Planning for my first homebrew beer, could use a learned opinion.

I want to make just a 2 gallon batch, so I'm copying a kit from Northern Brewer (Dry Irish Stout) and scaling it. Also, I added a bit of honey. I'll use the same instructions from the kit as far as boil and steep times and such. I was hoping someone could look over what I've come up with and make sure it's all right.

1 gallon boil
Grain: 6.5 oz roasted barley
Boil: 2.5 lbs dark malt extract, .5 lbs honey
Hops: 1 oz Cluster, 60 minutes

According to Recipator, this will give me an OG of 1.059 and 36 IBU. Is this a sound recipe? Also, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to use 1 oz Nugget hops instead, which would give me quite a bit more bitter beer, which I usually like, but should a stout be bitter? Oh, and honey. I don't expect much flavour to come through but I've read that it should be added right after the boil, like during cool down. I've also read that it can be poured on the krausen. Any opinions on that?

Thanks!

Hey, UB! Welcome to this great hobby!

I dunno if i count as learned, but here's my two cents. My suggestion would be to brew the recipe straight up (even if scaled down--no problems on that score) before you change it. One of the things about brewing is that there are so many variables. Personally, i have tried to isolate one aspect at a timeIn order to get that straight before tackling the next. Hops-->grains-->yeast strains-->ferm temp control.... If you do your first brew according to the recipe, you'll have a baseline to measure by. Then, while waiting your month for the brew to get ready, do the new version. Then do a side-by-side tasting to see what the additions do that's different.

Of course, the great thing is you can do what you like YMMV.

EDIT: forgot the specific questions! Irish stout is not usually hoppy. I'd nix the Nugget and save it for your Imperial Stout later on. As for honey, depends what you want. Higher ABV--last 10 mins of boil. Aromatics & attenuation? Flameout. Secondary fermentation, flava, & aromatics? Krausen.

Cheers!

As far as the specs are concerned, I'm getting 1.059 as well, assuming the dark malt extract is liquid:

((6.5÷16×25)+(2.5×36)+(.5×35))÷2 = 58.828125 ~= 1.059

For the IBU calculations, with 7.0% AA Cluster hops, it looks to me like you need roughly .22 oz to get the 36 IBUs you quoted.

Boil Grav. with a 1 gallon boil doesn't include the honey at flameout:

((6.5÷16×25)+(2.5×36))÷1 = 100.15 = 1.100

Util(60 min) = (1.65×(.000125^.100))×((1−(e^(−.04×60) ) ) = 0.61076
AAU(Cluster 60) = 0.2245428 oz * 7.0 (alpha) = 1.5718 AAUs
IBU(Cluster 60) = 1.5718 AAUs * 0.61076 util * 75 / 2 gal. batch = 35.999 IBUs

Sorry if all this is useless to you, I'm just having a late night and had nothing better to do

frozt said:

For the IBU calculations, with 7.0% AA Cluster hops, it looks to me like you need roughly .22 oz to get the 36 IBUs you quoted.

Click to expand...

I checked again on another IBU calculator and it said 1 oz would get me 36. I'm pretty good at math but I'm not familiar with any of these formulae. I'll look it up and check it again, could be fun!

It will be good however you decide to calculate it out. Just remember sanitize, and a consistent fermentation temp
Happy brewin

For calculating the OG I used the PPG from beersmith's grain reference page:
http://www.beersmith.com/Grains/Grains/GrainList.htm

(PPG of each ingredient * lbs. of ingredient) / batch volume = OG

For the boil gravity I assumed that the honey goes in at flameout, so it's not included in the gravity for hop calculations.

For IBUs, I use the formulas from Tinseth's page:
http://realbeer.com/hops/research.html
Rather than using the big utilization formula you can just use the table on that page.

They seem to agree pretty well with BeerSmith, so I was wondering if there was a misconfiguration with your recipe on Recipator.

EDIT: I just checked my util formula again and realized I cut off part of it. Util is actually

Util(60) = (1.65×(.000125^.100))×((1−(e^(−.04×60) ) )÷4.15) = 0.147172093
AAU(Cluster 60) = 1 oz * 7.0 (alpha) = 7 AAUs
IBU(Cluster 60) = 7 AAUs * 0.147172093 util * 75 / 2 gal. batch = 38.63 IBUs

Sorry for the miscalculation, looks like 1 oz nets you 38.63 IBUs.

I use beersmith2, and MASH and BREWR on my android. The math for dectoction very important for hittin my temps in mash. Hop pellets i use for bittering(found there the most consistant for me) and flowers for flavor (mainly aroma) love flowers for that