new recipe. need opinions

my first batch ever, i will decide to create my own. dumb ballsy or retared i think i came up with a good one, so here it is:

grain list: 6lbs unhopped amber malt DME
1/2 lbs crystal malt 60L
1 lbs flaked oats

hops: 1.5oz willamette (full boil)
.5 oz cascade or fuggles ( 10 min boil)

misc: 1 tsp irish moss?
1 lbs honey and/or brown sugar?

yeast: 1 pkg belgian ale yeast

steep oats and crystal malt in 1.5 gallons @160 F for 30 mins
add 2 gallons water bring to boil add DME and boiling hops for 60 mins
add .5 oz finishing hops last 10 mins of boil
cool wort to under 60 F rack to primary add yeast ferment 2-3 days rack to secondary 2 wks then bottle 1 wk any constructable criticism welcomed.

looks great. don't let anyone change your recipe unless you are trying to nail a specific style for competition. no one can judge your recipe until they drink it!

However, your process could be adjusted slightly. Do not ever 'pre-decide' on the length of time you are going to primary for!!! Use a hydrometer to figure out when it is done fermenting, or transfer to secondary only once you have reached your FG (again, using a hydrometer). 2-3 days might be OK, but there's a VERY good chance that is not long enough. Mine take at least 5 days to ferment out, and that's fast for me. Only your hydrometer can give you the right answer.

Also, you may want to ferment about 65-68, but I don't know which yeast you have. 60 could be sluggish, but it depends. Pitching and 60 and letting it rise is fine though, if that's what you meant.

Flaked oats need to be mashed, which means you'll need some base malt in there and you'll probably need to hold things at 150-155 for 60 minutes to give it time to convert.

The oats need to be mashed, so in your "steep", add a pound of 2-row pale malt and change the amount of water and the temperature. You'll want to mash the grains (the crystal, the pale malt, and the oats) in 3.75 quarts of water at 153 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Keep the temperature at 153 the entire time. Then, you can lift out the grain bag and pour up to 1.5 gallons of water at 170 degrees over the grains to "rinse" them (that's a sparge). Then, top up to your boil volume and and proceed.

What yeast are you using? Most Belgian yeast strains aren't going to want to be under 60 degrees. You'll probably want to be at 65-68 degrees, and you'll want to leave it in primary for at least a week. (Use your hydrometer to be sure when to rack to secondary).

thanks for all the advice, couple questions left, when to add honey or brown sugar?
and do i need to mash oats if i am just using for color and flavor and not for fermentable sugars? wont the 6 lbs of dme give me enough fermentable sugars?

brewbaby said:

and do i need to mash oats if i am just using for color and flavor and not for fermentable sugars? wont the 6 lbs of dme give me enough fermentable sugars?

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sure, you'll have plenty of fermentables with only the LME. But if you use oats and don't mash them, all you'll get out of them is starch. They'll add starch to your beer if the starch isn't converted into sugars.

I'm not a brown sugar fan in beer (fermented brown sugar tastes weird to me) but honey could be added at just about any time, either in the boil or at the end of the boil, or even in secondary if you wanted.

Technically, you can steep flaked oats: they have been wetted and do have unfermentable, gelatinized sugars that will get rinsed out. I have seen a few extract recipes that use flaked oats as a steeping grain. But it along with other grains that don't have enzymes, oats can get some other properties by mashing (to get maximum effeciency for converting any starches to sugars). Most brewers do recommend it as a mashing grain then.

Personally, I'm not sure why even try oats right now. It's popular with stouts because it adds body. If this is your first batch keep it simpler: sure, try steeping the crystal and if you want to add honey...do it. Depends on the type of honey as to whether that will add flavor or just contribute fermentables. The other ingredients will give you a light ale.

one note, your time frame is wrong. You need more to the tune of 10-14days in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 2-3weeks in bottle, then enjoy.

If you want it quicker, you can skip the secondary, and increase primary to 14-20 days to play it safe. Still need 3 weeks in bottle to properly carb tho.

But don't stick to timelines (excpet the 3 weeks in a bottle) take gravity readings after 7 days and wait until you get the same reading for 3 days then you can rack to secondary or bottle.

SumnerH said:

Flaked oats need to be mashed, which means you'll need some base malt in there and you'll probably need to hold things at 150-155 for 60 minutes to give it time to convert.

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Good call I didn't even notice that. So maybe some recipe critigue is OK!