IPA attempt

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Adam's Apples

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I've done a couple of kits and want to progress to concocting my own beers, so I thought the next step would be to try and follow a simple recipe rather than complete another 'just add water' kit.

I have found an IPA recipe, which seems relatively simple:

10lbs pale malt extract
0.5lbs crystal malt
100g challenger hops
50g cascade hops (finishing)
recipe recommends Wyeast liquid yeast, but I will have to see what I can get. I have only used muntons dry yeast so far.

Recipe states an O.G of 1.060 and an E.B.U of 55. I don't really know what the E.B.U means, but think it's an indication of how hoppy it will turn out.

I have a few questions before attempting this and would appreciate any help. Do I have to prepare the crystal malt in any way before using it? The homebrew chap said to just boil it up with the malt extract, but I have heard people recommend against this. I was considering putting it in a grain bag and steeping it first for 30 mins+ at about 65-70 degrees, what do you think? Also, do I need to creack the malt?

Also, regarding the E.B.U, does anybody have any idea what an E.B.U of 55 means? Presumably, as it's an I.P.A, it will have quite a lot of hop flavour. Does anybody know how hoppy this would likely to be?

Lastly, at 1.060, this will be the strongest beer I've attempted, would you add an extra pack of yeast to make sure there's enough to do the job? Is there anything in particular I need to know about brewing bigger beers of this strength, for example does it take longer, do the same temps apply to fermentation etc.

Any help or tips appreciated.

Cheers
 
Adam's Apples said:
I have a few questions before attempting this and would appreciate any help. Do I have to prepare the crystal malt in any way before using it? The homebrew chap said to just boil it up with the malt extract, but I have heard people recommend against this. I was considering putting it in a grain bag and steeping it first for 30 mins+ at about 65-70 degrees, what do you think? Also, do I need to creack the malt?
You shouldn't need to crack the malt, just steep it as you stated above, but only need to for 20 min. You're right, it's not a good idea to boil it. Remove the grain bag after steeping and before you bring the wort to a boil.

Lastly, at 1.060, this will be the strongest beer I've attempted, would you add an extra pack of yeast to make sure there's enough to do the job? Is there anything in particular I need to know about brewing bigger beers of this strength, for example does it take longer, do the same temps apply to fermentation etc
I would use your dry yeast. I think it makes more sense to use liquid yeast only for certain styles of beer where the yeast imparts a unique flavor, such as with Hefeweizen. For IPA, dry yeast will work just fine, and save you money.
I've never heard of having to add more than one package of yeast for higher gravity beers. If it is a standard (or near) 5 gal. batch, one package will do. Of course, it's always a good idea to have on hand a spare package, in case the first package of yeast is dead, but you won't know that unless you hydrate it, or until after a few days of no fermentation occuring.
Bigger beers may take a little longer to ferment, but probably not more than a few days for your IPA. Same temps apply to fermentation.
Cheers!:mug:
 
Thanks for the advice. Think I will use a grain bag and steep then. As I don't have to do any preparation of the grain, it should be quite simple. Cheers

:rockin:
 
If the grain is already cracked then you just need to steep it. However most stores store grain uncracked in which case it needs to be cracked before use. Your HBS should have a mill you can use or that they will operate for you. If you are ordering online make sure you get crushed grains.
If this is not currently an option, you can try using a rolling pin or a food processor. Without cracking you won't get much out of the grain as the husk seals the inner sugars from the water.

Once you get crushed grain you need to steep it for 15min or more at 150-170F. Then remove the bag of grain and bring the wort to a boil.

For an IPA you can use SafAle US-05, S-04 or Danstar Nottingham dry yeast, or you can get any Wyeast or Whitelabs English or US ale yeast. Look for ones with good attenuation, the other characteristics are mostly lost behind the hops flavor in an IPA.

Craig
 
CBBaron said:
If the grain is already cracked then you just need to steep it. However most stores store grain uncracked in which case it needs to be cracked before use.

Oops! You're right about that. My store always cracks them, so I never have to worry about that. I forgot that. I don't know how you would get them in England, whether cracked or not.
 
With 10 lbs. of malt extract you will be a little higher than 1.060 according to Promash. If you are using the 6gram packs of dry yeast you will need 2. If it is the 12 gram packs one should do it.
 
Put your grains in a large freezer bag and roll a large soup can over the grains on the counter. Don't crush grains too fine.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I've had a look at the crystal and it's pre-packed and clearly crushed already as the husks are all brolen and seperated from the inside. This is pretty obvious, but it is the first time I have seen or used this, so I wanted to be sure.
The yeast I have been given is Safale s-04 and I have two 11.5g packs. I will just pitch one of these then, hopefully this will do the job.

I was quite surprised by some of the advice the HB guy gave me. He recommended boiling the crystal in with the wort and also advised to use unbolied tap water to top-up to 5 gallons. It would make things a lot quicker for me as I haven't really got the equipment to hold a good boil with 5 gallons, so usually use about 2.5-3 for the wort and then top-up with pre-boiled tap water. I know this is a whole other debate, but I wonder if I really would notice any diference in the beer with tap water...
 
Well, it depends on your tap water. I always used unboiled tapwater when I was doing extract brews- and it was fine. Generally speaking, if your water tastes good with no aftertastes and you don't boil it to drink it, it is ok to use in brewing. Otherwise may disagree, but that's my $.02.

I don't know why the LHBS guy would tell you to boil your crystal with the extract- you should never boil grains as you know! Steeping it for 20-30 minutes is the way to go. Then remove it and bring it to a boil and proceed.
 
One of the things I've done with the top off water is to use bottled water. It's only a buck or so a gallon and I don't have to worry about boiling/cooling or any concerns of off flavors or contamination from the tap water. A lot of difference of opinion on using tap water, boil or no boil, but unless adding $2-$3 to the cost of your 5 gallon batch of brew is a concern, bottled water is worth the piece of mind and reduced effort.
 
BruDaddy said:
One of the things I've done with the top off water is to use bottled water. It's only a buck or so a gallon and I don't have to worry about boiling/cooling or any concerns of off flavors or contamination from the tap water. A lot of difference of opinion on using tap water, boil or no boil, but unless adding $2-$3 to the cost of your 5 gallon batch of brew is a concern, bottled water is worth the piece of mind and reduced effort.


I went out and bought 5.5 gallons of natural mineral water. It has a 'chloride' content according to the ingredients, but this is probably not the same as chlorine (??) Besides, the amount is very small.

This is a great idea, relatively low cost and makes things a hell of a lot simpler. I could refrigerate or freeze the bottled water too to make it easier to cool the wort.

This is gonna be my regular approach now until I get a water bolier in the future.

Cheers
 
Chloride is a chlorine thingy. Don't make me get all scientific. They are related somehow and neither is good. However in a premeasured dose, unless you're using chlorine bleach as a sanitizer, the chlorine in the water alone probably isn't enough to pose a problem.... unless you can go swimming in that water.

As for the recipe, I am bothered by the fact that it uses mixed units. The amounts look ok, but are you sure you have it right?
 
Toot said:
Chloride is a chlorine thingy. Don't make me get all scientific. They are related somehow and neither is good. However in a premeasured dose, unless you're using chlorine bleach as a sanitizer, the chlorine in the water alone probably isn't enough to pose a problem.... unless you can go swimming in that water.

As for the recipe, I am bothered by the fact that it uses mixed units. The amounts look ok, but are you sure you have it right?

Yeah, sorry about that. The measurement format is in grams as well as lbs as I converted the malt extract and crystal malt amounts into lbs. Not entirely sure why now, but that's how things are usually expressed on here and in the recipes I have followed so far. The actual amounts stated in the recipe are 4.5kg of pale malt extract and 250g of crystal malt. I left the hop measurements as grams as I couldn't be arsed to convert them to oz at the time. Roughly 3.5oz and 1.75oz for the challenger and cascade respectively.

I'm sure everyone on here would have been just fine had I expressed in in kg/grms for a start, but that was too logical for me!!

:drunk:
 
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