My first departure from Kit Brewing...this is what i've come up with

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Run_RMC

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First of all-this forum is amazing and i've learned so much from it that i got the confidence to curate my own beer (this is my 3rd batch ever). That being said, who knows if i'm actually getting smarter.

I'm looking for for an APA with a bit more hop power thanks to some citra/cascade dry hopping.

4 oz 60L Crystal (steeping)
3.3lbs Breiss Golden LME
3.3lbs Breiss Light LME
1 lb Light DME (last 15 of boil)
4 oz MaltoDextrin

1 tsp Irish Moss (15 Minutes)

1 oz Centennial (60 Min)
.5 oz Cascade (15 Minutes)
.5 oz Citra (2 Minutes)
1 oz Cascade (1 Minute)
.5 oz Citra + .5 oz Cascade for Dry Hop

FYI My preboil volume will only be 4 gallons due to pot size and stove top brewing. Also i'm planning on using 1056 or maybe try out 1072 for the first time.

I'd like to know what people think-especially regarding if i'm overhopping this beer. Thanks again to the forums for giving me faith to try my hand at recipe creation.
 
As to whether you are smarter or not, I'm torn... on one hand, you used the word "curate" - so that tends to suggest you are getting smarter, on the other hand, you are presumably a Yankee fan, so... all I'll say is life comes in balance :wink:

Quick question - what is 1072?

Also, do you have any stats on this recipe? IBUs, SRM, OG, EFG? I don't have my beersmith on this comp

Also - isn't Briess Gold and Briess light the same thing? Don't they only have "golden light" LME?
 
Hi Run RMC,

Welcome to the hobby I liken to becoming a crack addict. In fact, I call my LBS guys my dealers :D.

One of the best tools I've used when I got started making my own recipes was Hopville's Beer Calculus :
http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

I don't know if you're already familiar with it, but it's free and allows you to play around with recipes in a particular style so you can get an idea of color, IBUs, gravities, etc. I've since been using BeerSmith, which is just a fancier version of Beer Calculus, but still use Beer Calculus from time to time when out and about.

Your recipe looks great, but plugging in your numbers shows your OG to be 1.060, which is at the high end for an APA, and your IBUs to be about 54, which blows past the BJCP guidelines of 30-45IBUs for that style. I'm not saying you have to be a slave to the numbers, but the end product may be a bit more bitter than you're used to than APAs you've had in the past.

Maybe dial the DME back to 0.5lbs which will give you an OG of 1.055 (and keeps you from having to get into making a starter, but I strongly recommend you start looking into them) and, as for the hops, you could do the 1oz of Centennial at the 30 minute mark which would lower the IBUs to around 44. Still hoppy like you wanted, but not too bitter.

I've used both Wyeast's American Ale (1056) and American Ale II (1272) and like them both. Unless you want to get into additional fining beyond using Irish Moss, though, you may be better off with 1272 since it flocculates a bit more than 1056, resulting in a brighter beer with less work.

Those are my 2 cents, for what they're worth, and I'll be the first to admit I'm not the world's foremost expert on Home Brewing. Welcome to the club and I'll see you around the crack house! :mug:
 
I'd cut out the light LME & use 3lbs of plain DME. Your OG would be about 1.050. & cut the hops to about 3oz for the style. Even my SNPA clone uses only 3oz of cascade,bittering & all. And the maltodextrin wouldn't really be needed. Unless you want a tad sweeter product with creamier mouth feel.
 
I think something that would be helpful to know would be an example of an APA that you have had that was close to hoppy enough for you, but you would like more. If that particular beer comes in at the higher end of BJCP guidelines, then maybe what you are looking for is a hybrid beer style - or an IPA ;), I mean you do say "more hop power", but if you are used to APAs with low hop profile, perhaps more hop power would still fit into those limits, just at the higher end. Also, consider if you are looking for more hop flavor or more bitterness.
 
Hi Run RMC,

Welcome to the hobby I liken to becoming a crack addict. In fact, I call my LBS guys my dealers :D.

One of the best tools I've used when I got started making my own recipes was Hopville's Beer Calculus :
http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

I don't know if you're already familiar with it, but it's free and allows you to play around with recipes in a particular style so you can get an idea of color, IBUs, gravities, etc. I've since been using BeerSmith, which is just a fancier version of Beer Calculus, but still use Beer Calculus from time to time when out and about.

Your recipe looks great, but plugging in your numbers shows your OG to be 1.060, which is at the high end for an APA, and your IBUs to be about 54, which blows past the BJCP guidelines of 30-45IBUs for that style. I'm not saying you have to be a slave to the numbers, but the end product may be a bit more bitter than you're used to than APAs you've had in the past.

Maybe dial the DME back to 0.5lbs which will give you an OG of 1.055 (and keeps you from having to get into making a starter, but I strongly recommend you start looking into them) and, as for the hops, you could do the 1oz of Centennial at the 30 minute mark which would lower the IBUs to around 44. Still hoppy like you wanted, but not too bitter.

I've used both Wyeast's American Ale (1056) and American Ale II (1272) and like them both. Unless you want to get into additional fining beyond using Irish Moss, though, you may be better off with 1272 since it flocculates a bit more than 1056, resulting in a brighter beer with less work.

Those are my 2 cents, for what they're worth, and I'll be the first to admit I'm not the world's foremost expert on Home Brewing. Welcome to the club and I'll see you around the crack house! :mug:


What am I missing? Running this through beersmith, I get 1.056 @ 37.4 IBU the way he originally has it. Using Hopville, I get the same OG - 1.056, but I get 48.6 IBU - but hopville doesn't take into account boil volume, correct?
 
What am I missing? Running this through beersmith, I get 1.056 @ 37.4 IBU the way he originally has it.

Did you change Type to Extract and the equipment profile to a 4g Pot-Mini-BIAB (I think I added this profile myself when I was doing extracts, which may account for some of the variance from a 4-gal Pot-Extract)?
 
Did you change Type to Extract and the equipment profile to a 4g Pot-Mini-BIAB (I think I added this profile myself when I was doing extracts, which may account for some of the variance from a 4-gal Pot-Extract)?

I used extract and I actually manually put it 5 gallon kettle with a 4 gallon boil, so it would match exactly what he said he was going to do.

I'm only asking because I'm relatively new to beersmith and want to make sure I'm crossing my T's and dotting my i's and I didn't overlook something or not know something about the software.
 
American Pale Ale

Type: Extract Date: 9/26/2012

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer:

Boil Size: 4.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot - 5 gallon with 4 gallon boil

End of Boil Volume 3.78 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %


Ingredients

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

1.22 gal New York, NY Water 1 -
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.2 %
6 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 3 84.1 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 28.6 IBUs
1 lbs Light Dry Extract [Boil for 15 min](8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 5 12.7 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 3.9 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
4.00 oz Malto-Dextrine (Boil 5.0 mins) Other 8 -
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 9 1.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 10 0.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %

Bitterness: 37.4 IBUs

Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 9.0 SRM
 
I like the malt bill- except for the malto dextrine. I'd get rid of that. it's a "thickener" and an APA should have plenty of body with the extract and the grains you have listed already. A "thick" pale ale is not a quaffable drink.

I'd probably change the hopping to a more traditional pale ale hopping, like this:

1 oz bittering hops 60 minutes (magnum is good) or to 25-30 IBUs with this addition
.75 ounce flavor hops 15 minutes
.75 ounce aroma hops 5 minutes
Dryhop with 1 ounce.

I'm not a huge citra fan, but others are so I won't criticize that! But I'd definitely use a more traditional schedule with hops of your choice.
 
I used extract and I actually manually put it 5 gallon kettle with a 4 gallon boil, so it would match exactly what he said he was going to do.

I'm only asking because I'm relatively new to beersmith and want to make sure I'm crossing my T's and dotting my i's and I didn't overlook something or not know something about the software.

I've only been working with the software a few months myself and am still finding new things. I think numbers in BeerSmith (and any brewing software for that matter) have to be taken with a grain of salt. There are so many variables in brewing and so many different ways of doing the same thing that their recommendations are better taken as a close guide rather than the Alpha and Omega of what the end product will be. Besides, a great beer is more than just a bunch of numbers; if it were, there'd only be one for each style to choose from. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere between what each one of us came up with :confused:
 
I've only been working with the software a few months myself and am still finding new things. I think numbers in BeerSmith (and any brewing software for that matter) have to be taken with a grain of salt. There are so many variables in brewing and so many different ways of doing the same thing that their recommendations are better taken as a close guide rather than the Alpha and Omega of what the end product will be. Besides, a great beer is more than just a bunch of numbers; if it were, there'd only be one for each style to choose from. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere between what each one of us came up with :confused:

Quite true! Still, having agreed with you, two people inputting the same recipe shouldn't be off by that much.
 
Thanks for all the advice.

I'm getting readings of 1.057 OG and 38.5 IBU's when I'm plugging this into beer alchemy (it does allow me option to adjust for late addition of DME) which is probably what is keeping the hop utilization down. Also I don't know what beer smith does, but when I add the late addition hops the IBU's barely go up.

I'm going to go ahead and brew this this Sunday. I will be omitting the maltodextrin and will probably take the DME down to 12oz. One issue I had today though when I got to my LHBS was they were somehow out of wyeast 1056 and 1272 and I had to get fermentis US-05 which I haven't used before. I'm sure i can overcome though.

I'll be sure to update everyone with how this beer comes out.
 
It looks like your numbers are almost spot on with what I got in beersmith - yes, beersmith adjusts for late malt and I did factor that in - which may explain why our numbers are so close. Each recipe software usually catalogs slightly different AA percentages for each hop, as there is a range after all. US-o5 = 1056, so you are good there, just rehydrate and I'd use a pitching calculator.

Note: US-05 used to be called US-56 until Wyeast sued them for the similarity and Fermentis changed the name ;)


MR Malty says at 1.057 with a packet with production day today you will need 2.2 5 gram packets dry. One will probably work, but I'd use 2 for best results.
 
Also I don't know what beer smith does, but when I add the late addition hops the IBU's barely go up.

Earlier hop additions at the start of the boil account for bitterness. The later in the boil hops are added, they contribute less to bitterness and more to flavoring and aroma. I haven't used the software but late hop additions are expected to have little to no effect on IBU #'s.
 
Yeah i wasn't expecting it to go up. I wonder if some other calculators are having issues with that though.
Also for anone who cares, below are the AA% of the hops I currently have stocked in my fridge and will be using.

Centennial=9.7%
Cascade=6.2%
Citra=13.9%
 
Alright so I had what seemed like a successful brew day all the way until when I went to rack from the kettle to my fermenter.
The hop debris and break material didn't settle enough or maybe I disrupted it and when I got to about 3 inches from bottom I started pulling tons of cloudy wort into my fermenter. I could not get it to settle out and so I didn't transfer as much ad I would have liked.

After adding water OG only came to 1.051. I'm concerned that with the amount of bitterness, I might need some more sugar/alcohol to balance it out.

Can you fix it by adding more fermentables once fermentation is under way? Should I have done this yesterday?
 
Alright so I had what seemed like a successful brew day all the way until when I went to rack from the kettle to my fermenter.
The hop debris and break material didn't settle enough or maybe I disrupted it and when I got to about 3 inches from bottom I started pulling tons of cloudy wort into my fermenter. I could not get it to settle out and so I didn't transfer as much ad I would have liked.

After adding water OG only came to 1.051. I'm concerned that with the amount of bitterness, I might need some more sugar/alcohol to balance it out.

Can you fix it by adding more fermentables once fermentation is under way? Should I have done this yesterday?

The way I avoid leaving so much wort in the kettle with the break material and hop debris is to just dump it all into the fermenter. The yeast will use what they want and the rest will settle out to the bottom of the fermenter and be covered by the settled yeast. It doesn't give you any off flavors but it does give you more beer. Since the whole point of brewing is to get beer, the more I get from a batch the better I like it.
 
Thanks.
I'm i'm putting all the wort into my fermenter, should i try to use a secondary fermentation after a week to keep any off flavors from developing.
Also since i'm going to dry hop i was probably going to do this anyways....
 
NO! on both counts. Never rack out of primary till FG is reached. and the autolysis boogieman is dead. Old school yeast weren't as good as the ones available now,& would die off in a couple weeks. So you had to rack off it asap in those days.
NOW IT'S JUST OUTDATED INFO. Just leave it in primary till FG is reached & it clears up. Then use hop sacks to dry hop right there in primary for a week. Many of us do it this way now. Secondary really isn't needed much anymore.
 
TASTING UPDATE:

Cracked the first bottle yesterday and i'm pretty happy.
It cleaned up really well and is the color of a nice pale ale without too much cloudiness. Amazingly thick head that lasts and leaves some lacing.
Good hop aroma without being too floral, nice spicy notes. I seem to smell a off flavor but can't place it.
It starts off clean and moderately bitter with a little less sweetness/maltiness than i like as the balance is a little off. It has a short finish and dries off the palate pretty fast.


Thanks for everyone's help on this brew.
 
Thanks for an update on this brew. Will you do another update in a couple weeks as the beer is likely to change by then.
 

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