First AG recipe help?

This is my first AG recipe. Let me know what you think. thanks



Styles Raw Brewery House Ale

Selected Style and BJCP Guidelines
American Ale-American Pale Ale

Min SG: 1.045 SG Max SG: 1.060 SG
Min IBU: 30 IBU Max IBU: 45 IBU
Min Color: 5.0 SRM Max Color: 14.0 SRM


Recipe Overview
Pre-Boil Wort Volume: 6.08 US gals Post-Boil Wort Volume: 5.28 US gals
Pre-Ferment Batch Volume: 5.02 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.048 SG Expected OG: 1.058 SG
Expected FG: 1.014 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 % Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 30.4 IBU Expected Color: 11.9 SRM
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 % Approx Color:
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 70 degF


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % When
US 2-Row Malt 8.00 lb 76.2 % In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 60L Malt 1.00 lb 9.5 % In Mash/Steeped
Belgian CaraPilsner Malt 1.00 lb 9.5 % In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Biscuit Malt 0.50 lb 4.8 % In Mash/Steeped


Hops
Variety Alpha Amount Form When
US Amarillo 5.0 1.0 oz Pelletized Hops All Of Boil
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 30 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 15 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 5 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops At turn off
German Perle 8.0 1.0 oz Pelletized Hops Dry-Hopped


Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Irish Moss 1lb 0oz In Boil


Yeast
Wyeast 1056-American Ale


Water Profile
Target Profile: No Water Profile Chosen
Mash pH: 5.3
pH Adjusted with: Unadjusted

Total Calcium (ppm): 0 Total Magnesium (ppm): 0
Total Sodium (ppm): 0 Total Sulfate (ppm): 0
Total Chloride(ppm): 0 Total Bicarbonate (ppm): 0


Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name: Single Step Infusion (66C/151F) w/Mash Out

Step Type Temperature Duration
Strike/Dough in at 165 degF 5
Rest at 151 degF 60
Raise to and Mash out at 171 degF 10


Recipe Notes

I'm assuming this was a typo?

Irish Moss 1lb 0oz In Boil

Click to expand...

Looks good to me, looks like a very good pale ale.

well @1.058 and IBUs of 30.4 make it pretty evenly balanced. If your going for a little more bitter Pale, you could bring it up by 10 IBUs or so

Recipe Overview
Pre-Boil Wort Volume: 6.08 US gals Post-Boil Wort Volume: 5.28 US gals

I've posted about this kind of thing before, but how in the world are you going to boil 6 gallons of wort for 60 minutes (this is a BOIL, not a simmer), cool it, strain out the trub and wind up with 5 gallons?

I use a 7 1/2 gallon brew kettle over a turkey frier in the garage and have to sparge EIGHT GALLONS (and therefore use a small pot for the excess) to finish with 5 1/4 gallons in the fermenter so I finish with 5 gallons in the keg.

I guess everyone's system is different ... please monitor your boil off and "steam off" during chilling and see how much wort you ultimately wind up with.

You might want to double check the alpha acids on the Amarillo hops. 5 seems kind of low. The Amarillo hops I used in my most recent APA were in the 9 range.

Otherwise your recipe looks like it will be a winner.

Two things I note (and are due to my personal tastes perhaps):
1) 19% crystal malt is a lot. I would cut both of those by half and shoot for no more than 10% crystal in your grist. You'll get plenty of body from that amount without the extra sweetness. Especially with only 30IBU you're going to have a pretty sweet beer with 20% crystal. But that may be what you're shooting for.

B) 1/2lb of biscuit is a lot. I learned this recently with an IPA I brewed. While it was young it was great, but as it mellowed out the biscuit came to dominate and made it too malty sweet. I'd cut that in half, as well, say 3-4oz.

My 2 pesos.

Baron von BeeGee said:

Two things I note (and are due to my personal tastes perhaps):
1) 19% crystal malt is a lot.

Click to expand...

Im only seeing 1 lb at 9.5% of the total grist

Chimone said:

Im only seeing 1 lb at 9.5% of the total grist

Click to expand...

I'm lumping in the Carapils for simplicity...it will contribute more fermentables than a pure crystal malt, but still adds a lot of unfermentables to the final product which is why it is sometimes substituted with m-d powder. In my experience it basically functions as a crystal malt that adds no color and less sweetness. The 9.5% C-60 will do everything the carapils will do IMO and adding the carapils will just result in a higher than expected FG (or maybe a high FG is desired in this case).

thanks for all the reply's
I defiently agree with cutting down the biscuit and taking a little off the carmel malt. This was also my first time using brewing software so some of the totals are off. Thanks

Yeah, I'd go with maybe up to 0.75 lb crystal and only 0.5 lb of the Carapils and bump up the 2-row to make up the difference.

Baron von BeeGee said:

I'm lumping in the Carapils for simplicity...

Click to expand...

ahh gotcha

I would try to obtain more preboil volume as you will proably boil off more than 1 gallon.
2nd- I think the crystal and biscuit are good. I like biscuit so I am biased but you will need to up the hops to even out the taste. I would shoot for 1:1 on the og:ibu ratio.
3rd- I don't think you will be happy with the perle as a aroma/flavor hop. It is great as a bittering or flavor in moderation for german ales but will not go well with the amarillo. I would up the amarillo after 20 min and dry hop with amarillo to really taste and enjoy that great hop.

I made some adjustments, should i bump the pre-boil to 8 gallons?

Styles Raw Brewery House Ale

Selected Style and BJCP Guidelines
American Ale-American Pale Ale

Min SG: 1.045 SG Max SG: 1.060 SG
Min IBU: 30 IBU Max IBU: 45 IBU
Min Color: 5.0 SRM Max Color: 14.0 SRM


Recipe Overview
Pre-Boil Wort Volume: 7.08 US gals Post-Boil Wort Volume: 5.28 US gals
Pre-Ferment Batch Volume: 5.02 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.036 SG Expected OG: 1.051 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 5.0 % Expected ABW: 4.0 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 59.6 IBU Expected Color: 9.6 SRM
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 % Approx Color:
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 70 degF


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % When
US 2-Row Malt 8.00 lb 86.5 % In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 60L Malt 0.75 lb 8.1 % In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Biscuit Malt 0.25 lb 2.7 % In Mash/Steeped
Belgian CaraPilsner Malt 0.25 lb 2.7 % In Mash/Steeped


Hops
Variety Alpha Amount Form When
German Perle 8.0 1.0 oz Pelletized Hops All Of Boil
German Perle 8.0 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 40 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 25 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 15 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops 5 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 0.5 oz Pelletized Hops At turn off
US Cascade 4.5 1.0 oz Loose Whole Hops Dry-Hopped


Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Irish Moss 1.0 oz In Boil


Yeast
Wyeast 1056-American Ale


Water Profile
Target Profile: No Water Profile Chosen
Mash pH: 5.3
pH Adjusted with: Unadjusted

Total Calcium (ppm): 0 Total Magnesium (ppm): 0
Total Sodium (ppm): 0 Total Sulfate (ppm): 0
Total Chloride(ppm): 0 Total Bicarbonate (ppm): 0


Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name: Single Step Infusion (66C/151F) w/Mash Out

Step Type Temperature Duration
Strike/Dough in at 165 degF 5
Rest at 151 degF 60
Raise to and Mash out at 171 degF 10

I think your boil off rate is way too high. If you factor a 15% boil off, you should end up with around 6 gallons when you collect about 7 gallons pre-boil. I formulate my recipes to end up with 6 gallons in the kettle, then I can get 5 gallons of trub-free wort in the carboy.

I get a pretty high boil rate at my place (usually ~20%), but it all depends. I'd aim for 7-7.5g collected and just see where that gets you. It takes some hands-on measurements to figure out all your losses sometimes.

The recipe looks really tasty to me.

My boil off rate is high too. I start with about 7.75 and end up with 5.5 at the end. I like to put 5.5 in the primary so that way I get a good 5 gallons at bottling.
The Perle for bittering is better IMO.