, I brewed this on Saturday and It seemed to go mostly well *appart from my electric element cutting out as i was heating up to boil but i fixed that and no problems after.

One problem though was i got about 65% efficiency which is the worst I've had to date. My mash temp was one degree lower than it should have so I just left it as it was. Fly sparge went well and I tasted the grains after and couldn't detect any sweetness left in them. I currently use a cheap double bucket mash tun with a duvet for insulation.

Target was 23 litres at 1.052 and I got 21.5 litres at 1.048

Any ideas what may cause this terrible efficiency?

Besides this it's now fermenting away nicely and smells awesome. I'm looking forward to 5 weeks time.....
 
Well, I brewed this a few weeks ago and put it into a corny last weekend. the gravity was 1.010 which is lower than designed, I think low temperatures during mash created more fermentables than expected.

the beer aroma is a citrusy/grapey with some maltiness. The taste is very clean and fresh although it could be a touch more malty. bitterness is pretty well balanced although as mentioned, if it were more malty I think the balance would be a bit better.

The jury isn't fully out yet, it's carbonating now so i'm looking forward to trying it again in a few weeks when it's carbonated and matured some more.
 
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