Recipe critique

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wizardofza

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
379
Reaction score
9
Location
Buffalo, NY
Hey guys (and girls)-

I'm attempting to construct my first recipe to brew in my first AG attempt. I've used a couple different references (Designing Great Beers is one) along with BeerSmith to guide me.

I recently had a Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale. I'm a bit of a hophead and love IPAs and wanted to attempt creating something close to this style. They actually listed the recipes on their site!

So this is what I came up with. If you have any opinions I would love to hear them. I'm particulary concerned with my hop amounts I chose. I tried hitting 60+ IBUs using the hops they had listed (except Palisade, which I substituted Cascade).

Est OG : 1.060
Est Final: 1.014
Using Default Efficiency : 68%
Boil Size : 5.5 gallons
Mash Temp : 149-154deg

Grain Bill
----------------
11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)

Hop Bill (the interesting part!)
------------------------
0.75 oz Chinook [13.00%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00%] (45 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (10 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (Dry Hop 3 days)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop 3 days)

1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)

So, what do you guys think? I'd appreciated any comments you got!

Thanks.

-Chris
 
This looks like a well balanced beer.
How long of a boil are you planning? 90? 75? 60 minutes?
You'll get more efficiency out of your last hop addition if you add it with 15 minutes left in the boil.
 
Glibbidy said:
This looks like a well balanced beer.
How long of a boil are you planning? 90? 75? 60 minutes?
You'll get more efficiency out of your last hop addition if you add it with 15 minutes left in the boil.

I was planning on a 60 minute boil.

I'll take your advice on changing the last hop addition.

I may even bump up the Chinook to 1oz. :)

Thanks for the reply Glibbidy. I appreciate it!
 
You could go 5 days on the dry hop without a problem, unless it interferes with your racking scheme.

I ferment 5 days, then dry hop in the primary for 5 days, then rack to the brite tank.
 
Brewer3401 said:
You could go 5 days on the dry hop without a problem, unless it interferes with your racking scheme.

I ferment 5 days, then dry hop in the primary for 5 days, then rack to the brite tank.

I originally had them at 5 days, but for some reason I was concerned with TOO much aroma. I'm going back w/ 5.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out :)

Thanks for the input. At least I know I'm on the right track.


-Chris
 
For a 5.5 gal batch, I would go with about 4 - 6 oz of CaraPils as 12 oz is a bit over kill. Also, This is similar to my IPA in terms of the malt bill and I like the Munich for malt character. I use 1 lb of Munich. You can even go to 1.5 lbs if you wish. If you want to boost the malty flavor more, go with 1 lb M10 and 0.5 lbs M20.

Just my 2 cents.:D

Dr Malt:mug:
 
Dr Malt said:
For a 5.5 gal batch, I would go with about 4 - 6 oz of CaraPils as 12 oz is a bit over
Just my 2 cents.:D

Dr Malt:mug:


Cargill states on their site not to go over 5% on the Carapils, recommending more like 2% or so.

I see recipes with 6-10% Carapils. What's with this, and some of them win contests.

:confused:
 
Dr Malt said:
For a 5.5 gal batch, I would go with about 4 - 6 oz of CaraPils as 12 oz is a bit over kill. Also, This is similar to my IPA in terms of the malt bill and I like the Munich for malt character. I use 1 lb of Munich. You can even go to 1.5 lbs if you wish. If you want to boost the malty flavor more, go with 1 lb M10 and 0.5 lbs M20.

Just my 2 cents.:D

Dr Malt:mug:

Yeah, it'll be nice to at least have a baseline to understand what works and what doesn't. I'm basically taking everyone's advice here since it's better than my knowledge!

I'm going to up the amount of Munich while at the same time reduce the amount of CaraPils.

Thanklfully I haven't ordered anything yet! ;)
 
"CaraPils" is a term used often for any kind of dextrin malt. The idea behind a "dextrin malt" is it contains dextrins like maltodextrin that add body, mouthfeel and foam stability to the beer. If I recall correctly, there are about 3 dextrin malts made by 3 different maltsters. Each of those 3 dextrin malts are a bit different in terms of color, flavor and the way they are made.

The dextrin malt made by Briess has the trade marked name of "CaraPils". According to Briess, it is "a very unique dextrine-style malt that adds body, foam retention and beer stability without influencing color or flavor. Use up to 5%." Their typical analysis shows the color on this malt of 1.3 - 1.5, moisture of 6.5% and extract (FGDB) of 73%. This is a low kilned malt to produce low colors and little flavor development. Other dextrin malts have colors in the 3 -7 range and one is more a very light color caramel malt.

The real question here is do these malts contain any true dextrins? No maltster gives a dextrin analysis with their malts. Also,can you actually measure a difference in your beer with and without these malts in terms of body, foam retention and beer stability? I have not seen that data and if someone has, please share it with us. So I would suggest that if a recipe has dextrin malt or CaraPils in the recipe, it is up to you whether to include it or not and I don't think you will see much of a difference in your beer. If you don't have CaraPils and want dextrin in your beer, add a tablespoon or 2 of maltodextrin. At least you are sure you have truly added dextrins to your beer.



Thanks.

Dr Malt:mug:
 
Hey guys-

I promised the results and here they are. I think these are accurate, I don't have my notebook in front of me.

OG : 1.056
FG : 1.014
Efficiency was about 72% using Palmer's method.
Apparent Attenuation : 74%

I bottled last night and it tasted awesome! Quite close to the Loose Cannon I was trying to mimic. Nice and hoppy!

Not bad for my first AG.

I just wanted to send a thanks to everyone that responded on this thread.

Looking forward to more successful AG attempts!

-Chris
 
Back
Top